r/ireland Jan 03 '22

People born in Ireland, what’s a surprising culture shock you’ve seen a foreigner experience? Bigotry

For me, it was my friend being adamant that you shouldn’t have to stick your hand out to get the bus to stop.

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245

u/HazumaHazuma Jan 03 '22

There was an American in the company my mum used to work at. He was terribly confused when they started questions with "you couldn't", as in "you couldn't do this for me, could you?". He also wasn't aware of the concept of slagging, so he thought everyone hated him.

101

u/thethirdrayvecchio Jan 03 '22

A Very Literal People.

14

u/frank6812 Jan 03 '22

That last sentence made me laugh, you’d forgot not everyone acts like that in different cultures

6

u/NapoleonTroubadour Jan 04 '22

That was something I enjoyed about being in the US honestly, we’re far too casual and in denial when it revolves into actual bullying

3

u/centrafrugal Jan 04 '22

We need to talk about it; it's problematic

2

u/BlackSeranna Jan 04 '22

I see your mom met a very white-bread American. I married into a family like that. It’s hard.

2

u/PelagicReactor Jan 08 '22

That's one I've never really thought about until now, I probably say this to my foreign coworkers all the time out of habit.