Expats Confess their Cultural Blunders

An expat living in Dublin, Ireland said, "I kept referring to my kids trousers as "pants" which would be normal in Canadian culture. My friend took me aside and told me I had to stop because "pants" here means underwear!!! Oh and once my son was asked to wear his boots to his gaelic football practice - I sent him in rubber boots not realizing they meant cleats! Fortunately my kids are very forgiving :)"

"When I was interviewing for the position (school counselor), the Kuwaiti man on the interview team wouldn't give me eye contact when I was answering his questions. He'd look down at his papers, or over at my husband (it was a team interview, jobs for both of us). I thought he was being rude or that I was bombing out on the interview, like he wasn't interested. I found out later, that this was a form of respect for me. If he'd looked me in the eye it could be interpreted as a come on/flirtation. I am glad I kept my fuming to myself and didn't accuse him of being rude or uninterested in my responses during the interview," said one expat in Hawally, Kuwait.

An expat living in Denmark said, "The most embarrassing blunder I committed was just bimbling along thinking I was making friends with Danished people, only to realise that friendship is a weird thing in Denmark and has more to do with who you play handball with than who you 'thumps chest' bond with. Or something like that. The drunks are very friendly though, so my advice to newbies is to take to the bars if you want to feel any warmth."

An expat mom in Scandriglia, Italy recounted, "I was sick and had to get the girls to the bus stop so I just walked down there in my very large, fuzzy penguin pj's and oversized t-shirt. When I got there I was still half asleep and didn't notice all the parents had stopped talking and were staring at me. My daughters looked at me, looked at them and moved to the other side, stating that I wasn't really their mother in Italian. This did make the other parents laugh."

An expat living in Tomobe, Japan said, "I said 'Watashi wa sensei wo tabemashita' instead of 'Watachi wa sensei to tabemashita.' The difference: 'I ate a teacher' instead of 'I ate with a teacher.'"

"I did so many silly things here. I constantly say something wrong. Once in the beginning here in Curitiba, I went grocery shopping. I was looking at the meat and couldn't read the package. I wanted beef cubes. I thought the word on the package said mule so I tried to get someone to help me. I wanted beef, not mule. The butcher could not understand my portuguese - I was asking what animal the meat was from. In the end I pointed and said "mooooo" and he laughed and nodded "Sim, mooooo," reminisced one expat in Curitiba, Brazil.

"On one occasion we had traveled to San Jose to see our attorney and were lost. When we spoke to the doorman of what we thought was his office building we could see that whoever he was speaking to on the phone he was describing us as being dressed very trashy, as we were not wearing business attire. We were dressed in jeans and t-shirts. Most people dress in business attire in the city," recalled an expat in Samara, Costa Rica.

"One example came when we went out to dinner with a large group of friends and family. The man who invited us, American, wanted to split the bill at the end of the night. This is NEVER done in China. I told him this but he didn't listen. He insisted that we calculate the bill at the table and came up with what he thought everyone should put in. From that day on he was branded a cheapskate and shunned by almost everyone. The word spreads quickly in China and in a few days all of the extended families and friends turned a cold shoulder to him in every way. In China the one who invites, or even suggests, going to a restaurant pays the entire bill, the wives of girlfriends will scrutinize it for any possible errors. It should be paid with no fanfare once the women OK the amount," said an expat in China.

An expat in Lethbridge, Canada said, "I had just spoke to a friend on the phone back in the UK. Then, got in my car to go to the local shopping mall. As I turned into the road for the parking area, I tooted my horn and flashed my headlight at a driver who was coming towards me on the wrong side of the road...... then realised it was me, I was on the wrong side of the road, not him.......oooops momentary lapse!"

"I asked if our neighbor's daughter would want to babysit some evenings to earn some money (thinking she's right across the hall--her parents home in case of emergency etc). She was keen, but her mother was horrified and said her daughter was too lazy to do that! When I told my friend, she laughed and said child minding at is a very low level job and I probably insulted them. I apologized and made cookies the next day," recalled an expat in Mumbai, India.

"Oh God yes! I once asked a guy about making a local dish. He told me his mother made the best. The next thing I know we're on his little moto going to her house -- where she gives me a cooking lesson, feeds me, and we spend the night learning why the local wine is better. People here are really nice, outgoing, sharing. If you break through the first barriers, you've made it. Another time I asked someone where they got a really nice shirt, the next day I got an all morning shopping tour," said an expat living in Pezenas, France.

"Yes, I had an almighty road rage incident, which the locals at whom my rage was targeted could not fathom what it was that I was so worked up about, and probably couldn't understand a word that I was saying (which is probably just as well)," recounted one expat living in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

An expat in Salmiya, Kuwait said, "I teach English and in a conversation class I asked a married student how he met his wife. There was a great deal of confusion among the class and then someone explained that he, like everyone else, married his first cousin. I had no idea."

"It's customary in my country to greet people with a kiss on the cheek. I once forgot I was in China and tried to do so with a girl I met and she was quite shocked. I was really embarrassed," recalled an expat living in Nanchang, China.

"Losing patience at the only 3 international banks when the Teller Machine was out of service for some malfunctioning and I needed to take out some money to go out and eat," remembered an expat living in Belmopan, Belize.