Can you experience culture shock within your own country?

2015. június 07. - Krisztina Panyi

Short answer: Yes.

What is culture shock anyway? Today I was asked this very question.

Officially it is the frustration, disappointment, anger, bewilderment, and other negative effects one experience when moving to a foreign country.

My answer was when you need to blink fast and blink a lot, as you are experiencing so much new impressions. It is a less pessimistic (and shortened) point of view in my opinion. Cultural shock is not necessarily bad, but it is rather impulsive...

These days I have been blinking a lot. But how can it be, I haven't even left my own country?! Let me just explain the differences I have experienced between the Capital City Budapest and this Lovely Little Kecskemét.

1. Bikers are not targets to drivers. I imagine that there is a special and secret game for the drivers of Budapest, called "catch the cyclist" which consists of some simple rules: To scare a cyclist is 10 points. To scare or to toss a cyclist with a helmet is 50 points (you get +10 if she is a woman) But a children cost you -100 points (we are not animals after all). Kecskemét is a safe haven compared to Budapest.

2. If you want a long, undisturbed and peaceful life you stay silent on the bus, at all costs. In Budapest there is no eavesdropping in public transport, it is considered to be a miracle if anyone listens to what you are saying. Here it is not the same: what you tell today, may come back to bite you in your rare end tomorrow. Of course the gossip will be just a little bit different of what you originally said (the engines of the bus is loud, the eavesdropper cannot hear everything loud and clear after all...). If you do this in our dear old capital, the offended party can fight you, but here you are allowed to blink, and sight. I must get used to this phenomenon.

3. There is no such thing as "far away". Here people would complain about a 10 minute bus drive. In Budapest the bus stop is a 10 minute walk for me. Plus Mercedes Benz Manufacturing is 5 km form the city centre. That is literally the end of the world. My Uni was further than that back in Budapest. I feel lucky.

4. The city is less crowded. This is a good thing when they are not bumping into you every 5 minutes. However it is frustrating when there is not enough people around for a proper night out.

5. There is a stereotype all across the world that people from the countryside are usually nicer. I cannot say "nicer", because I do not know them all, but evidently they seem to be nicer with each other. It is a lovely change compared to the phenomenon in Budapest when they are only nice if they want something.