12 Reverse Culture Shocks as an American (After 4 years in Europe)

homeless people free bread overly friendly people waiters asking me how i'm doing every five minutes welcome back to the us david hey it's david and welcome back to my channel so i'm back in the us on summer holiday and i can't believe it's been four years in europe four years in the netherlands and every time i come back to the us i do experience some type of reverse culture shock so in this video i want to share with you some of the biggest culture shocks that i've experienced coming back to the u.s let's talk about homelessness when you think about a city like san francisco you might think about technology you might think about silicon valley you might think about a first world country a first world city but you'll be shocked when you come downtown to see tents to see people shooting up to see needles to see a big homeless population and it's always a big shock for me to come back even though i grew up in the city because the homeless population has gotten progressively worse and worse throughout the years in a place like san francisco portland and it's a shock because in europe in the netherlands you don't see homeless people i'm sure there are homeless people but you just don't see them on the streets and it's sad because many of these homeless people have mental problems they're shouting they're yelling and they're not getting the help that they need in a place like amsterdam i believe 30 to 40 percent of housing is dedicated to social housing and there's a welfare program as well but in a place like san francisco it's extremely expensive i can imagine it to be very difficult for anyone to get by let alone someone making minimum wage or someone who has mental problems it's extremely hard for them i don't know what the solution is but it's always a big reverse culture shock for me to come back and it begs the question did i come back to a first world country third world country so let's talk about something a little bit more positive let's talk about american over friendliness because it's always a shock for me to come back to the u.s to have people random bus drivers security guards ask me how i am have a great day good morning good evening and it's a shock because in europe you don't get that all the time now a few weeks ago when i came back to the u.s i went to the state capitol building in sacramento california and as i was leaving the security guard says something to me and i thought i was in trouble what did i do wrong but he only said have a great evening and it was a big shock to me i had to laugh it off but i think it's a great thing right some people might think americans are over friendly superficial but for me it can brighten up your day the other day i was in the elevator and this woman comes up to me i was kind of stressed out at that point in time and she strikes up a conversation and within a few minutes i felt a lot better that human connection while people might think americans are over friendly superficial i like to give people the benefit of the doubt and for me that's a great thing and this over friendliness leads me to my next topic about customer service you immediately notice the difference between customer service levels in the us and levels in europe it's a lot better in the us well there are several factors one big thing is that people in europe are paid a fair wage even waiters and waitresses they're not working for tips in the u.s many waiters waitresses have a wage probably a minimum wage but they're also working for tips so there's an incentive for people to provide better customer service also customer service is taught to people it's enforced as a customer it really helps because when you enter a restaurant yes it's about the food but a big part of it it's about the experience the level of customer service that you get and it's a lot better in the u.s but it can go a little bit too far because the other day i was at a restaurant with friends and we were catching up we hadn't seen each other in five six seven years we were talking about deep subjects and this waitress kept coming back every five six seven minutes how are you do you want another drink anything else for you that was so annoying because we were in the middle of this very deep conversation and then this waitress kept coming in and ruining the conversation so on the one hand customer service is a lot better in the us but it can also be way too much and tipping is also a big reverse culture shock as well because in europe you pay one price on the menu but in the u.s you have to readjust to the fact that on top of this price you have to pay sales tax and then you have to tip as well so you're adding potentially around 25 extra on top of the price that you see on the menu so psychologically you have to readjust to that as well oh yeah there's a lot more free stuff in the us let me explain in a place like the netherlands in europe you have to pay to use the toilet you have to pay for ketchup but in the u.s all these things are free they're part of the package part of the experience you get free bread in restaurants there's free ketchup free condiments you can use the toilet at mcdonald's and that's a really nice thing because it was a shock for me to go to europe to have to pay for everything but in the u.s everything is part of that package it's more convenient there's free stuff free ketchup free bread and it's really nice and all this free stuff might not be the best thing because i'm always shocked when i come back to see all these fat people to see obese people 40 42 of americans are obese that's a big number and i'm not surprised because when i look around i see a mcdonald's here burger king taco bell jack in the box there are so many fast food restaurants and they're so convenient as well many of them are open 24 hours there's this graph that was shared online that i was surprised and shocked by it shows that americans spend the most on health care but has the lowest life expectancy this really begs the question why what is going on and when i think about it every time i come back to the us i gain weight well that's because of family reasons my mom is feeding me a lot more but people also commented online saying that europeans when they come to the us they also gain a lot more weight than when they travel elsewhere and i think it goes back to the fact that when you look at the food what's inside the food it's a lot healthier in a place like europe as compared to the us i don't know enough to comment on this but from the comments it shows that what goes into the food in the u.s it's not good it still shocks me to this day to look around to see people who are not just say fat but really really obese you don't see that every day in a place like amsterdam or in europe in general another reverse culture shock that i have coming back to the u.s connected to obesity is the fact that supermarkets grocery stores are big they're huge in the u.s there's anything and everything that you can find a lot more variety and this can be a good or bad thing now in the netherlands there are these big supermarket chains as well and you can find anything and everything there but there aren't as many options as the us in the u.s if you go down a supermarket you can find 30 options of cereal anything and everything so on one hand it's quite the experience right you have so many options but on the other hand it can be really hard to choose i spend a lot more time shopping in the us because oh there's this new variety of this there's a new cereal there's this new package of orange chicken and it's on one hand fun but you also get what do you call it decision fatigue or it's hard to choose because there's so many options but it is fun and yes you have a lot more variety more convenience more stores in the u.s but you have to drive everywhere to get there and that's always a big shock for me coming back to the to the u.s because i could be driving five six seven hours in a place like california and still be in the same state if i drive five six seven hours in europe i could be in a different country sometimes two countries and that's one thing i do like about europe i could take a train and be in paris within three four hours london same time as well in the u.s the distances are just very big and that could be a good thing if you enjoy driving road tripping there's a lot of time for reflection but you do need a car to get around in the u.s and public transportation well how do i put this in a friendly way public transportation in the u.s is not so great as compared to europe well because the distances are so big you have to drive everywhere but the infrastructure in the us it's not really built for public transportation it's built for driving even in a place like san francisco where you have multiple modes of transportation it's not so efficient i also lived in la for 10 years and well public transportation there is a nightmare it's even worse than driving there because i remember having to get to work and driving took about an hour and a half sometimes but if i took public transportation it would have taken three hours one way now that's pretty bad and when you drive everywhere you see all these billboards you see capitalism in your face and that's always a big shock for me coming back too right the ads the billboards everywhere on your tv on cars in public toilets everywhere that's part of american society the fabric of american society is capitalism and you grew up with it as well even on tv i was shocked to see all these commercials i was in this cafe the other day and i read this poster that said why be average when you can be amazing and i had to laugh because it reminded me of the fact that i'm back in the u.s because in the netherlands people are taught to be average you don't want to stand out but in the u.s we're taught at a very early age that you want to be the best you want to be better than everyone else and it's drilled into our mindsets the education system we are competing to get into a good school to get a good job and we're always competing and trying to be overly ambitious which can be a great thing because for me it pushed me people around me pushed me to become a better version of myself but at the same time it can be dangerous if you don't know how to take care of yourself because you could always be comparing yourself and running on this treadmill of trying to be better than everyone else comparing yourself in one sense it's a great thing but on the other hand it can be dangerous but i always have to laugh because the mindset of living in the netherlands trying to be average is completely different than the mindset of americans trying to stand out and speaking of standing out versus standing in it's always a big shock for me to come back to the u.s to reconnect with friends and for them to tell me that they're working until 11 12 1 am because people do work a lot more hours in the us as compared to europe i also remember working a lot more hours in the us as well it's a difference in culture work culture people in europe seem to work to live people in the u.s seem to live to work and there's no right or wrong answer but it is true people do work longer hours in the us people get less vacation days in the u.s as well people in europe especially now in the summer time everyone is off on summer holidays and vacation yeah there's no right or wrong answer but that's a fact and that's always a shock for me to come back to the u.s wow i can't believe it's been four years abroad for me and every time i do come back to the us i do experience reverse culture shock probably because i've changed as a person i've learned so much i guess there's no right or wrong answer to live a good life but these are in fact some of the differences that i've experienced some of the shocks i do miss many things about american life the convenience the american ambitiousness it really has driven me to become a better version of myself there's also many things i don't miss i don't miss the homeless problem i don't miss the obesity problem and in many ways i don't feel european i don't feel very american anymore i don't feel very asian i don't really know what to feel to be honest but hey i guess this is what it feels like to be a global citizen well i'm excited to continue exploring but i'm also very curious to hear from you what have been your reverse culture shocks coming back to the us or to your home country

Channel: David Wen

Views: 167,667

Keywords: usa, returning to usa, reverse culture shock, life in the netherlands, moving to europe, reverse culture shock america

Id: KjOMb4z-3UE

Length: 13min 39sec (819 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 29 2022