Those of you living outside your countries of birth

[Miracle Mira]

What kind of cultural clashes have you encountered?

To preface this, I was born in and grew up in a baltic state in a smaller town on the country side.

I had big problems with the lack of care for pedestrians here when I first arrived.

Also being viewed as more beautiful than back home. Back home I wasn't anything special really but here I get far more attention than back home, having blue eyes and blonde hair and being quite pale. Sometimes makes me uncomfortable when I'm going out with friends due to it.

Tanning is viewed as bad compared to back home, no people telling me I look sickly if I'm too pale for their taste.

People seem reluctant to outright say no to to something, I haven't quite understood why.

[Dwarfhamster]

Well, there's a host of challenges growing up as an Asian person in the US (or Western world broadly), particularly as a refugee from the Vietnam war (which brings a different nuance to all this), but not getting into that.

That said, yeah, the whole "getting tan" thing is definitely a Western thing that, generally speaking, Asians in the US don't really get.

[Mihalik]

What kind of cultural clashes have you encountered?

To preface this, I was born in and grew up in a baltic state in a smaller town on the country side.

I had big problems with the lack of care for pedestrians here when I first arrived.

Also being viewed as more beautiful than back home. Back home I wasn't anything special really but here I get far more attention than back home, having blue eyes and blonde hair and being quite pale. Sometimes makes me uncomfortable when I'm going out with friends due to it.

Tanning is viewed as bad compared to back home, no people telling me I look sickly if I'm too pale for their taste.

People seem reluctant to outright say no to to something, I haven't quite understood why.

Raised primarily in the US and partially in the UK. Living in Spain.

There aren't any substantial cultural differences that would qualify as "culture shock". Spanish societal attitudes in general are much closer to what would be "ideal behavior in a decent society" than either in the US or the UK, but it's really not strange in any way, and everyone I know here in the fairly large expat circles generally agrees and quickly adopts Spanish attitudes.