Ever had a culture shock?

[Ioanna]

Following the topic posted by good friend RockNlol "I love traveling" in this discussion forum, came to me the idea if anyone has ever experienced a culture shock?
Share them here with us, preferably supported by a good photograph.
This is mine.

In southern Ethiopia are primal ancient tribes, a few years ago when i visiting that country I took these picture in the Mursi tribe ...



During a visit to the market Dimeka I was after long negotiations and on payment to photograph this (drunk) Hamar guy, subsequently I was his best friend and he offered me to drink "tela" from the plastic bottle that you see in his hand, which I kindly rejected!!



Strange birds Africans but once they've been accepted ...
After my return to Europe I felt a little weird ... would that have been the culture shock?:thinking:

These photos were personally taken by me and are not from the internet, sorry if the quality is not optimal and please do not dowload to spread them on the net.
Thanks guys.

 

[jw4833]

Okay...I hope I don't offend anyone on the forum by making mention of this but I actually found that being in a African-American gay club as opposed to a Caucasian gay club as a culture shock due to the fact that both environments have profound differences. With my personal experience in both clubs, the African-American clubs that I ventured tend to be more into not only dance music, but urban rhythm house club music as well such as; Adeva, Colonel Abrams, Frankie Knuckles, Silk Hurley, etc. Not only that, African-American clubs seems to have a more fashion sense as opposed to Caucasian clubs who appears to be more of a jeans and t-shirt kind of an environment. For example, this one club in particular was more focused on pageants fro men and drag queens and the music not only focused on female singers, but underground male singers as well. The white clubs I ventured tend to play more female artists music such as; Madonna, Lady Gaga, Cher, etc. and leather boys...not to say that the black clubs did not play these artists but they tend to explore a much broader side of dance/house music as opposed to the white clubs. This was a culture shock for me because I was under the assumption that all gay clubs had the same format...but I was wrong in so many ways. In fact, for me, I could tell and feel the differences as soon as I entered these clubs.

 

[dargelos]

I've never travelled as far as Africa but I have seen plenty of clubs. Following on from jw's observation I think you'll find the best music and dancing in the grittiest areas. When life is hard, the dancefloor is more of an escape than it is when life is comfortable. When you dress smart for work, you wear jeans at weekends, when you work in jeans you dont want to wear them when you party.

 

[noiraud]

This is not quite culture shock to the same degree as you undoubtedly experienced, Ionna, but... I lived in predominantly English-speaking Canada and English was my primary language. Following grade 11, I attended an all-French college in Quebec City where only French was permitted, both orally and in writing. I had excelled in French in school, so this was not really so difficult. However, when I returned to an English-speaking area and was required to speak English at all times, I found myself stumbling with my own language, contantly using French words or grammar and being totally unaware of it. After it was repeatedly pointed out to me, I started speaking much more slowly and carefully. As you wondered, I believe the real culture shock was returning into my own language group rather than spending time in another. Odd how that works, isn't it? :thinking:

 

[mosaik]

In Kenya at a roadside stand I bought bananas. When I peeled one from the stem end down the vendor laughed at me and called to friends who also laughed. Apparently they peeled from the other end.

I always feel rewarded when other cultures are amused by our habits.