Cultural shock: Which one has been your strongest one?

SGT(P) Private RallyPoint Member — Fri, 13 Feb 2015 14:39:26 -0500

I lived 31 of my 32 years in Puerto Rico, moving here to the states has being a huge transition for me. Not just because of the cold, I'm in Maryland where right now we're in the 20s, my home town as I write this is 77. But, for example, we puertorricans don't change our wife's last name when we get married. My wife's last name is Ortiz, which makes it even worse for people to understand it as it is the same as my second last name wich I got from my mom. I've found myself asking to female soldiers which their husbands also serve in our post which is his last name. Their faces are like, eh... and then I get that it's the same. This is just one example, what has shock you from another culture while serving OCONUS?

Driving under 100mph and then remember you are in the Autobahn must be the coolest one for those who went to Germany.

Response by CW5 Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 13 at 2015 5:10 PM

CW5 Private RallyPoint Member — Fri, 13 Feb 2015 17:10:53 -0500

My biggest culture shock was Korea. I'll never forget the smell when I stepped out of the airplane upon arrival in Korea. Wow, what a smell. It was late spring and they were spreading manure in nearby fields.

After that I learned the smells of "honey trucks" ... not terribly different. The rainy weather was new for me too. I had experienced rain like that, but not anywhere near as long.

There were a lot of things about Korea - a country I ended up liking very much before I left - that were culture shocks for me at first.

Response by SGT Jim Z. made Feb 13 at 2015 5:19 PM

SGT Jim Z. — Fri, 13 Feb 2015 17:19:39 -0500

My biggest culture shock would be Korea had a 1LT on my first tour marry a local and the wedding was traditional Korean right down to the reception. I will say there were many things at the reception that I could not identify needless to say we hit Burger King as soon as we got back on post. As Chief talked about the smell is something.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 13 at 2015 5:36 PM

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Fri, 13 Feb 2015 17:36:00 -0500

SGT(P) Private RallyPoint Member I have never experienced any cultural shock. I am craving for some mofongo and asopoa though.

Response by SP5 Michael Rathbun made Feb 13 at 2015 6:01 PM

SP5 Michael Rathbun — Fri, 13 Feb 2015 18:01:08 -0500

Here's some cultural stuff versus the atmospheric (which was pretty big in RVN too).

Many Viet-Namese creep out many Americans if they ever get close together.

Their "personal space" distance is much shorter; they prefer to be up close; we tend to prefer not to.

Like many cultures theirs involves lots of casual physical contact. Some parts of my upbringing prepared me for this when I found that my first assignment as the FNG was to teach ARVN personnel electronics and the maintenance/repair of some typical 31M equipment, but also the Collins KWM-series HF transcievers. When we would squat down to work on the bottom drawers of an equipment stack, it wasn't unusual for one or two students to have their arms on me. Didn't bother me that much, but caused all kinds of speculations about me amongst the US crew.

It eventually dawned on me why this was a FNG assignment.

Response by MSG Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 13 at 2015 8:53 PM

MSG Private RallyPoint Member — Fri, 13 Feb 2015 20:53:25 -0500

Me: Jonathan Cedeño De Jesus, Father: Juan Carlos Cedeño Caraballo, Mother Jacqueline De Jesus Rivera. Can you imagine the confusion this causes for many culturally.

Response by SFC Mark Merino made Feb 13 at 2015 11:51 PM

SFC Mark Merino — Fri, 13 Feb 2015 23:51:19 -0500

In the Army....lol. Going from Infantry to Aviation. Mind....blown.

Response by SPC Angel Guma made Feb 14 at 2015 12:34 AM

SPC Angel Guma — Sat, 14 Feb 2015 00:34:11 -0500

Fort Benning.

Response by CPT Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 14 at 2015 10:18 AM

CPT Private RallyPoint Member — Sat, 14 Feb 2015 10:18:17 -0500

When I first moved to the states from Italy I was 14 years old and didn't speak very good English. The biggest culture shock to me were the really big cars that people drive (especially in Texas), general conveniences like Walmart open all the time (no such thing in Italy) and of course the malls. Everything in Italy is smaller and a little more difficult and perhaps even ruder. Americans for the most part are friendlier to strangers than Italians who are xenophobic.

Response by CW3 Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 14 at 2015 11:31 AM

CW3 Private RallyPoint Member — Sat, 14 Feb 2015 11:31:44 -0500

My biggest culturual shock? Going from Active Duty to the Army Reserve. Hands down, that is the biggest culture shock I have ever experienced in my 47 years and 9 months on this planet, and I've been to Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, England, Italy, Spain, the Czech Republic, Austria, Nicaragua, Kenya, Mexico, and Uganda.

Response by PO3 Donald Murphy made Apr 17 at 2017 10:00 AM

PO3 Donald Murphy — Mon, 17 Apr 2017 10:00:00 -0400

Funny enough, my dad was USAF and we were stationed in England several times. The last time he got stationed was 1979 and I joined the US Navy there at the Navy base in London. I left for boot camp in 1985 and was completely in cultural shock when I arrived back in America. Banks had ATM's, there were drive through burger joints, all stuff I had never seen. And stores open 24 hours!