When I came to the United States for the first time, I had many culture shocks. I don’t remember all the culture shocks that I had, but I remember they were so shocking and interesting from a Japanese perspective.

I wondered if all other non-American people had similar culture shocks. It seemed to me what kind of culture shocks you got was dependent on where you were from. When I searched it on the internet, there looked a variety of culture shocks that non-Americans experienced. There were some culture shocks that people experienced in common. I made a figure below to see what type of culture shocks in the US are the most common.

The method to see what type of culture shocks is common is the followings; I first typed in the phrase “Culture shock in the US” in Google and searched it. On the premise that Google search engine gives you the popular websites based on the keyword you put in, I chose 10 websites regarding culture shock in the US from the top of Google search result. In those 10 websites, some websites mentioned a same type of culture shock in common. I recorded how many times similar culture shocks were mentioned in those websites.

There were some websites that did not mention the type of culture shock and were mainly for teaching how to deal with culture shock when you came to the US. I excluded such websites from the Top 10 websites of the Google search result regarding culture shock for my research.

I put references for those 10 websites at the bottom of this article. If you are interested in what those websites are, please click here.

Here are the most common culture shocks that non-American people experienced.

If you are interested in the culture shocks especially experienced by Japanese people, please see the page What shocks Japanese the most in the US, 10 Examples Ranked.

1st Americans are friendly

Friendliness was mentioned 10 times in the 10 sites. This was one of the most shocking experiences for me as well.

For example, when you take a walk outside and happen to make an eye contact with strangers, they sometimes give you a smile or strike up a conversation by asking “How are you?”. When you buy stuff at grocery stores, a person at check out talks to you. Sometimes a casher and a customer talk for a long time even when there is a long line of people waiting behind the customer. That’s frustrating! When it happens, I usually feel on the inside “Shut up and, move your hands!” This never happens in Japan.

Friendliness became No1 culture shock by being mentioned at 10 times in my research. Obviously friendliness of American people is shocking for foreigners.

2nd Huge amount of food

When I came to the US for the first time, I felt everything was big in the US. In particular the portions for meals are huge in this country!

For example, I showed a picture of a cup above. That size of cup is available at any gas station in the US and the size is about 4 times bigger than a regular 350ml can. I have never seen any store that sells soda with such size of cup in Japan. Maybe you would find such size of cup in buckets section in Japanese stores. It is a mystery to me that why the hell American people want to buy so much soda at gas station. You can see the similar phenomenon in other foods in the US such as hamburger, steak, chicken, milk, cookies, chips, etc.

3rd Informality

Some American people are very informal with each other, even with your elders or authority figures.

When I was in university in the US, I used to call a professor by his first name, which never happened in Japan. You would get into trouble if you did that in Japan. Also, when you talk with elders, you don’t necessarily have to show your respect to them. I personally like the informality of Americans.

I feel people are treated more equal, not discriminated by their profession or age.

4th Obesity

This is a big problem in the US.

I was astonished to see the obesity problem in the US when I came to this country for the first time. Some elderly people are too heavy to support their own weight and end up depending on an electric wheel chair. It’s sad to see people indulge themselves eating as much food as they want and get incredibly fat to the extent that they cannot support their own weight.

I stopped eating McDonald’s after watching the movie called Super Size Me. If you eat McDonald’s regularly, I recommend you watch it to get a glimpse of how fast food is in America.

5th Tipping System

I am still baffled by the tipping system in the US sometimes. I usually put some money on the table when I eat in a restaurant. I always have to calculate how much I should put on the table, which is cumbersome. Some places automatically put gratuity into the bill without notifying you about it. That makes me furious and I swear off going to that restaurant ever again. I hope other people don’t go to such restaurants with automatic gratuity.

I think tipping system is inefficient and creates more troubles rather than good. For Japanese people, it’s rare to see a good service from waiters or waitresses in the US because the standard of Japanese customer service is so high that American services can’t compare. I tip only because I follow the American customs, as the proverb goes “When in Roma, do as the Romans do”.

6th Diversity

The United States of America is a diverse nation. Non-American people mentioned the high diversity of the country 3 times out of 10 websites in terms of religion, race, food, etc.

I was shocked in a good way by the diversity of America when I came to the US for the first time. Japanese people, a native of Japan, make up more than 90% of the total population in Japan (Please see the first figure of this link if you are interested in how many people are foreign-born in Japan).

It`s typical in Japan for Japanese to want to blend in and not stand out. I hated it when I was in Japan. Now I don’t have to behave same as everyone else because I live in the US!

I love the diversity that this country has.

7th Big cars

Cars in the US are big in general compared with other countries. There are some cars that would be too big to drive on the roads in Japan such as Ford F-150. Like huge foods that I mentioned above, everything is big in this country. Roads are wider in the US so it’s comfortable driving a big car on highways in the US.

8th Americans are on time at work

Some guys, I believe they might be from India, mentioned this in the Top10 websites. They say that being on time is important and everyone is on time for work or meetings etc. This remark was surprising to me because American people are not punctual at all from my experience.

Japanese people are punctual when it comes to work, especially on public transportation. It’s amazing how punctual Japanese people can be at work. From the viewpoint of the Japanese, I actually thought American people or services are not on time. This is where a different cultural perspective can change how we perceive each other. Indian or Japanese visitors to America can have a totally different experience.

9th Other languages are widespread

It’s astonishing how many languages are available in the US on written instructions for all sorts of goods and services. For instance, I attached a picture of instructions for a pair of binoculars.

The instructions are translated into 10 languages !

They are English, Italian, German, French, Spanish, Korean, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Japanese, and Portuguese. It’s amazing ! In Japan, it would be 5 languages at most like Japanese, English, Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese.

10th A variety of foods are available

Many kinds of foods are available in the US. The wine sections at grocery stores are filled with the products from all over the world such as Italy, France, Japan, Portugal, Chile, and so on. There is a certain amount of inventory that the stores must have on hand to attract and maintain customers. Some grocery stores have 100 feet of shelves filled with just cookies.

11th Americans like chatting

American people like chatting. They joke a lot with sarcasm and irony. Sometimes it is hard for me to understand what’s funny. Some people think small talk is necessary for business relations. As I mentioned above, Americans are friendly. Some people start a long conversation with complete strangers, people they will most likely never see again. Americans are interesting.

12th Americans like working out

While there are a lot of people who are obese in this country, there are other people who really work out hard. You see a lot of people running or going to a gym in the US. Japanese people don’t work out as much as American people do.

It’s kind of funny to see that there are two completely opposite things that Americans are doing, one is being obese with huge portion sizes and the other is working out to be in good shape. It’s like seeing American people buying Non-fat milk and a lot of chocolate cookies in the same basket. I sometimes wonder which direction American people really want to go.

Americans are interesting.







<Reference>

・Insider Inc., <https://www.businessinsider.com/biggest-culture-shocks-america-us-2018-11>, accessed on Jan 12th 2019.

・Travel Notes & Beyond, <https://travelnotesandbeyond.com/the-cultural-shock-of-the-first-time-visitor-to-america/#The_Law_in_America> , accessed on Jan 12th 2019.

・InterExchange, Inc., <https://www.interexchange.org/handbooks/inside-the-usa/culture/>, accessed on Jan 12th 2019.

・Matador Network, <https://matadornetwork.com/read/biggest-culture-shocks-travelers-face-america/>, accessed on Jan 12th 2019.

・Quara, <https://www.quora.com/What-is-your-biggest-cultural-shock-from-visiting-America>, accessed on Jan 12th 2019.

・Defense Language and National Security Education Office, <http://www.cultureready.org/blog/culture-shock-united-states>, accessed on Jan 12th 2019.

・THE CROSS BOARDER Blog, <https://howtoguide.org/biggest-culture-shocks/>, accessed on Jan 12th 2019.

・Voice of America,<https://www.voanews.com/a/students-speak-my-u-s-culture-shock/4009085.html>, accessed on Jan 12th 2019.

・BDG Media Inc.,<https://www.elitedaily.com/life/culture/culture-shocks-in-america/1196405>, accessed on Jan 12th 2019.

・Telegraph Media Group,<https://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/expatlife/8715492/Culture-shock-in-the-USA.html>, accessed on Jan 12th 2019.