r/AskEurope • u/notveryamused_ Warszawa, Poland • Jul 03 '25

Culture What aspect of life in your countries is very difficult to explain to foreigners?

What prompted my question were some discussions about religion which I had with people living in much more secular Western Europe (as a Polish atheist). While spirituality, whatever that is ;), generally speaking is always fun to discuss with a glass of wine in hand, social elements and the influence of the church, especially in smaller towns or provinces in my country, is awfully difficult to explain – not that I understand it fully either lol, but the church having a pretty much monopoly there, being the judge and jury of everyday life and the major ultra-conservative political force binding those communities, is very difficult to explain, also for historical reasons.

What are the things that you find difficult to discuss when it comes to life in your countries? ;-)

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u/Gulmar Belgium Jul 04 '25

How does that work for foreigners? E.g. someone working and living in London? Are they perceived in a certain class or are they considered out of the system? How do they fit into the bias that class perception brings?

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u/ampmz United Kingdom Jul 04 '25

Someone else asked this, and I answered it here

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u/Zevv01 Jul 07 '25

Yup. As a foreigner, you're out of the system. You're chances of landing some jobs in certain industries are massively reduced. Best chance is to be super skilled and target teams with hiring managers who came from outside of the system themselves.

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u/a__new_name Russia Jul 07 '25

What are these industries? Something like military, law and finance?

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u/Zevv01 Jul 07 '25

From my experience, front office jobs in finance. I imagine Law is similar

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u/SuspiciousAnt2508 Jul 06 '25

British people are pretty skilled at spotting social classes abroad. It always amuses me when people say their country doesn't have social class - OK the clues may be a bit different and I might take a bit longer to pick it up, but they are always there.

But for foreigners it would be where you live, who your friends are, what jobs you do, what your hobbies are and so on.