American Expats Reveal Their Wildest Reverse Culture Shocks Upon Returning Home (50 Stories)

After many years in Europe:

How many more overweight people there are.

How many churches there are.

How Americans assume everyone wants to hear their opinion.

How little we value being informed or educated in order to have a strong opinion.

Returned to the US from Korea. It gets talked about all the time, but just how unnecessarily complicated and inconvenient our healthcare system is.

To go from a system where you can go see a doctor/specialist any day of the week without an appointment, to know you will be covered, and to have the peace of mind that you'll spend probably less than $20, to then go to whatever we have here...it's just absurd to me.

I also pay twice for my healthcare here than I did in Korea. We are so duped for a system that is openly robbing us and not keeping us well.

The scam that is the for-profit healthcare system in the US. Truly pathetic that the richest country in human history can't provide universal coverage for all its citizens. Medical bills, medical debt, insurers deciding which procedures you really need, doctors and hospitals being in/out of network....all foreign concepts to most developed countries. 


We talk a lot about freedom in the US, but it's usually about positive freedoms (i.e. the freedom TO own a gun) but we forget about negative freedoms, the freedom FROM something, such as medical debt, student debt, etc. In that sense, we lack many basic freedoms enjoyed by other countries.

In the US, if I suggest we walk the five blocks to our destination on a beautiful, sunny day, I’m met with incredulity, outrage, and a glare appropriate for puppy torturers. 

Walking as transport is, apparently, a sign of homelessness and failure at life. .

Coming back from Norway, I was shocked at how little paid time off Americans get. Had to readjust to the whole 'living to work' mentality instead of 'working to live.' Still bugs me.

After returning from living in India, I woke up parched one morning and realized that I didn’t have any bottled water in the house. I got all distressed because it was early and stores weren’t open and it was cold and dark…imagine my joy when I remembered I had potable water FLOWING INTO MY HOUSE.

Tipping. I lived abroad for a while and my first day back in the US, I just genuinely forgot to tip a bartender on a single beer and she told people at the bar that I stiffed her. It’s such a ridiculous system.

The food! Lived in Canada from 2006 to 2014. You don't really notice it going the other way, but coming back holy s**t. Everything is loaded with salt and sugar. Everything. It is jarring. I gained over 20 lbs my first year back. I get that people do not want to hear this because we all love our dino nuggets and cheap frozen pizza. But damn, they really are trying to kill us with our food. At the very least they truly do not care if they kill us so long as the profit margins are high.

Related to that, the sheer number of truly obese people. Kids, in particular. I lived in Toronto and it was incredibly rare to see a person who clearly weighed over 300 lbs. Like maybe once a year. Coming back it was just shocking how big the average American had become. I pretty much lay that at the feet of the food thing.

Not being able to just go to the doctor when you feel sick or notice something wrong. In Taiwan you just rock up to the hospital, pay a US$6 registration fee, tell the registrar what ails ya, get sent to whichever department fits your symptoms, wait for an hour or so, and see a doc.

Government healthcare: hell to the YEAH! It's not communism, Americans.

Pharmaceutical commercials on TV was the most shocking. Smiling happy people talking about taking a pill to counteract the pill they were taking for (insert issue). Side effects may include mass m*rder, jumping from bridges, and uncontrollable diarrhea… At least you’ll be smiling while you deal with all the side effects.

Taxes not being included in price on the sign.

Coming back to the US after living in Japan for 7 years. Everyone seems so angry and selfish all the time. Public places like parks, streets, restrooms are just a disgusting mess that no one takes care of.

Also, groceries were super cheap and fresh. I could get a weeks worth of groceries for a family of 3 for around ¥10000 yen, that's not possible in the US.

After being In India for a while, coming back to the USA, the feeling of having personal space and not being stared at all the time, such a relief.

Seeing how obvious it is that we have a serious obesity problem in the U.S.

Going from Japan customer service to US customer service is a colossal downgrade.

Returned to the US from India. Sat down to eat at a restaurant at the airport and the waiter immediately brought me a glass of ice water. It took me a moment to realize that this was safe to drink here.

Depending on where you lived abroad, the return to car culture is probably going to be the biggest shock. Get ready to drive everywhere again.

How uncommon it is seeing people smoking cigarettes in the US.

The massive amount of advertising and upsells. As soon as you get on a plane back to the US, it's all "sign up for this credit card" and "watch these ads before and after the safety briefing" and "you can pay later for all this, no payments today."

It absolutely screams into your brain at every opportunity.

Was floored by the massive portion sizes when I came back. Also, people are super chatty here compared to Germany! It felt weird at first, but now I kind of enjoy those random small talk moments with strangers.