Khalpat Posted October 13, 2014 Share Posted October 13, 2014 Some of them are really interesting. May be our NRI friends can add or subtract: http://www.quora.com/What-is-the-biggest-cultural-shock-that-a-foreigner-might-face-in-India The tourist lady is from Czech Republic Those might not be "the biggest" shocks, but definitely not expected stuffs. Now those things are mostly funny to me, or I just understand them, but that time it was surprising. So, let's look into my memories...: I like to see myself as a funny person, therefore my answers are written in that way. I mean what I say, just the way I describe it is bit "lighter". 1) Got out of air plane, got on riksha, got out, paid (local friend told me how much) driver took 50Rs and did the headshake. I was totally lost. I didn't know if I paid less, or if it is okay, when I asked, the driver again did the headshake... :-D This together with overall different body language was very confusing the communication. 2) Second week. I was able to cross the road with heavy traffic without any help. Applause! After few weeks I developed my own style how to cross any road. Feeling of a master. 3) People think I am rich and awesome just because I am a pale foreigner. WTF? :D But it was certainly a pleasure to be treated like someone special. - True is, this applies especially to less educated people. (EDIT: It is tiresome. Of course I AM awesome. But don't take it for granted, the other pale foreigners are not! :D) 4) Cows are worshipped but they are damn skinny and eating rubbish from the streets. ?!!!! Seems like cows are really independent over there! 5) As a woman I am considered to be weaker, taken care of, endangered etc. Sometimes it made me feel like I am a kid or less developed in my mind according my male friends. 6) Kids working manually instead of being in a school. Fact that some kid washed my clothes or was brooming in my guest house and that they were paid for that or it was considered to be normal was bit scaring me. 7) Meeting handsome, entertaining, smart males at age 20+ who are virgins. Plus they talk about it. (First, I was shocked sex is so oppressed in this culture, second - why the hell is that even a topic to be discussed? For me it is my personal stuff, not even my parents should be interested in.) EDIT: On contrary, in my country people would pity you for being a virgin in this age anyway, we would think you are too unwanted/have not grown up yet and that is why you are still a virgin. 8) Youths hanging around the malls considering this as a fun. To me it was super pointless as well as the amount of Bollywood movies watched by a regular person. I expected more creativity in the free time, more culture... including sports, walks, performing arts, music concerts, actual theatre etc. 9) Lack of coffee.... but chai everywhere. Even though I was served with a coffee it was this processed "****", the powdered one (Nescafé), I was surprised, I expected the "real" one in a country which plants it. (Now I know it is to be found rather in the south...) 10) Incredible noise. Even inside houses - the fans. 11) The huge number of students - engineers, and how many girls study this field as well. 12) Old skinny people riding bicycle rickshaws and young fat/wealthy people using this service. 13) Pissing yes - kissing no "rule" for public. 14) Bribing even at the lowest level. (Coz of simple paperwork or fines from a policeman) 15) Fact that I should not be outside in the night/using tuk-tuk in the night. Or that it is dangerous to do so. 16) Many people are doing even a tiniest, non productive job. Like - it took three guys to serve me at a cash desk. One was naming the items, one was typing it in and third was putting them into a bag... 17) Once I mistakenly left the shop in a hurry without being given the cash back. I came back six hours later, there were different people, but within ten minutes they made the calls etc. and gave me my 500Rs back. WOW! I don't think this is possible in my country. 18) The way how Indians serve and help each other without knowing each other. Providing water to ANYONE who asks. Lending your phone for a call to a stranger! That is still blowing my mind. (And thank you, the guy from pizzeria in Jodhpur, who managed to get a private toilet for me, when I really needed and there was no option around and my bus was leaving in 20 minutes. Also thanks to that family who owned that toilet :DDD.) 19) Buying a SIM card - I had to fill out the form with the name and a job of my father. What?! Why? :D 20) The fact that the youth are looking forward for their arranged marriage. I was supershocked by that. (Now I wish for one too, *sigh*) EDIT: Just a note for why Europeans perceive an arranged marriage with a shock: It is not a new thing to us. We had arranged marriages commonly 100years ago. And because along with new technologies and social changes we moved from that times it seems to us as "outworn concept". Something like candles instead of electricity. So seeing modern people in India going for arranged m. is difficult to understand. Some of classics of Czech literature and theatre (The Bartered Bride) are about arranged m. Well, nowadays, it sounds more as a fairy tale. 21) People consider quite common to speak three or more languages. In Europe we also speak more languages sometimes, but if we do, we consider ourselves rather special. :D 22) PC games are equal to sport in sense of prestige; for winning them you can be awarded and recognized even at the university level. Real absurd to me. 23) Shorts are wrong to wear by girls but sari without bra under the choli and revealing tummy is okay... Please, bewray the rule to me, I don't see that! :D EDIT: See, if I had to make some joke on this it would be like: I think that the Indians who put a ban on jeans and t-shirt for girls do so just because sari is far more sexier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cricket_usa Posted October 13, 2014 Share Posted October 13, 2014 I live in the US South and people here wave at strangers or say hi when eye contact is made. People in India don't smile much, so you don't know if they are mad or rude. We Indians don't like to wait in line and take turns, we like to rush into everything, either boarding an Airplane or a city bus. Good thing is you get used to this in couple days and go with the flow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vvvslaxman Posted October 13, 2014 Share Posted October 13, 2014 I live in the US South and people here wave at strangers or say hi when eye contact is made. People in India don't smile much' date=' so you don't know if they are mad or rude. We Indians don't like to wait in line and take turns, we like to rush into everything, either boarding an Airplane or a city bus. Good thing is you get used to this in couple days and go with the flow.[/quote'] Population is the biggest reason . In foreign countries they don,t have to stand in que for many things.robably blackfriday or to buy apple phone. Moment they face more and more situations where they stand in line their attitude will change over time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cricket_usa Posted October 13, 2014 Share Posted October 13, 2014 Yes, population is one reason. We see that here during the Black Friday sale at Walmart, people cause a stampede and kill each other for few dollars. I will be in India next month and cant wait to get out of the plane and smell the Kerosene and the hot humid Chennai air hit your face. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hhunaeh Posted October 13, 2014 Share Posted October 13, 2014 Population is the biggest reason . In foreign countries they don' date='t have to stand in que for many things.robably blackfriday or to buy apple phone. Moment they face more and more situations where they stand in line their attitude will change over time.[/quote'] One reason they stand in a queue is because, they know that even if they wait in a queue, they will finally get what they are waiting for, unlike India where the last guy in the queue is probably the dumbas* who will go home empty handed. That is again because of lesser population and more resources. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoda Posted October 13, 2014 Share Posted October 13, 2014 Pretty good list there, very nice read. Can't say I disagree with any of them. carolinake1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coffee_rules Posted October 13, 2014 Share Posted October 13, 2014 #1 amusing thing for outsiders - Arranged marriages. #2 - Headshake #3 - Traffic - autorickshaws, etc. in my experience. One of the guys was amused about certain words being used - petrol pump/bunk, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brainfade Posted October 13, 2014 Share Posted October 13, 2014 Population is the biggest reason . In foreign countries they don' date='t have to stand in que for many things.robably blackfriday or to buy apple phone. Moment they face more and more situations where they stand in line their attitude will change over time.[/quote'] Agree 100% with this. When there is plenty to go around, there is no reason to hustle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sticky wicket Posted October 13, 2014 Share Posted October 13, 2014 I had once cousin come over from uk, one day he said he wanted to "photocopy" some documents, took three of us to figure out the idiot wanted xerox copies :cantstop: I mean wtf is 'photocopy'! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coffee_rules Posted October 13, 2014 Share Posted October 13, 2014 ^ Somebody from Xerox Corp visits India, will think they have millions of offices in India. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Straight Drive Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 Cultural shock for some foreigner. Really !! How good is theirs. If only an Indian starts to rate their culture. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Temujin Khaghan Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 i found that females in india are very rude. they cant say thankyou or sorry. they take help given to them for granted. but in some ways, they have to behave like that. becoz if they give even an inch gap like smiling, 95% morons will start believing that she is very much interested in having sex with them. darlenewd16 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Detonator Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 i found that females in india are very rude. they cant say thankyou or sorry. they take help given to them for granted. but in some ways, they have to behave like that. becoz if they give even an inch gap like smiling, 95% morons will start believing that she is very much interested in having sex with them. much much more in south. esp TN. I find northie girls much better in this regard. Reason is most northie college aged guys have this 'gentleman' attitude, which is non-existant in many southie counterparts. These gentleteens are labelled as 'kadalai' parties and will be mocked by morons. As you said, can't blame the girls entirely. Even in a college, if some girls smile at a guy, he would run around like a monkey spreading the 'news'. And then if she smiles at some other guys, these morons will label her as 'w hore' or 's lut'. Meaning you can 'correct' her easily and multiple morons will harass her in the name of 'propose'ing, to an extent she becomes a male hater. The middle aged females are much better in this regard. But this aunty phenomenon is troubling them too. The Dark Horse 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Precambrian Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 I had once cousin come over from uk, one day he said he wanted to "photocopy" some documents, took three of us to figure out the idiot wanted xerox copies :cantstop: I mean wtf is 'photocopy'! In Kerala we still use photocopy and not xerox. First time I went to tamil Nadu, I had a problem with this. Just nobody could figure what is photocopy and after quite some effort, one guy got and directed us to the nearest ' jiraaks' shop. carolinake1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Temujin Khaghan Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 much much more in south. esp TN. I find northie girls much better in this regard. Reason is most northie college aged guys have this 'gentleman' attitude, which is non-existant in many southie counterparts. These gentleteens are labelled as 'kadalai' parties and will be mocked by morons. As you said, can't blame the girls entirely. Even in a college, if some girls smile at a guy, he would run around like a monkey spreading the 'news'. And then if she smiles at some other guys, these morons will label her as 'w hore' or 's lut'. Meaning you can 'correct' her easily and multiple morons will harass her in the name of 'propose'ing, to an extent she becomes a male hater. The middle aged females are much better in this regard. But this aunty phenomenon is troubling them too. all these girl haters in college are basically sexually repressed guys. they wont have the guts to start a conversation with other women, inturn hate others who want to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texy Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 -- People openly defecating on the train lines in the morning with not a care in the world. -- Bargaining for everything. -- Straight guys holding hands serenading every pair of fine legs. -- When you say 69, they say chicken. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeautifulGame Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 Living in Tanjore , a heavy tourist city another aspect they are surprised with us the Marriage function itself. The ridiculous amount of money time and customs involved often shock them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hhunaeh Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 Living in Tanjore , a heavy tourist city another aspect they are surprised with us the Marriage function itself. The ridiculous amount of money time and customs involved often shock them. Aren't western women themselves known to put in a lot of effort into their weddings? How is it any less than what indian women do? At least in India, you have nosy relatives taking care of a lot of things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crookbond Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 ^ Somebody from Xerox Corp visits India, will think they have millions of offices in India. Xerox as a corporation exists in India too. Also, Xerox is no longer only a document service/manufacturing company. In the recent past, it is engineering services almost every service under the hood from health care to education. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coffee_rules Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 Xerox as a corporation exists in India too. Also' date=' Xerox is no longer only a document service/manufacturing company. In the recent past, it is engineering services almost every service under the hood from health care to education.[/quote'] I know. I was only pointing to the fact that xerox is used also a verb in India. And stores are named after the brand even tho they have a photo copier from hp or kodak. Incidently even Jeep as a brand is known as a general vehicle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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