You only realize how ‘British’ you are when you go abroad.

[Angelina]

I got made fun off for not throwing rubbish on the street.
People back home don’t care about littering and the environment in general.

There was even this guy who, whenever he saw me, would pretend to throw rubbish in the bin, only to toss it on the street instead.

Some people exist just to piss you off.

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I know it’s the governments job to do this, but stuff like that ect like working together to improve the neighborhood would improve everyone’s quality of life. If we have a poor and useless government that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t sort out our roads ect.

 

[Wervelwind]

Are Somalis really mean like this? I also heard they throw rocks at animals

 

[Angelina]

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Also, this is random, why did you call yourself @A Mean Guy when you’re probably one of the kindest male posters?

 

[Angelina]

Are Somalis really mean like this? I also heard they throw rocks at animals

Lol that’s only the kids. No grown man is throwing rocks at an animal for reason.

 

[berberaboy66]

I hate the languid style of work in Somalia. The concept of taking a nap in the middle of the day is beyond me, I have to finish all my days work before I get back into bed.

When I had school exams I used to wake up super early to go to the library, revise during break time/lunch/free periods and stay after school. And then I’d go home and sleep.

Ive never been able to nap either. It’s a skill that I just don’t have unfortunately. When I go to bed I conk out straight away

 

[Angelina]

Guys don’t get me wrong. There are amazing aspects of Eastern Cultures and amongst Somalis hospitality is everything. If we were an individualistic society during the height of the war, famine and general corruption people deal with, many of them would be dead. Somalis are known to look out for each other and have a sense of community and starvation is rare in cities despite being an incredibly poor society.

An impoverished family would be on the same road as those that have a bit of money and the whole neighborhood would at the very least try and feed them. Thats indeed a beautiful part of Somalinimo derived from our Islamic values.
One person might run out of flour and might not be able to afford to buy it straight away and they can easily knock on their neighbor’s door to ask for some and they’d be given it. A poverty stricken distant relative can crash at yours whilst they find their feet. Helping each other is indeed the norms and values of our society and a huge contributing factor of our survival.


Somalis have indeed perfected the idea of ‘charity starts at home’ hence people have a sense of kindness towards their neighbors regardless of Qabil btw which is amazing since Somalis on the hand are tribalist but they do have a sense of humanity when comes to those living around them.

So yes, that’s where our strengths lie and I don’t want this to change whilst we fix up our society and change aspects our culture that does indeed need to change.

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I want us to still have the general Somali characteristics of generosity towards kin and neighbors, to be a society that values expression of humor and personality rather than faux perfection, whilst also being efficient and prizing duty and hard work. It’s a hard balance tbh but one that needs to be done in order for us to prosper.

 

[Midas]

If you were born and raises in the west. You might not think it but your extermely western through and through. I mean you grew up consuming media and books and worldviews all in a western lanaguge and dealing with people who share certain worldviews. It's only because of our shared culutral background that when we go home we can understand people somewhat. But the reality is that your worldview is more similar to people from the west if we ignore religion.

 

[Calaf]

The lack of Please and thank you. Clicking your fingers, like how dare you click your fingers to me like I own you something?

The worse one is the metro cultures in eastern parts which you get just a straight barge and no sorry.

 

[Midas]

I think something we all do as a form of cope and by us I don't mean just somalis . I mean other Africans and latinos and Indians and people from the muslim world. Is that we downplay the gap between the west and life in those countries. But if you go on African Twitter. You'll see some of these smart dudes who talk about politics and the situation in their home country. And none of the guys I'm talking about were born in the west. They've basically given up hope to a certain extent. since they noticed things are not improving but actually declining in countries like nigeria,south africa, etc, . Twitter really opened my eyes to how stuff like pan Africanism, and natural resources were absolutely retarded arguments. I could even talk about how claims of superior social and ethical values are also cope that tries to not acknowledge that corruption is also a sign of lack of morality. And that's not even talking about th problems of sexual assault and rape in big countries like india and to a lesser extent eygpt.

 

[A Mean Guy]

Also, this is random, why did you call yourself @A Mean Guy when you’re probably one of the kindest male posters?

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[mudugnapalm]

Subxanallah where do I start on things that shocked me when I got here
- Lack of basic manners
- No emotional intelligence
- Lying, breaking promises, and spilling secrets is normal
- Two-facedness and backbiting are normal
- Everyone is trying to con you in one way, shape, or form
- Laziness/looking down upon hard workers
- Praising of evil people and looking down on and making fun of genuine ones
- Begging/asking people for money isn't considered ceeb here (I'd rather die)
- Jealousy is rife
- People are walking bags of past trauma
- Extremely warped beauty standards to the point where it seriously affects peoples health (99% women)
- Extremely personal questions (I just met you, why do you wanna how much I make??)
- Obsession with comparison, probably exacerbated by social media
- They won't shut up, where do these people get the energy to talk this much?

 

[Shakespeare_aabihiis]

Whilst living in the UK, I though I was very Somali and used to downplay any British norms I had, until living in Somalia for months or living in/visiting Arab countries.

Example, people who jump queues and lines horrify me. My blood boils when this happens. It’s not something Brits are used to when in the UK, but in Eastern countries? They have 0 respect for first come serve and lining up in an orderly fashion ! I even had an argument once because of that. I’m usually very classy and try to let things go, but jumping the line? That’s beyond the limit!

Now, time keeping! I hate lateness when it comes to professional meetings. I can stomach lateness when it’s a social gathering, that doesn’t bother me. But being late to work/business meetings I find it be beyond rude and shows you’re not a man/woman of your word and when you do this consistently that makes me think you’re all over the place. Life happens and God knows I’ve been late a few times but when you tell someone you’ll be there for 11 and rock up two hours later and this is consistent? We have a huge issue. This is a big problem with Somalis btw. I had no choice but to accept that it is what it is and when in Rome simply do as the Romans do even when you think it’s ridiculous. ( I cross the line at jumping queues though, I don’t care even if we’re in the middle of souq Bakara in Somalia, I’ll still fight for you trying to push in!)

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What norms do you have that is very much British, American, Canadian or Scandi? Oh and let me not forget the down under folk Reer Australia.

I hate the being late to everything culture Somalis have. It's annoying and disrespectful when people show up half hour to an hour late.

 

[Angelina]

Subxanallah where do I start on things that shocked me when I got here

- Lack of basic manners
- No emotional intelligence
- Lying, breaking promises, and spilling secrets is normal
- Two-facedness and backbiting are normal
- Everyone is trying to con you in one way, shape, or form
- Laziness/looking down upon hard workers
- Praising of evil people and looking down on and making fun of genuine ones
- Begging/asking people for money isn't considered ceeb here (I'd rather die)
- Jealousy is rife
- People are walking bags of past trauma
- Extremely warped beauty standards to the point where it seriously affects peoples health (99% women)
- Extremely personal questions (I just met you, why do you wanna how much I make??)
- Obsession with comparison, probably exacerbated by social media
- They won't shut up, where do these people get the energy to talk this much?

Everything you mentioned is nothing but the truth, the very unfortunate truth.

1. Whilst back home, I saw bleaching shops in every corner. Being late skin there is seen as ‘ilbaax’ and all the beautiful girls there are very light. Nairobi is the hell hole of bleaching and you’ll seldom find a naturally dark skin girl there. Women there are in fierce competition for men and whilst in the past I believed that Somali men don’t like bleached women, I can no longer stand on that statement, since they clearly do. It’s the light skin girls that are praised there. The men don’t like the side effects of bleaching like the fact that it looks obviously fake on some girls and the fact that their hands and body are a completely different color but the girls with a bit of money can afford creams that give a more natural look and now they’re savvy enough to bleach every single part of their body.

2. You’re right about personal questions and fobs and they’re relentless. The amount of times I politely had to skirt around personal questions yet they’re brazen enough to ask again and again until they feel they can force an answer was common. Maybe because they thought I was ‘miskeen’ and won’t bite back?

3. Lack of emotional intelligence is incredibly common and people don’t have much consideration for stuff if it doesn’t impact them personally and they’ll expect you shut it and put up with a lot since they don’t have the emotionally capability to deep stuff and have that compassion. I can’t say that’s for most though as you do find some very screwed on people who Allah naturally gave an abundance of empathy.

 

[queasyian]

I remember in Saudi, a chicken shop, Al baik, there was a queue , some older men come and jump the queue. One of the men in the queue before me argues with the new jumpers , allegedly according to my Arabic speaking uncle the jumpers said “ shut up and move to back of the queue you are Egyptian anyway “ wild.

 

[johnsepei5]

I faced relentless slander for my British accent
Haha they told me I sounded posh

I had a normal London accent

 

[𐒋𐒖𐒆𐒔𐒖𐒕𐒈]

Whilst living in the UK, I though I was very Somali and used to downplay any British norms I had, until living in Somalia for months or living in/visiting Arab countries.

Example, people who jump queues and lines horrify me. My blood boils when this happens. It’s not something Brits are used to when in the UK, but in Eastern countries? They have 0 respect for first come serve and lining up in an orderly fashion ! I even had an argument once because of that. I’m usually very classy and try to let things go, but jumping the line? That’s beyond the limit!

Now, time keeping! I hate lateness when it comes to professional meetings. I can stomach lateness when it’s a social gathering, that doesn’t bother me. But being late to work/business meetings I find it be beyond rude and shows you’re not a man/woman of your word and when you do this consistently that makes me think you’re all over the place. Life happens and God knows I’ve been late a few times but when you tell someone you’ll be there for 11 and rock up two hours later and this is consistent? We have a huge issue. This is a big problem with Somalis btw. I had no choice but to accept that it is what it is and when in Rome simply do as the Romans do even when you think it’s ridiculous. ( I cross the line at jumping queues though, I don’t care even if we’re in the middle of souq Bakara in Somalia, I’ll still fight for you trying to push in!)

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What norms do you have that is very much British, American, Canadian or Scandi? Oh and let me not forget the down under folk Reer Australia.

Actually, I could draft a book about being British abroad, or an Expat, as I discovered Brits prefer, when connecting about old Blighty, and how uniquely different it is from other cultures, but I am pressed for time.
There three things I noticed when I fist moved to the US:
- All right: a very common term in London, and when I say it, it does not mean I am enquring as to your well-being;
- Sorry mate: Does not mean, I am sorry, but am being polite to dash off,
- Cheers mate: Just means, thank you, and moving along.

The three most annoying aspects of the Americans (Only Brits find these annoying):
- Their misuse of the word 'Excuse me',
- Lack of awareness of space,
- Not holding doors for oncoming persons right behind them --- so bloody rude.

Oh, one more thing: people outside of Britain do NOT speak English.

Must dash.

 

[Kane]

Whilst living in the UK, I though I was very Somali and used to downplay any British norms I had, until living in Somalia for months or living in/visiting Arab countries.

Example, people who jump queues and lines horrify me. My blood boils when this happens. It’s not something Brits are used to when in the UK, but in Eastern countries? They have 0 respect for first come serve and lining up in an orderly fashion ! I even had an argument once because of that. I’m usually very classy and try to let things go, but jumping the line? That’s beyond the limit!

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[Inquisitive_]

I lived in Somalia for a year and traveled to several countries across the world.

Experienced all the things people have mentioned, it's the fundamental reasons why those places are backwards and remain that way.

Lacking basic values and ethics, everyone dreams of being a ghost worker, getting money from abroad to do nothing.

Even the wealthy class lack ambition, the best among them wants to chill in a masjid and do ibada rather than being productive for the country to aid his people which is the best ibada you can do.

All the focus for the majority of the people in those countries regardless of class is on lowly self and carnal base desires, it's rare to find someone that rises above that, inferiority complex is rife.

We should all praise and thank Allah everyday that he put us here and not among those people there, great hikmah behind this, we have the capacity and opportunity to bring about a great revival if we cease it and those that don't are worse than the worst ones back home.

 

[Ashraf]

Whilst living in the UK, I though I was very Somali and used to downplay any British norms I had, until living in Somalia for months or living in/visiting Arab countries.

Example, people who jump queues and lines horrify me. My blood boils when this happens. It’s not something Brits are used to when in the UK, but in Eastern countries? They have 0 respect for first come serve and lining up in an orderly fashion ! I even had an argument once because of that. I’m usually very classy and try to let things go, but jumping the line? That’s beyond the limit!

Now, time keeping! I hate lateness when it comes to professional meetings. I can stomach lateness when it’s a social gathering, that doesn’t bother me. But being late to work/business meetings I find it be beyond rude and shows you’re not a man/woman of your word and when you do this consistently that makes me think you’re all over the place. Life happens and God knows I’ve been late a few times but when you tell someone you’ll be there for 11 and rock up two hours later and this is consistent? We have a huge issue. This is a big problem with Somalis btw. I had no choice but to accept that it is what it is and when in Rome simply do as the Romans do even when you think it’s ridiculous. ( I cross the line at jumping queues though, I don’t care even if we’re in the middle of souq Bakara in Somalia, I’ll still fight for you trying to push in!)

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What norms do you have that is very much British, American, Canadian or Scandi? Oh and let me not forget the down under folk Reer Australia.

When u first landed at Mogadishu airport that’s one of the first things I noticed. I saw someone shouting at one of the airport workers and he cut the line. The level of entitlement is crazy but it was so normal no one said anything. I turned to my aunt to ask why he was acting like that and she said this is Somalis. At least in western countries if people act entitled and cut cues people will socially shame them. They might end up on social media or something but in Somalia shi like this is normal , I felt your post from the bottom of my heart.

 

[Spongebob]

What made you lot realize you’re more British, American, Scandi or Aussi than you initially thought?

I got made fun off for not throwing rubbish on the street.
People back home don’t care about littering and the environment in general.

There was even this guy who, whenever he saw me, would pretend to throw rubbish in the bin, only to toss it on the street instead.

Some people exist just to piss you off.

IDK why its so bad in the UK, Why is it always pakistani areas in the UK that are trashy as hell, and then you'll hear muslims preach about how being clean is important to them