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Moving back on Tuesday! Prepare me for the reverse culture shock after 10 years in US

Moving back on Tuesday! Prepare me for the reverse culture shock after 10 years in US

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Old May 11th 2014, 4:37 pm
  #31  
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Default Re: Moving back on Tuesday! Prepare me for the reserve culture shock after 10 years i

Originally Posted by lgabriel73
I actually said it wasn't just a cultural thing but also a personality thing. meaning its both!
There is a huge differences between sarcasm and rudeness!!
Aye, sarcasm doesn't involve the use of exclamation marks.
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Old May 11th 2014, 4:44 pm
  #32  
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Default Re: Moving back on Tuesday! Prepare me for the reverse culture shock after 10 years i

Originally Posted by dunroving
The news is full of misery, nary a piece of good news in sight.

Latest headlines from the BBC News Scotland:


Co-op supermarket robbed in Dundee

Woman held in deaths 'fraud' inquiry

Protest in Glasgow over abductions

Man traced in sex attack CCTV plea

Woman's body found after flat fall

Man, 62, dies following flat fire

RAF probe over 'dead Taliban' images

Man jailed for threats sent to police

Human remains found at fire cottage

Man in court on six charges of rape

- one piece of good news, though: Celtic receive Premiership trophy
Not really an English thing though, the news all around the world is depressing. They think they can throw in a cute animal story at the end and we'll forget about all the crap thats going on in the world.
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Old May 12th 2014, 7:16 pm
  #33  
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Default Re: Moving back on Tuesday! Prepare me for the reserve culture shock after 10 years i

Originally Posted by dunroving
Possibly, though the OP was asking for our personal experiences - do you still use sarcasm?

I was gone for 23 years so not only did I have a longer time to become acculturated to other ways of thinking but I saw other ways of being funny than taking the piss out of the person you are talking to.
i was gone for 22 years and had to lose my sarcasm because I kept upsetting people, but the minute I came back, it was such a relief to be able to have a laugh with relative strangers using sarcasm and irony. Oh hallelujah! No-one gets offended and you can bond quickly over a laugh.

I have always teased people I like. The difference now that I'm back home is that no-one takes offense
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Old May 12th 2014, 7:19 pm
  #34  
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Default Re: Moving back on Tuesday! Prepare me for the reverse culture shock after 10 years i

Originally Posted by AjMed
Portions are smaller. No free refills. TV shows and movies screening weeks later. Less extreme weather (it's grey a lot!) Oh and be careful driving, you might want to learn to drive a manual car
Portions are HUGE these days in the UK! Admittedly we're in North Yorkshire, which seems to be where 90% of the gastro pubs are, but we go out to the pub and I can never finish what they put in front of me. I've started to order child portions and even those are too big.

TV shows are often only a week later now, and movies are very often at the same time. We have two automatic cars. But yes, it's grey a lot
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Old May 12th 2014, 7:27 pm
  #35  
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Default Re: Moving back on Tuesday! Prepare me for the reserve culture shock after 10 years i

Originally Posted by sallysimmons
i was gone for 22 years and had to lose my sarcasm because I kept upsetting people, but the minute I came back, it was such a relief to be able to have a laugh with relative strangers using sarcasm and irony. Oh hallelujah! No-one gets offended and you can bond quickly over a laugh.

I have always teased people I like. The difference now that I'm back home is that no-one takes offense
I can't imagine you saying anything that would cause offence!

Yes, I think there is a difference between sarcasm that is friendly teasing, and "sarcasm as an excuse for mean-spirited rudeness, disguised as humour".

Maybe it's the places I have frequented - I won't name specific towns but there is one I used to visit where I saw a lot of the latter. I think that is where lgabriel and I were getting our wires crossed - we were talking about opposite ends of the sarcasm continuum, so to speak..
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Old May 12th 2014, 9:09 pm
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Default Re: Moving back on Tuesday! Prepare me for the reverse culture shock after 10 years i

Originally Posted by rosemarybrown
Tuesday is the day. I have spent all my adult life in the USA having moved here at 19, so I'm fully expecting to have a little adjustment to do. What were your biggest 'culture shocks' as a Brit, returning home after a long absence?
After over 12 years overseas I was expecting)some of the changes that had happened since we lived in the UK, some things at first I found very different but I did not worry (I kept remembering how I first felt when we arrived in Aus) and that given time you adjust and before you know it you don't even remember what you found had changed. Good luck and try and take things as they come one step at a time.
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Old May 12th 2014, 9:13 pm
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Default Re: Moving back on Tuesday! Prepare me for the reserve culture shock after 10 years i

Originally Posted by sallysimmons
i was gone for 22 years and had to lose my sarcasm because I kept upsetting people, but the minute I came back, it was such a relief to be able to have a laugh with relative strangers using sarcasm and irony. Oh hallelujah! No-one gets offended and you can bond quickly over a laugh.

I have always teased people I like. The difference now that I'm back home is that no-one takes offense
I just thought "one" when I read your thread that I have never had to say "sorry I was only joking" since I have been "home" I have a dry sense of humour and I always seemed to be saying that while we lived in Aus it was the same for my DOH as well.
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Old May 14th 2014, 8:59 pm
  #38  
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Default Re: Moving back on Tuesday! Prepare me for the reserve culture shock after 10 years i

Originally Posted by dunroving
I did get some weird looks when I came over all enthusiastic (as you do when you live in in the US). It took me a while to adapt to the more low-key, subtle, sarcastic sense of humour. People are especially "dour" up here in Glasgow, which made the contrast even greater.

And driving and parking was a nightmare at first.
I'm moving back to good old dour Glasgow after almost two years in Canada (drop in the ocean compared to most of you lot, I know ).

Only the other day when I was having a plesant, happy exchange with a sales assistant it dawned on me that when I first came over here, such cheerful enthusiasm really grated on me. Now I actually really like it and I'm not sure what I'll make of the more solemn attitudes that await me in Glasgow's shops haha!
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Old May 15th 2014, 6:57 am
  #39  
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Default Re: Moving back on Tuesday! Prepare me for the reverse culture shock after 10 years i

You've got to be careful..........

I said to a staff member in a shop when the subject of Australia came up that I lived there for 37 years but was in a coma for 30 of them!
The young man looked horrified!

I quickly tried to explain but he was clearly struggling, so I gave up and left sharpish.
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Old May 15th 2014, 7:04 am
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Default Re: Moving back on Tuesday! Prepare me for the reserve culture shock after 10 years i

Originally Posted by mazmataz
I'm moving back to good old dour Glasgow after almost two years in Canada (drop in the ocean compared to most of you lot, I know ).

Only the other day when I was having a plesant, happy exchange with a sales assistant it dawned on me that when I first came over here, such cheerful enthusiasm really grated on me. Now I actually really like it and I'm not sure what I'll make of the more solemn attitudes that await me in Glasgow's shops haha!
It use to grate on my the "How are you today" as for 99% of the time it might of sounded nice but was not at all meant, as for yesterday I was asked a similar question while in a supermarket and by the end of my shopping on check out we (the check out assistant)had put the world to rights, talked about "sons" the price of things and holidays AND at first the check out lady seemed a bit "dour" lol
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Old May 15th 2014, 7:06 am
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Default Re: Moving back on Tuesday! Prepare me for the reverse culture shock after 10 years i

Originally Posted by TheEmperorIsNaked
You've got to be careful..........

I said to a staff member in a shop when the subject of Australia came up that I lived there for 37 years but was in a coma for 30 of them!
The young man looked horrified!

I quickly tried to explain but he was clearly struggling, so I gave up and left sharpish.
I/we had similar experiences and when we use to try and have a bit of light banter, in the end we just gave up lol
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Old May 15th 2014, 7:52 am
  #42  
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Default Re: Moving back on Tuesday! Prepare me for the reserve culture shock after 10 years i

Originally Posted by lgabriel73
for most brits going bak though this is not going to be an issue as Im sure many of them have kept their own british dry, sarcastic wit.
Still one of the greatest aspects of this country is the sense of humour, something I had missed for more than a decade.
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Old May 15th 2014, 7:56 am
  #43  
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Default Re: Moving back on Tuesday! Prepare me for the reverse culture shock after 10 years i

Originally Posted by rosemarybrown
Tuesday is the day. I have spent all my adult life in the USA having moved here at 19, so I'm fully expecting to have a little adjustment to do. What were your biggest 'culture shocks' as a Brit, returning home after a long absence?
Welcome back to the UK, hope your trip was pleasant, and you are now finding just how much of a culture shock there is, hope thngs are going well.
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Old May 15th 2014, 8:01 am
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Default Re: Moving back on Tuesday! Prepare me for the reserve culture shock after 10 years i

Originally Posted by Sally Redux
TV humour is a bit crap here because the joke has to be explained, which kills it. A few exceptions like Bill Maher, Stephen Colbert.

Actual people, the New Yorkers seem to go slightly more for the quick-witted stuff.
I saw an interview with Matt LeBlanc (Joey from friends) he said basically the difference was in the UK it is expected that the audience will just understand whereas in America they need to be hit over the head with it.
It has been an absolute joy getting back to people who are very happy to take the piss out of themselves and take criticism without getting all precious about it.
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Old May 15th 2014, 5:03 pm
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Default Re: Moving back on Tuesday! Prepare me for the reserve culture shock after 10 years i

Originally Posted by chris955
I saw an interview with Matt LeBlanc (Joey from friends) he said basically the difference was in the UK it is expected that the audience will just understand whereas in America they need to be hit over the head with it.
It has been an absolute joy getting back to people who are very happy to take the piss out of themselves and take criticism without getting all precious about it.
Americans are fond of saying they 'tell it like it is', I have found the complete opposite, they are incredibly sensitive and two-faced. Looking forward to normality.
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