When I decided to move to the UK, it didn't occur to me that I would experience culture shock or that I would feel out of place and confused. After all, I'd grown up in an Anglophone country watching British television and movies, and reading British books. I thought I knew what to expect when I finally made it through customs.<\/p>\n
This was compounded by getting to Bath, which looked exactly like the images of England I'd grown up with. The rolling hills, the dry stone walls, the glowing architecture, the quiet and polite people\u2026 All of these were exactly as Enid Blyton and Frances Hodgson Burnett had taught me to expect. Additionally, I'd lived internationally for most of my adult life. I was used to being in new environments and working out how to do things. Turned out I was quite wrong.<\/p>\n
On the surface, the UK is quite similar to my own country, though with a much milder and more liveable climate. We drive on the same side of the road, we whinge constantly about the weather, we drink more beer than we say we\u2019re planning to. After a week or two, I realised that there was the shock of realising I'd been doing things wrong for the last few weeks.<\/p>\n
I first noticed this when I was trying to buy a bus ticket, with an impatient queue forming behind me sighing and rolling their eyes as I tried to work out what ticket I wanted. Then it was trying to understand how supermarket loyalty cards work, with an impatient queue forming behind me sighing and rolling their eyes, and coming downstairs after my first bin collection to find a note from my neighbour telling me I had put the wrong rubbish in the wrong bin. These small things were bad enough, but trying to work out how to set up a TV licence or register for council tax left me feeling lost, confused and overwhelmed.<\/p>\n
I talked to my friends about this, but they'd all been living here for a long time or were British. None of them understood why all of this was so confusing to me. \u201cWell, how else would you do it?\u201d was the response I kept hearing, as though no one in their right mind would think to put paper recycling in with the cardboard.<\/p>\n
Human psychology is built on assuming that everyone knows what we know, and that everyone thinks in much the same way we do. I found myself making a conscious effort to point out to my friends that there is nothing intuitive about how a society works, about which bus ticket I need, or which recycling goes in which bin in which week. I had to make myself say \u201cReally? I've not seen it like that before\u201d as a gentle reminder that there are so many ways to manage all this, and there is nothing inherently right about how it is managed here.<\/p>\n
I also had to remind myself that it was OK not to know things. That we only know things because we've had a chance for someone to tell or show us. I had to remind myself that I was new here, that even though I'd grown up watching and reading about Britain, I hadn't lived here before and all this was new. I had to step back, ask myself what I would say to a friend who was new here when they made a mistake, and give myself the space to learn.<\/p>\n
Learning to live in a new culture takes time, effort and patience. Don't expect yourself to understand everything right from the start, and give yourself the grace of not knowing something. Ask for advice when you're not sure \u2013 most people like to feel that they are helping. Good places to start are the public library<\/a>, Visit Bath<\/a>, and the council website<\/a>, as well as friends on campus. At the very least, you'll learn how something works. At best, you'll start to feel like you're getting a handle on living in the UK.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When I decided to move to the UK, it didn't occur to me that I would experience culture shock or that I would feel out of place and confused. After all, I'd grown up in an Anglophone country watching British...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1969,"featured_media":1911,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[382,175,384],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-capabilities-framework","category-intercultural-competency","category-social-cultural-awareness"],"acf":[],"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":686,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/2021\/09\/01\/ni-hao-shanghai-my-summer-internship-in-china\/","url_meta":{"origin":1930,"position":0},"title":"N\u01d0 h\u01ceo Shanghai: My summer internship in China","author":"Kerry Vevers","date":"September 1, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Guest blogger Michal Nalepa, who recently graduated from the University of Bath with a BEng in Civil Engineering, describes how learning Mandarin Chinese with the Skills Centre paved the way for a two-month summer internship in Shanghai in 2019. In July 2019 I travelled to Shanghai, China on a two-month\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Employability"","block_context":{"text":"Employability","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/category\/employability\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The view of LuJiaZui, the Shanghai financial centre, from The Bund on the other side of the river Pu.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2021\/08\/viewofLuJiaZui-e1629459207209.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2021\/08\/viewofLuJiaZui-e1629459207209.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2021\/08\/viewofLuJiaZui-e1629459207209.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2021\/08\/viewofLuJiaZui-e1629459207209.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2021\/08\/viewofLuJiaZui-e1629459207209.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2021\/08\/viewofLuJiaZui-e1629459207209.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1733,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/2025\/12\/02\/italian-ambassador-meets-language-skills-students-studying-italian\/","url_meta":{"origin":1930,"position":1},"title":"Italian Ambassador meets Language Skills students studying Italian","author":"Carmen Schembri Wismayer","date":"December 2, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The University of Bath community experienced a special cultural moment, on Wednesday 26th November, as we welcomed the Italian Ambassador Inigo Lambertini to campus. His visit - part of an ongoing tour of British universities aimed at strengthening academic, cultural, and diplomatic ties - marked Bath as the 24th institution\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Communication"","block_context":{"text":"Communication","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/category\/capabilities-framework\/communication\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Students of Italian meeting the Italian Ambassador","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2025\/12\/31142-0238.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2025\/12\/31142-0238.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2025\/12\/31142-0238.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2025\/12\/31142-0238.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2025\/12\/31142-0238.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":836,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/2022\/06\/28\/challenging-myself-with-chinese\/","url_meta":{"origin":1930,"position":2},"title":"Challenging myself with Chinese","author":"Kerry Vevers","date":"June 28, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Olivia Wolfheart has been taking part in our Mandarin Chinese course as a member of the public since October 2021. In this guest blog, she explains her motivation for and experience of learning the language. Choosing Chinese For many years I've been interested in learning Chinese. My father is Malaysian\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Communication"","block_context":{"text":"Communication","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/category\/capabilities-framework\/communication\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Olivia Wolfheart","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2022\/06\/bathblogpic.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2022\/06\/bathblogpic.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2022\/06\/bathblogpic.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2022\/06\/bathblogpic.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":858,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/2022\/09\/05\/studying-in-the-uk-my-experience-as-an-international-student\/","url_meta":{"origin":1930,"position":3},"title":"Studying in the UK: my experience as an international student","author":"Erifyli Vologianni","date":"September 5, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"My name is Erifyli, I'm from Greece, and I\u2019ve recently graduated from the University of Bath with a degree in International Management. In this blog, I\u2019ll share the experiences and skills I gained as an international student, the challenges I faced, how I dealt with them, and tips for settling\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Academic skills"","block_context":{"text":"Academic skills","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/category\/academic-skills\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Erifyli Vologianni","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2022\/09\/erifyli.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":902,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/2022\/11\/01\/how-a-virtual-exchange-improved-my-confidence-in-speaking-chinese\/","url_meta":{"origin":1930,"position":4},"title":"How a Virtual Exchange improved my confidence in speaking Chinese\u00a0 \u00a0","author":"Kerry Vevers","date":"November 1, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Natalie Page, a doctoral student in the Department of Social and Policy Sciences, explains how a virtual language exchange has improved her spoken Mandarin and developed some key employability skills.\u00a0\u00a0 I joined the University in 2021 as a part of the Southwest Doctoral Training Partnership, in which China features as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Employability"","block_context":{"text":"Employability","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/category\/employability\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Natalie Page with her Chinese virtual exchange partners from Xi\u2019An International University","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2022\/10\/meeting-screenshot.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2022\/10\/meeting-screenshot.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2022\/10\/meeting-screenshot.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2022\/10\/meeting-screenshot.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1144,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/2023\/12\/12\/learn-to-sign-for-inclusivity-and-employability\/","url_meta":{"origin":1930,"position":5},"title":"Learn to sign for inclusivity and employability","author":"Kerry Vevers","date":"December 12, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Did you know that one in five (approximately 12 million) adults in the UK are D\/deaf, have hearing loss or tinnitus? 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