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1%% Image removed per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1588220134005722200
2%% Please start a new thread if you'd like to discuss a new image.
3%%
4->'''[[Creator/GavinFree Gavin]]:''' Aw, there's a Filer-Fax!\
5'''[[Creator/MichaelJones Michael]]:''' Oh, boy, what? What do you call it?\
6'''Gavin:''' Filer-Fax.\
7'''Michael:''' It's a Rolodex in America.\
8'''Gavin:''' Cultural differences.
9-->-- ''WebVideo/{{Immersion}}: VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys1''
10
11Cultures do not evolve identically. Even ones with similar backgrounds and languages have something they disagree about, and it just gets worse the more alien the two cultures are. Naturally, this has great potential for writers who want to introduce conflict to the plot, or just want to show off their worldbuilding skill.
12
13Some tropes associated with Culture Clash:
14* AccidentalMarriage
15* ArrangedMarriage
16* CrazyCulturalComparison
17* CrossCulturalKerfluffle
18* CultureJustifiesAnything
19* DeliberateValuesDissonance
20* DidNotDoTheBloodyResearch
21* FeeFiFauxPas
22* FishOutOfWater
23* ForeignQueasine
24* FumblingTheGauntlet
25* FunnyForeigner
26* GreetingGestureConfusion
27* HumansThroughAlienEyes
28* IdiosyncraticCulturalGesture
29* InnocentBigot
30* InnocentlyInsensitive
31* OurNudityIsDifferent
32* ProtocolPeril
33* RaisedByWolves
34* SeparatedByACommonLanguage
35* YourNormalIsOurTaboo
36
37See ValuesDissonance, for when this happens to the audience. Also see CrazyCulturalComparison, a milder form of CultureClash played for laughs. There is also PopCultureIsolation. Often an element of FantasticRacism.
38
39----
40!!Examples:
41[[foldercontrol]]
42
43[[folder:Advertising]]
44* A German commercial for a bank features a Japanese bank CEO going to Germany and making a traditional greeting bow in front of his German counterpart. Suddenly, a female employee creeps up to him and cuts off his tie with a pair of scissors, and then gives him a kiss, in the course of ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat_Thursday Weiberfastnacht.]]''
45* Parodied in this [[https://youtu.be/L8fj_Zo5x24 American Express commercial]] in which Creator/JerrySeinfeld finds his American humor falling flat with British audiences. After immersing himself in English culture, he returns to the comedy club and nails it.
46[[/folder]]
47
48[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
49* ''Manga/DesertRose'': In the "Black Banquet" story arc, CAT, a counterterrorist organization based in the US, is contracted to train Japanese police officers. What results is a rare debate about gun control and self-defense, with the Japanese taking the legal stance, "If we can regulate and outlaw all guns, everyone will be safer overall", while the counterterrorists focus on self-responsiblity and defense, "You need to be prepared for that inevitable moment you will be endangered by a gunman". Overall, though, the story seems to side with CAT, portraying the Japanese as well-meaning but naive for believing legislation will protect them forever.
50* In ''Anime/SpaceRunawayIdeon'', when humans first encounter [[HumanAliens Buff Clan]], they try to call a ceasefire by raising a white flag. Unfortunately, in Buff Clan culture, a white flag means the resolve to fight until death. [[PoorCommunicationKills Much bloodshed ensues]].
51* Played for humour in ''Manga/SayonaraZetsubouSensei'', Kaere, a returnee is offended by various gestures that "in her country" mean odd things. Also, Maria is a reverse example, seeing negative things in Japanese society as positive things. Her reaction to a pedophile accosting a little girl? "People in Japan are so nice to little kids".
52* A major part of the background of the Skypiea arc of ''Manga/OnePiece''. Montblanc Norland comes to an island plagued by disease and worshiping a snake-god. He proceeds to cut down their sacred trees and slay their god(dess), all in their own best interest. Though his actions were for the better, his refusal to consult with them or even explain himself demonstrates an arrogance that eventually alienates him, setting up the requisite tragic backstory.
53* Interestingly subverted in ''Manga/AiYoriAoshi'', for the character of Tina Foster -- a blond, blue-eyed American who grew up in Japan. Being American, she's never really accepted by her classmates, due to the highly ethno-centric nature of Japanese society, despite having been raised there from a very young age. Returning to America for high school, she discovers that she is culturally much more Japanese than American, and finds herself an outsider again. Her overreactions to this result in her clashing with both cultures, and prevent her from making any close personal connections in either Japan or America, until she meets open-minded protagonist Hanabishi Kaoru several years prior to the beginning of the story.
54* ''Manga/OuranHighSchoolHostClub'':
55** Played for laughs. Commoner Haruhi's life is so different from her ultra-rich schoolmates that they might as well live in different countries, and the experience goes both ways. Witness the hosts' befuddlement over "commoner wisdom" such as instant coffee.
56** In the backstory, this was an early cause of contention between Tamaki (who was raised by his French mother) and Kyouya (pure Japanese). Tamaki kept suggesting all sorts of activities that Kyouya hated, but Japanese politeness required him to participate anyway. Eventually he got so pissed off that he snapped at Tamaki that he wasn't interested in his latest random scheme--which is a ''huge'' faux pas in Japanese culture. Tamaki just said "Okay, so what do you want to do instead?" After that, Kyouya was better about politely turning Tamaki down.
57* In the Ramen & Gyoza volume of ''Manga/{{Oishinbo}}'', one of Shiro's superiors takes some out-of-town Chinese colleagues to his favorite noodle shop; only to have them stop dead when they see the restaurant, accuse him of deliberately insulting them, and threaten to break off relations with the Tozai News. Turns out the restaurant's name uses an old Japanese word for China that many Japanese see as no worse than old-fashioned, but the mainland Chinese consider highly insulting. Good thing Shiro has the connections to set things right.
58* In ''Literature/KyoKaraMaoh'', Wolfram insults Yuuri's mother, so Yuuri slaps him. Wolfram's brothers beg Yuuri to take it back. Yuuri, who thinks he's just insulted Wolfram back, swears he never will. Turns out [[AccidentalMarriage that's how they propose marriage around those parts]]. The engagement stands for almost three straight seasons, and by the third everyone either considers them married or has forgotten about the proposal altogether. It can sometimes be hard to tell.
59* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'': There is a major culture clash between Ichigo and Byakuya in the "saving Rukia" arc. Byakura stubbornly follows the Soul Society's ancient traditions, which include always honoring oaths and never questioning one's superiors, so he follows his superiors' orders to have his own sister Rukia executed despite his own personal feelings. Ichigo is from Earth, so he follows a modern sense of ethics that demands that he save Rukia, both because she needs help and because she is his friend.
60* ''Manga/TheRedRangerBecomesAnAdventurerInAnotherWorld'':
61** Tougo's HotBlooded sensibilities, HenshinHero powers, and HumongousMecha are out of place in the fantasy world Idola lives in, and anyone who sees him is either dumbstruck or mesmerized by what they're watching. His casualness also clashes with the stuffy class hierarchies of commoners and nobles, pissing off Princess Teltina's CrazyJealousGuy bodyguard, Rosie Mist, when Tougo fails to show Teltina proper respect.
62** On a more humorous note, Tougo's sentai uniform is a hit with kids in his world, who all gush about how cool it and by extension Red is. In Idola's world, it's considered weird and tacky, to the point that Idola can hardly believe that any kid would like it if they weren't brainwashed. Rosie also taunts Tougo for this during their duel, sarcastically asking if Tougo is a clown when he sees it.
63* One of the prevalent themes of ''Manga/CroiseeInAForeignLabyrinth''.
64* The YuriGenre manga ''Manga/FlowerFlower'' revolves around this. Two princesses from separate countries are wed but their cultures clash. This leads to some interesting situations.
65* A bit of this is to be expected in ''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers'' as it is about NationsAsPeople. An example is [[InscrutableOriental Japan]] telling [[{{Keet}} Italy]] he must "[[AccidentalMarriage assume responsibility]]" (which is never actually followed up on) when the latter, who is much less reserved about his emotions and physical contact, hugs him.
66* A major hurdle for Momoko in ''Anime/MagicalDoremi''. Being raised in the US for most of her life, early after her introduction she has a lack of tact, doesn't understand that Japanese schools don't allow jewelry as simple as her stud earring, and compares Hazuki's family retainer to a nanny. On the flip side, she does not appreciate when Tamaki accidentally insults her black friend.
67* Asuka from ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' was raised in Germany and, as a result, deals with Japanese cultural clashes. She's more brash than most of her classmates and complains about Japanese-style doors not having locks.
68* This was a major reason for the tension between the Amestrians and the Ishvallans in the backstory of ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist''. The Amestrians view alchemy as a [[FunctionalMagic useful science]], while the Ishvallans view alchemy as [[AgainstMyReligion an affront to their god]]. This isn’t as much of a problem now, only since after the war, [[WouldBeRudeToSayGenocide most of the Ishvallans are dead]]. However, neither group was completely intolerant, and the war itself was less a result of cultural conflict and more because [[spoiler:the homunculi intentionally started it and kept it going in order to cause sufficient deaths for their EvilPlan]].
69* ''Anime/SuperDimensionFortressMacross'': The Zentradi have no culture to speak of, being a race whose express purpose is for military combat, and are often baffled by some of the stunts the Crew of the Macross pull in order to protect the civilians on board.
70* ''Anime/ZombieLandSaga'': One occurs between Ai and Junko, an idol from the 2000s and 1980s respectively, in regards to how they interact with fans; in Junko's case, she's reluctant to interact with fans face-to-face due to her growing up in a time when that wasn't expected of idols. This doesn't sit well with Ai, who's spent her whole career relying on parasocial relationships, and the two get into a heated argument over it which results in a episode long falling out between the two. Thankfully they're able to reconcile.
71* ''Franchise/LyricalNanoha'': Lindy Harlaown is a big fan of Japanese culture, so she furnishes her home Japanese style and tries to do everything the Japanese way. However, she puts milk and sugar in her tea, which is a big no-no in Japan. The Japanese Nanoha Takamachi always gives her a look of disgust when she sees this, but only when Lindy's back is turned and is too polite to say anything.
72[[/folder]]
73
74[[folder:Comic Books]]
75* ''ComicBook/{{Annihilation}}:'' In ''Conquest - Star-Lord'', this causes problems between Captain Universe and Death-Cry. Gabe uses his powers to fry a Phalanx drone that was menacing her. As Mantis explains, to Shi'ar this is an insult implying Death-Cry couldn't handle herself, and if it happens again Death-Cry will try to kill him. Gabe's a former US marine, so from his point of view he's just helping a teammate in a tight spot. No-one bothers explaining this to either side, so when Gabe does it again, Death-Cry goes ballistic and winds up gibbed.
76* ''ComicBook/PrincessUgg'' is built around this trope, as Ulga's barbarian ways do not fit in well at a PrincessClassic Academy. It's implied Jamsin once struggled with this as well, as she was reminded she did not know what Western utensils were when she came (having grown up with chopsticks).
77* ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'':
78** Xavin often runs into this, being a Skrull who has been raised to kill ever since hatching. Most notably, Xavin has difficulty understanding that the team views the android Victor as an equal whereas Xavin only saw him as a useful tool. Xavin also deeply respects strength in all of its forms and therefore doesn't understand why the team doesn't try to TakeOverTheWorld with their superior powers. Also, Xavin doesn't get that being genderfluid is unusual for humans because, for Skrulls, "changing gender is no different than changing hair color."
79** SixthRanger Klara has her own difficulties adjusting, not as a native of another planet but of [[FishOutOfTemporalWater the 1900s]], where there were no Skrulls, no Majesdanians, and no androids, and where mutants and magic-users were viewed as possible demons.
80[[/folder]]
81
82[[folder:Fan Works]]
83* In the ''Blog/BetterBonesAU'', [=SkyClan=] has some cultural differences from the other four Clans due to their long separation.
84** While the other Clans see scars as desirable traits and will often rename cats after their injuries to emphasize how tough they are for surviving, [=SkyClan=] cats are neutral about scars and think it's rude to name a cat like that, leading to the scarred cats from other clans thinking they are being insulted for their names.
85** Tawnypelt, having grown up in [=ThunderClan=], sometimes has trouble understanding [=ShadowClan=] cats' dark sense of humor and takes it as aggression towards her.
86* ''Fanfic/ByTheSea'': Merfolk and surface-world cultures have nothing in common, and, in-story, most culture shock depicted between the two is from the merfolk side. Their main experiences with humans come from humans catching merfolk and either dissecting or torturing them, and so merfolk make an effort to stay away from the surface and avoid notice. It's apparently commonly thought among merfolk, even among the educated ruling class and despite the merfolk themselves having stories that state otherwise, that humans are so barbaric they don't even have access to language. Even Eyayah's first assumption to Cody telling him that Obi-Wan will be able to talk with other merfolk is not something reasonable like Obi-Wan learning Mando'a, but that Cody taught Obi-Wan to speak and understand language, period.
87* ''Fanfic/TheConversionBureau'': A medieval, HighFantasy [[SugarBowl pony nation]] turns up on RealLife Earth TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, and tries to claim it in order to save it from inevitable environmental destruction. In many versions, it ends [[WorldWarIII badly for everyone involved]]. Also notable for being controversial in its very premise, TCB became a BrokenBase between fans who supported the idealistic pony cause [[TheNeedsOfTheMany since it was for the greater good]] and fans who felt the humans more than justified in fighting off [[ScaryDogmaticAliens the pony invasion]].
88* ''Fanfic/EmbersVathara'': Failure to do a [[CrazyCulturalComparison comparison]] is shown to have [[CultureClash incredibly painful results]]... and arguably, this is one of the major reasons this story was written. A full chapter is dedicated to what the four elemental nations each mean when they say "truce", each of which was different and has different cultural reasons behind it.
89** In the Water Tribes, a truce is decided upon by the women, who get together and decide that their men have wasted enough time and effort fighting, or are needed back home. Once they've determined that the men are rested and recovered, the truce is revoked and they go to war again.
90** In the Earth Kingdom, the local King (or the Earth King, if it's a big enough deal), will declare a truce only as a final ceasefire, when either they or the enemy is thoroughly crushed. Truces aren't temporary... they ''end'' the war, and breaking the truce starts a new one.
91** In the Fire Nation, the ranking officer can call for a truce at any time, but they will ''hold'' that truce without fail. They ''will not'' break a truce, but will revoke it and inform their enemy of the revocation before they attack.
92** The Air Nomads don't ''have'' truces. They may stop fighting, or work together with an enemy for a while against a common foe, but there's nothing binding about it, and they can change their minds whenever they want, without informing anyone. This has led to them being generally liked but not trusted, and, in ''Embers'', has led to '''huge''' problems between the nations.
93* ''Fanfic/FracturedSovereignGFC'': This crops up because the [[TheFederation Trans-Galactic Republic]]'s lack of an AlienNonInterferenceClause lets them (with permission) become involved with political systems [[NotSoOmniscientCouncilOfBickering quite]] [[AnarchyIsChaos unlike]] their own. Citadel Council [[FantasticRacism race politics]] aren't completely understood when the Trans-Galactic Republic tries to help prepare for the [[AlienInvasion Reaper invasion]], leading to a slide into fascism. Even worse is the [[CrapsackWorld oligarchic galaxy next door]], which makes even less sense to the "civilized" forces of the Republic. From casually nuking civilians to using alcohol in therapy, societal norms there make Trans-Galactic Republic authorities uncomfortable to say the least.
94* In the crossover [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14171719/1/New-Stars New Stars]], Maxx (CT-5599) has a hard time adjusting to the fact that those serving on the Orville weren't drafted but ''chose'' to enlist, and ''don't'' see him as expendable, and find the act of cloning men to be soldiers (and refusing to see them as people) utterly horrifying. Seeing as how he's also TrappedInAnotherWorld, there are numerous species and cultures in the Orville galaxy that he has no knowledge of.
95* ''Fanfic/ConnectingTheDots'' has lots of this, particularly in the ThouShaltNotKill department. Neji kills Dr. Light so quickly and cleanly that the Teen Titans don't even realize what happened until they try to tie Dr. Light up and leave him for the police, like usual. In the ensuing discussion, the Shinobi and the Titans have difficulty understanding each other's viewpoint; only [[MessianicArchetype Naruto]] is willing to give the idea of simply containing your enemies indefinitely a chance, but the reveal that all prisons in the DC-verse are made of {{cardboard|Prison}} makes him hesitate. Robin realizes that the League sent him ChildSoldiers to house, and calls Batman out accordingly. Ultimately, the Shinobi decide to accept "their land, their rules" as a counterargument, but make it clear they don't agree, while Dr. Light's crimes end up being severe enough for the police and civilians to accept his death as a necessity.
96* ''Fanfic/TheMoonstoneCup'': One of Twilight's earlier opponents is a griffin who turns out to specialize in necromancy. Said griffin raises several pony skeletons and uses them to fight, infuriating Twilight who beats her soundly. After the match, the griffin is puzzled that Twilight was so upset and explains, to Twilight's shock, that using the pony skeletons was a ''compliment'' since necromancers only use the deceased they feel are strong as warriors.
97* ''Fanfic/UnderTheNorthernLights'': The reindeer of Tarandroland have a very negative view of magic and have problems with [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic unicorn-heavy Equestria]]. Equestrians get nervous with both casual violence and the use of animal products, both common in Tarandroland.
98* ''Fanfic/GameTheoryLyricalNanoha'' plays up the cultural differences of the TSAB as a society that has access to magic, and the fact that Nanoha is from Earth and lacks an understanding of the history of magic (and the dangers thereof) is of significant importance to the plot.
99* There are a few disagreements or misunderstandings in ''Film/TheHobbit'' fanfiction that often occur because Bilbo and the dwarves come from different cultures.
100** ''[[http://archiveofourown.org/works/609041 Bilbo's Hair]]'': Hobbits see braiding as an activity only done by women and something that's not very beneficial, whereas dwarves braid as a sign of status, courtship and friendship, as well as training the fingers and their eye-to-hand coordination for fighting and craftsmanship.
101** ''[[http://archiveofourown.org/works/731818/chapters/1359880 Into the Fire]]'': Thorin and a few other dwarves mistakenly come to think that Bilbo is nobility since he owns land and collects money from his tenants, and is also a prince since his grandfather is the Thain (which they think is a title equivalent to king) of the Shire. The concept of a middle-class gentleman is after all hard to reconcile with the feudal system which most of Middle-Earth operates on.
102** ''[[http://archiveofourown.org/works/3385085/chapters/7405448 Wear a Flower in Your Hair (You're Beautiful)]]'': Thorin calls Bella [[GenderFlip (femme Bilbo)]] a halfling in reference to her being a hobbit. Unbeknownst to Thorin, "halfling" is an insult hobbits use to describe females who are barren. He is promptly horrified [[OpenMouthInsertFoot at how badly he stuck his foot in his mouth]] and disgusted that a culture would have such an insult; while children are prized among dwarves due to their rarity, no female is ever shamed for being unable to have children or choosing not to have them, in stark contrast to the hobbits who are family-oriented to such an extent that it's lead to immeasurable heartache for those in Bella's position. The author also notes that the dwarf culture, from their research, is surprisingly gender equal with the closest word to "queen" (what Bella will be after the dwarves' home is restored due to her marriage to Thorin) translating to "she who is the king's equal".
103* ''Fanfic/{{Greenfire}}'': Over the issue of gems. Spike is shocked ponies use them to look pretty, Rarity is shocked that dragons eat them.
104* ''WebVideo/DragonballZAbridged'': Used rather frequently, as Vegeta has difficulties with differences between Earth culture and Space culture. Among other things, he doesn't know what soap was (when the composition of it is described, he thinks it's food), and when Bulma asked about "protection" before having sex, he put on his combat armor.
105* ''Fanfic/{{Hivefled}}'': Gamzee has a SlaveBrand on his arm reading "namoha", meaning "one who is owned by a higher". He hasn't told his human associates what it means; they tried to look it up, but [[spoiler:the only reference they could find, not being able to access the troll internet via a human computer nor read the alphabet used on the trolls' computers, is a porn site. Misleading and incomprehensible videos have led them to believe that Gamzee is a rapist who was branded as a legal punishment.]]
106* ''Fanfic/HomophobiaIsntReal'': Eda is aware of the different value systems that exist on Earth compared to the Boiling Isles, but can't understand the idea that two girls in love could ever be considered questionable.
107* ''Fanfic/WingsToFly'':
108** Lucrezia Noin doesn't speak Navy. The most obvious manifestation is where she doesn't know what it means when one of her subordinates calls her "Skipper" and has to guess she's not being insulted from the reactions of the people around her. Later she looks it up.
109** She similarly doesn't understand some Americanisms, being Italian, and has occasional visible reactions to sloppy protocol or ceremony from people who originally came from other backgrounds, as her own original service was a stickler for proper military protocol.
110* ''Fanfic/ToAbsentFriends'': Dul'krah, Clan Korekh comments on Kanril Eleya and Reshek Gaarra's relationship. (This is explained in the [[WordOfGod author's notes]]. Apparently romantic relationships among Dul'krah's species tend not to last more than about five years, and any kids are part of the mother's clan and are raised by said clan in its entirety.)
111-->"It was not a secret, Commander Reshek," Dul'krah says. "The only question I had was when your first children would be born." There's an oddly musical clunk from Warragul dropping his guitar. I feel my cheeks burning and Dul'krah has the good sense to start looking embarrassed. "My apologies. Clearly I have run afoul of, I believe the term Lieutenant Commander Bo'tok at the Academy used was 'culture clash'."\
112"''Phekk'tem'' understatement," somebody female in the crowd mutters in Perikian.\
113"Watch it," I warn over my shoulder.
114* ''Fanfic/AWorldOfBloodyEvolution'' takes the rather carefree Yang from [[WorldHalfFull Remnant]] and tosses her in the TabletopGame/Warhammer40000 universe. While Yang enjoys the challenging fights, she is highly disturbed by the rampant zealotry and FantasticRacism. [[spoiler:Weiss, who transferred over 50 years before Yang, didn't have as much issue adjusting, though she still hates the place.]]
115* ''Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries'': The small nation Maasailand considers red, black, and scorpions to be symbols of peace and love and considers gold a symbol of aggression, which confuses the Equestrian characters.
116* ''Fanfic/TheGreatestGeneration'': In chapter 3, Yvonne, being an American, attaches very different connotations to the term "expedition" than what Tenryuu and [=DesDiv=] Six do. This perception, and her subsequent behavior because of it, causes no small amount of problems, to say the least.%%Like what?
117* ''Fanfic/ChrysalisVisitsTheHague'': A good portion of the conflict between ponies and humans stems from complex issues like the humans' historical treatment of earthly horses as lowly pack animals, to things as banal as the ponies' all-herbivore diet.
118* ''Fanfic/NeonMetathesisEvangelion'': A major part of the plot, with Asuka's Western views colliding with the Japanese views of everyone around her.
119* ''Fanfic/LightningOnlyStrikesOnce'': Raven in particular attempts to use this theme when making a few jokes, such as [[spoiler:telling Abby that Trikru tradition would require her to attend Clarke and Lexa’s wedding wearing a bear-skin with a head-dress including boar’s tusks to prove the strength of Clarke’s bloodline, and telling Anya that Skaikru traditions mean that they need to write a thirty-line poem in their role as bridesmaids for the wedding to be blessed by the Star-Lords. Lincoln turns this against her by claiming that Raven’s advice that he tell Bellamy that he wants an open relationship with Octavia means that Lincoln and Bellamy must now engage in a fight to the death after Bellamy struck Lincoln in public]].
120* ''Fanfic/WithThisRing'':
121** Being from Britain, OL had a bit of a shock when he had to adjust to living in America. Supermarkets tend to creep him out.
122** Kaldur is disturbed how surface-worlders tend to depict pirates as good guys in their fiction and how rare a negative portrayal is, since pirates are a serious problems for Atlantians.
123* ''[[http://archiveofourown.org/works/8763292%20 Cultural Clash]]'': Nick playfully snaps at Judy and stamps his foot during an argument. Judy immediately goes sullen and gives him the silent treatment for several days. Nick is originally under the impression that it's because of his sharp teeth and is hurt that she still doesn't trust him, but when he eventually calls her mother in desperation to fix things, he discovers foot stamping is a dominance display and Judy felt devalued when he did it to her. As Bonnie puts it, "you may as well have slapped a leash on her and dangled her in the air by it for what it said about your opinion of her."
124* ''Fanfic/PokemonResetBloodlines'' has this going on between Trainer and Ranger nations, as both of them follow different philosophies about human interaction with Pokémon. Rangers believe in "living in harmony", and that Pokémon have the right to choose whether they want to stick with humans or not, while Trainers believe in "growing stronger together" and try and help Pokémon develop their full potential. The two sides have actually ''gone to war'' over these conflicting views for decades, and even in the current time they're in a cold war state.
125* ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/4742802/1/Culture-Shock Culture Shock]]'': Megatron offers Starscream assistance in standing after defeating him in combat as an attempt to be condescending. Unbeknownst to Megatron, Seekers see such an act as an offer for a permanent bond. Naturally, Megatron is NOT happy when he learns that he's made an AccidentalProposal to his treacherous second-in-command - and he's even less happy when he learns that refusing to participate in the bonding is NOT a good idea.
126* ''Fanfic/AmazingFantasy'':
127** Peter can't help but laugh as he learns that heroics in Izuku's world are regulated by what amounts to a peaceful and reasonable version of [[ComicBook/CivilWar2006 the Superhuman Registration Act]]. On a more mundane level, he struggles to ease himself into Japanese amenities like public baths.
128** Izuku is horrified by Peter's description of the superhero civil war and can't imagine heroes ever wielding the brutal authority that Reed Richards, Tony Stark, Hank Pym, and Maria Hill did.
129* ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/5979817 Cross-Cultural Contamination]]'': Gygax tradition regarding proposals involves making electric blue candy as a proposal gift, and the one being proposed to accepts the proposal by eating the candy. In the Towers, on the other hand, proposals involve making a silver bracelet and giving it to the one you wish to bond with -- if the proposal is accepted, then the one being proposed to puts the bracelet on and replaces a section of their armor with it later.
130* ''Fanfic/RWBYEpicOfRemnant'':
131** Hassan of the Cursed Arm's mask is wired into his head, and even if it wasn't, it is a part of his culture, so he refuses to part with it. Some people take issue with it because it makes him resemble a member of the dreaded White Fang.
132** After EMIYA Alter and Ruby Rose crafted his {{BFG}}, she insisted they add their symbols as a stamp on it. As part of his pragmatic personality, he suggested they overlay their symbols on top of each other so that the stamp would be smaller and cheaper. She blushes and says in Remnant, only married couples do that, annoying him.
133* ''Fanfic/ADiplomaticVisit'': Part of the conflict of the story is Twilight and her friends learning to understand and respect the different laws and culture of the other races.
134** Twilight unwittingly offends Swift-Pad with her repeated apologies before she is made aware of just how seriously the wolves take such things. However, she also demonstrates a willingness to learn from her mistakes when they're explained, which Swift-Pad appreciates.
135** Twilight also freaks out when she finds that [[spoiler:changelings are welcome in the Packlands. Luckily, she is able to calm herself before she unwittingly causes an international incident; it helps that the changeling in question is from a different hive than Chrysalis'.]]
136** In chapter 17, Applejack meets a long-lost relative in the Packlands, who has learned to understand and follow their laws and way of life after an awkward start, to the point where she now considers herself a Packlander rather than an Equestrian. Part of this is because she's had trouble with ponies who outright refused to follow and respect these laws, and went out of their way to break them. When Slice n' Dice chose to stick with the new ways she'd learned, the other ponies lied to Slice n' Dice's family and the Equestrian border guard to make them think of her as a criminal; Applejack, who has a strong respect for the law and understands why Slice n' Dice would follow it, is disgusted with the ones who acted otherwise.
137* ''Fanfic/TheInfiniteLoops'': It's rare overall, but it has happened across the series due to how different the worlds can be from each other. An example occurred between the two Franchise/{{Spyro|TheDragon}} [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfSpyro universes]]. When the two Spyros and their friends first meet, they have trouble interacting with each other because of said differences, which ends up causing [[spoiler:Legends Spyro entering his SuperPoweredEvilSide]] after an ill-thought-out prank from Classic Spyro.
138* ''Fanfic/ALongRoad'': A conflict threatens to be unleashed because a Companion -- think an angel embodied as a horse -- picks a foreign visitor as a Herald. In Valdemar, being Chosen by a Companion is seen as the greatest honour and the opportunity to serve the country, but from the foreign embassy's viewpoint, a powerful spirit just subverted one of theirs and it's supposed to be a ''bad'' thing since it generally ends in bloodshed. And even if the spirit is benevolent, it still uses mind arts and could potentially subvert his Herald.
139* Forms the main conflict of [[https://www.fimfiction.net/story/142803/the-homesteading The Homesteading]]. The house Twilight and Applejack had moved into together was trying to cast them out because it viewed Twilight as a greedy invading thief since Twilight wasn't recognized by the titular Earth Pony magical process of protection as Applejack's wife and thus a rightful owner. This turns out to be because Twilight and Applejack were married in a ceremony for Unicorns, which was designed to distinguish that parties don’t properly own one another’s estates. Conversely, an Earth Pony ceremony does make it so that both parties share ownership of any property; once Twilight and Applejack have a second ceremony in the Earth Pony style, their problems with their new house end and they're able to host a holiday party for both mares' families just as they had wanted, with the ending indicating Twilight and Applejack will have many happy and safe years in their new home.
140* In ''FanFic/DescribingTheSeriesViaReferences'' (where Team RWBY reads their own [[Memes/{{RWBY}} meme page]]), the girls are reading a document from another world with as little context as possible, so this happens a lot.
141** 'Aura' confuses them because Aura is a normal human capability (it'd be like a meme that was just 'hairdo'), while to us it's a plot element used to HandWave the anime physics.
142** Transforming weapons are normal on Remnant, so they don't get that "it's also a gun" is a joke because of how ridiculous weapons like Crescent Rose would be on Earth.
143** Anime terms (like 'tsundere') are culturally translated as Mistrali, but Earth history things like the ''Titanic'', the Gregorian calendar, and racism based on skin color go completely over their heads.
144* ''Fanfic/ReMyHostageNotYours'': Zim's ultimate holdup on pursuing his newfound feelings for Gaz is that Irkens mate for life and aren't allowed to breakup and pursue new relationships if the first one doesn't work out, which is a real risk in this case, given how young and inexperienced in dating Gaz is.
145* In ''Fanfic/AtTheEdgeOfLasglen'', the last remaining Elves of the Woodland Realm come into contact with 21st-century Ireland. The modern world is an absolute shock to them, though Thranduil was slightly more aware of it; at the beginning of the story, he at least speaks English. They rapidly have to come to terms with modern technology and modern Irish society, which has less than no use for monarchy; even those who actually know who Thranduil is treat him as they would anyone else.
146* ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13507920/11/Using-The-Force-Made-Easy Using the Force Made Easy]]'': Delia [[MistakenForGay mistakes a girl for a lesbian]] because on her planet, wearing a single earring in your left ear is a signal that you're interested in your own sex. When he hears this, Anakin remarks that on Tattooine, it meant you were high ranking in a gang if you wore visible jewelry.
147* ''Fanfic/PokemonJourneysHisuiLegend'' has a mutual one between Ash, Chloe, and the Hisuian people. The former two come from a world where Pokémon and people live together in peace, while the latter come from a world where the exact opposite is true. So the former as quite shocked to see Pokémon and people so separate from one another, while the latter are shocked to see somebody not only with Pokémon who listen to them, but as many as Ash's team. The residents of Jubilife Village and the Diamond and Pearl Clans have their own hiccups.
148* ''Fanfic/GrowingPainsDannyPhantom'': One of Helena's excuses for not caring about Danny's actual age for as long as he's physically an adult is that "marrying ages and relationships in the Ghost Zone are different for ghosts than they are in the human realm".
149* ''[[Fanfic/StarWarsVsWarhammer40K Star Wars vs Warhammer 40K]]'': A significant source of misunderstandings come from the differences in how both sides treat prisoners of war. The Galactic Republic and Jedi Order generally treat their [=POWs=] humanely and view capturing enemy soldiers instead of outright killing them to be a merciful act in accordance with the rules of war. The Imperium of Man comes from a setting where the rules of war don't exist and most factions brainwash or torture their [=POWs=], so being captured by the enemy is seen by them as a FateWorseThanDeath, while killing enemy soldiers that surrender is considered a form of [[MercyKill mercy]]. Oftentimes, attempts by Jedi to convince an Imperial commander to surrender with promises of sparing the lives of their troops backfires and only ends up strengthening that commander's resolve to be DefiantToTheEnd.
150* "Fanfic/TarkinsFist": One of the main themes of Tarkin's Fist is examining how galactic society in Star Wars would clash with that of 21st century Earth.
151
152** Phasma Yos, a teenager, is appointed as the Chief Ambassador of Tarkin's Fist and sent to negotiate with world leaders before the outbreak of the Empire-Earth War. In Imperial society, she's old enough to be elected as a planetary leader or a representative in the Imperial Senate. On Earth, she's just a young kid, and her initial appearance is met with confusion and surprise.
153
154** First Lady Jill Harris, having grown up in a country where the Separation of Church and State is enshrined in law, is notably uncomfortable with the idea of a religious order like the Jedi having such an influential role in politics and law enforcement.
155
156** Kuantus Kuat, the CEO of one of the Empire's biggest mega-corporations, is appalled by the writings of Karl Marx and Mao Tse-Tung.
157[[/folder]]
158
159[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
160* ''Film/BeverlyHillsNinja'': Haru was raised in Japan, so when he books a hotel in Beverly Hills, he leaves his shoes outside, which leads to the janitors taking them. This [[RunningGag happens several times]] as he has replacements.
161* ''Film/BigBirdInJapan'' has many examples, as [[Series/SesameStreet Big Bird]] (and the children watching at home) learns about Japanese culture for the first time. The LanguageBarrier confuses him; he thinks the people greeting him are announcing they're from Ohio, when they're actually saying "hi" in Japanese. He also thinks that when people say "hai", they're greeting him, when that's actually the word for "yes". He also learns to use chopsticks, and tries new foods such as fish.
162* Detective/action movie ''Film/BlackRain'' contains a ton of this when two [[UsefulNotes/NewYorkCityCops [=NYPD=]]] detectives catch a rogue {{Yakuza}} member in New York and have to escort him back to Tokyo. In ''some'' ways the film is more even-handed than some works, as it shows the detectives feeling out of their depth and threatened by a different culture, but it also shows how they seem to the Japanese, which ranges from the Japanese police viewing them as bumbling amateurs, (one of the detectives being a xenophobic CowboyCop while the other is a LifeOfTheParty sort) who let the Yakuza captive escape, to many others seeing them as {{Funny Foreigner}}s. More subtly, there is also something of a generational culture clash going on among the Japanese. Most obviously this is the case with Sato and the other young Yakuza who follow him in opposing TheDon Sugai, but there are other small hints of this, like Japanese detective Mas reprimanding his son for what he sees as his son speaking out of turn to Nick.
163* ''Film/RedSun'' involves samurai coming to TheWildWest, and includes a scene where Creator/CharlesBronson's cowboy character laughs at a samurai and says that he's wearing a dress.
164* ''Film/EastIsEast'' is about a Pakistani father struggling to come to terms with his sons being drawn more to British youth culture than his own Islamic values.
165* In ''Film/BrideAndPrejudice'' some of the conflict between William Darcy and Lalita is because they both make cultural assumptions about the other.
166* ''Film/{{Outsourced}}'' centers on this theme as an American sales expert is sent to India to train call centre workers and only becomes successful once he starts adapting to his new home.
167* ''Film/TheGodsMustBeCrazy'' uses this as its central theme. The main focus is on the Bushman !Xi venturing out into the world of modern South Africa, and getting into many misunderstandings due to his not knowing anything about its society's workings, and vice-versa. Said misunderstandings range from hilarious (accidentally sticking up somebody) to serious (getting locked up in prison).
168* In the 2010 remake of ''Film/{{The Karate Kid|2010}}'', Dre (who comes from the United States) claps and cheers loudly after his crush's violin recital. This provokes anger from the crush's father as the Chinese tend to stay silent out of respect after a performance of any kind.
169* In ''Film/TheBaaderMeinhofComplex'', Muslim terrorists sharing the training camp with the RAF are not pleased about them sunbathing in the nude and both sexes having the same quarters.
170* ''Film/TheLastSamurai'': This trope drives a lot of early interaction between Algren, the late-nineteenth century American soldier, and the Japanese samurai he finds himself among, particularly in their [[WarIsHell differing views]] [[WarIsGlorious on war]]. A stand-out example is when discussing Custer's Last Stand: Algren believes that Custer was arrogant and incompetent for taking his men against a force of natives that vastly outnumbered them, while Kasumoto admires the man's bravery, and says it was a good death for Custer and his men.
171* One of the more interesting parts of ''Film/BlackPanther2018'' is the clash between Erik Killmonger and his ''very'' Black American attitude towards race, aggressive black supremacy ideals, and pan-Africanist views with the Wakandans' bemusement about race issues, rather smug and paternalistic superiority (not that it's unjustified, mind), and highly tribalistic view of the world. This comes to a point when Erik condemns Wakanda for not intervening to stop the transatlantic slave trade, and the Wakandans' reaction is basically a confused "Why should we have cared about people on ''the other side of the goddamned continent'', and why should we care more about slaves sold to the English than slaves sold to the Dahomey?"
172* A central theme of ''Film/TheWickerMan1973'', as Howie's Presbyterian Christian beliefs clash with the BlueAndOrangeMorality of the Celtic pagan islanders. Both sides are confused by each other. It all comes to a head at the end when [[spoiler:the villagers have Howie sacrificed in a burning wicker man to save their crops.]]
173* ''Film/TheSunIsAlsoAStar'': Daniel's father is unhappy with how his sons are more individualistic than traditional Korean culture advocates. This is illustrated by the fact that the Korean family names come first, then the individual one.
174* ''Film/MargaritaWithAStraw'': Laila at first thinks Jared is in a relationship with a woman he pecks on the cheek. He explains they're just friends, which threw her because Indians don't kiss friends.
175* This is the central theme of ''Film/CrazyRichAsians''. Rachel is a middle class, renowned mathemathics professor from New York City who was raised by her single mother, who emmigrated from China, and who raised Rachel with the idea to follow her dreams and maker her own way in life. This puts her at odds with her boyfriend Nick's mother Eleanor, a native of Singapore, and the daughter of a very wealthy family, who married into an even wealthier family, who also firmly believes of putting family over everything else, including personal desires, which in Nick's case is marrying Rachel, a woman of lower social standing [[spoiler: who was also the product of an adulterous affair,]] becuuse it will bring shame to the family.
176* ''Film/BonnieAndBonnie'': Yara is like most German young people, wearing skimpy clothes, partying and loves to do hip-hop, things which her conservative Muslim father would not like. This is even before she's started to date a woman.
177* ''Film/WildChild'': Strong-minded, independent American girl Poppy does not fit into the atmosphere of Abbey Mount, an old boarding school in the UK at first, since they're more [[BritishStuffiness strait-laced and reserved]].
178* This trope is arguably the {{central theme}} in the 1968 {{mondo}} film ''Film/SwedenHeavyAndHell'', with the Swedes' liberal attitudes towards sex and drugs clashing with the more conservative views of the mostly Italian production team.
179[[/folder]]
180
181[[folder:Literature]]
182* ''Literature/AroundTheWorldInEightyDays'', the custom of suttee strikes the visiting Englishman (and the audience) as a horrible, horrible idea (though he doesn't act on his feelings until he learns the victim ''is'' unwilling.)
183* The main character of ''Literature/AscendanceOfABookworm'' is a young Japanese woman who was reincarnated into the body of a child in a European-inspired LowFantasy world. Early on, a major stumbling block on her journey to invent a printing press is the fact that she defaults to Japanese mannerisms most of the time, mainly prostrating herself and lowering her head when she's requesting something; in her new surroundings, this comes off as lacking backbone or even being untrustworthy (since she doesn't make eye contact) rather than a humble show of respect. Fortunately, she's able to befriend some upper-class merchants who teach her the proper etiquette for making deals.
184* In ''Literature/CloudOfSparrows'', Emily asks Heiko what a geisha is, and is shocked when Heiko explains that the closest English word would be 'prostitute'. Heiko considers her profession an honourable one, and can't understand why Emily freaks out so badly.
185* Most of the stories in Creator/JhumpaLahiri's ''Literature/InterpreterOfMaladies'' deal with Indians (specifically Bengalis) living in America and struggling to assimilate into the culture for various reasons. Her other book, ''Literature/TheNamesake'', deals with the protagonist, Gogol, struggling to balance between his American side with his ties to his Bengali culture. Ultimately, neither ideal works out in the end.
186* ''Creator/GoreVidal's'' ''Literature/Creation1981'' shows the ancient world and its differing value systems clashing in polite debate via the travels of Cyrus Spitama across Persia, Greece, India and China, as he considers Socrates, Hellenism, Taoism, Jainism, Buddhism and Confucianism from his perspective.
187* This is a big theme in most of Creator/DaveDuncan's books, but particularly the ''Literature/SeventhSword'' series where a pacifist from present day America is launched into a fantasy world with an iron age culture, caste system and slavery. HilarityEnsues.
188* In ''Literature/DragonBones'', Ward gets into an awkward situation when he forgets the name of a noblewoman and has to introduce her to his friends. He could call her Lady [Estate] or Lady [Husband] where he comes from, but such is not appropriate in her country. He opts for the simple solution of admitting that he forgot her name, aware that this is likely to cause less offense. As the circumstances of the first introduction were less than perfect, he is easily forgiven and her husband introduces her a second time.
189%% * Creator/RobinHobb's ''[[Literature/TheSoldierSon Soldier Son Trilogy]]'' is a showcase for this trope. [Please include examples]
190* In Creator/DanAbnett's ''Literature/GauntsGhosts'' novel ''Only In Death'', Ezsrah takes Gaunt's sword. He regards it as an essential part of his duty, to carry out a ''[[RoaringRampageOfRevenge bludtoll]]''; the Ghosts regarded it as robbing [[spoiler: the dead]] and are shocked that anyone would do such a deed.
191* In Creator/TimothyZahn's ''Literature/TheConquerorsTrilogy'', the war between the humans and Zirrzh starts due to a type of culture (or technology) clash. Upon first seeing the Zirrzh ship, the human ship prepares weapons but sends a friendly first contact radio signal. This starts a serious war, with the Zirrzh insisting the humans fired first. It turns out they're both right, because [[spoiler:Radio tortures the Zirrzh Elders (ghosts)]]
192* ''Literature/AHerosWar'': Firma has different norms from Earth.
193** Landar is quite unbothered by the idea that the ancient Tsarians experimented with genetically modifying humans; she doesn't treat it any differently from modifying cattle. Cato is more perturbed.
194** Cato ''really'' struggles when he comes across Landar and Kupo studying the nature and behaviour of life force by slowly taking apart a body and studying how it responds. Specifically, the body of a criminal, who was ''still alive when they started''. Since he was an enemy of the state anyway, Landar doesn't see any problem.
195---> '''Landar''': Kupo, give me a hand.\
196The healer simply grabbed a large cleaver and chopped the hand off the body. There was surprisingly little blood, easily explained by the buckets placed below the body and the splatter over the floor.
197** In the other direction, Cato largely shrugs at the idea that it's possible to walk up to someone and kill them with a forcebolt; on Earth, it's normal for guns to be capable of that, and only social norms and law enforcement prevent it. To people like Landar, who are accustomed to being able to shield themselves from anything that a random person on the street could try, it's quite alarming.
198** Cato discovers that it's normal for engaged couples to share a bed, but they're still expected to remain chaste (or at least discreet). Pregnancy means [[ShotgunWedding the wedding happens immediately]], but there's nothing particularly significant about the wedding night. That has him scratching his head a bit, but his own expectations seem weird to Landar.
199* In Creator/HarryTurtledove's ''Literature/{{Worldwar}}'' Tetralogy the reptilian invaders known as the Race have numerous issues of culture clash, aside from the shock that Tosevites went from rusty plate armor and spears to using primitive landcruisers and firearms. Even worse, they were engaged in active research on jet killercraft and [[NukeEm explosive-metal bombs]]! All of this in the blink of an eye turret between their probe visiting and the Conquest Fleet arrival (about 800 years, they arrive in 1942). There is also all that biological weirdness. For starters, they're big and ugly, they stand up at too steep of an angle, have no tailstumps and these weird multi-colored strands on their heads. Speaking of colors, their strangely smooth and non-scaly skin comes in as many colors as their head-growths. Don't even get me started on their bizarre mating habits, it took the more liberal members of the Conquest fleet nearly the entire 40 years (20 local years) between the end of hostilities and the arrival of the Colonization fleet to reach a personal understanding that, for them, being capable of mating at all times of the year is just natural (an American Tosevite who has become an expert in Race/Tosevite relations commented to the insanely radical Shiplord Straha that, to him, Straha is "more hidebound than a Southern Democrat with 40 years seniority" after the Shiplord called himself a Radical. This occurred before the end of hostilities in the Local Year 1944). Their exclusive mating agreements are something only such a screwed up race such as the Big Uglies could find enjoyable. Speaking of mating issues, that herb Ginger should be wiped out, it causes nothing but trouble.
200* ''Literature/{{Shogun}}'' has plenty examples of this being about an Englishman in 1600s Japan. A rather blatant example is when certain Japanese taking care of him, after being commanded to cater to his every need, politely ask him if he'd like sex with one of the girls looking after him. When he declines embarrassed, they ask if he'd prefer a man.... and then whether he'd prefer a boy!
201* A minor example occurs in Chen Yi's house in ''[[Literature/{{Conqueror}} Lords of the Bow]]''. Khasar tries to figure out chopsticks, before getting frustrated and shoving them into a bowl of noodles so they stand vertically. To the Chin, this is quite insulting.
202* ''Literature/ThreeWorldsCollide'' by Eliezer Yudkowsky features a clash between humans and two other StarfishAlien races; the babyeaters and the superhappies with each race having a morality at complete tangents to the other two with the baby eaters doing the obvious and the superhappies being completely hedonistic. Oh, plus future humans to most present humans, since they think rape is enjoyable for both parties.
203* Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs:
204** In ''Literature/APrincessOfMars'', Dejiah Thoris (princess of Mars) tries to appeal to John Carter (man newly-arrived from Earth), and fails.
205--->''As her gaze rested on me her eyes opened wide in astonishment, and she made a little sign with her free hand; a sign which I did not, of course, understand. Just a moment we gazed upon each other, and then the look of hope and renewed courage which had glorified her face as she discovered me, faded into one of utter dejection, mingled with loathing and contempt. I realized I had not answered her signal, and ignorant as I was of Martian customs, I intuitively felt that she had made [[DamselInDistress an appeal for succor and protection]] which my unfortunate ignorance had prevented me from answering.''
206** In ''Literature/AtTheEarthsCore'', David Innes fights for Dian. He does not realize that after it, he could take her hand to claim her as his wife, take her hand and let go to free her, or do nothing to [[MadeASlave make her his slave]]. He does nothing. She is ''not pleased.''
207* ''Literature/DawnOfWar'': In Chris Roberson's ''Dawn of War II'', when the Blood Ravens are looking for aspirants among refugees, one speaks to the old woman who is in charge of one group to try to get a boy from her. She contemptuously refuses to speak to him because he hasn't shown her his face. He considers and unhelms rather than use force. That granted, she only asks whether the boy will have a chance to survive if they take him, and being told that he will have a chance to live, tells him to take him.
208* This is a huge, ''huge'' aspect of ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' world. Although the world apparently shares one language (with many, many different accents and dialects), almost no other aspects of culture are universal, or even necessarily common among neighbors!
209* Frank Herbert's ''Literature/{{Dune}}'':
210** Stilgar, leader of the desert Fremen, [[CrazyCulturalComparison spat on the table]] in front of Duke Leto Atreides and his staff -an act that, among water-obsessed Fremen, was regarded as a gift of one's bodily water. It is only clarified by Duncan Idaho, who has spent time with the Fremen.
211** Both averted and subverted in one scene: a young Paul Atreides receives "watercounters" (a symbolic currency) as a result of [[TrialByCombat a duel with a Fremen fighter]] shortly after being accepted into the Fremen tribe. Not understanding their meaning, or how to carry them properly [[{{Ninja}} to reduce their noise]], he asks his assigned mentor Chani, a female of similar age, to hold them for him, not knowing that doing so was a Fremen courtship ritual. Averted in that the Fremen recognize his cultural difference and accept it as a neutral, purely practical request. Subverted in that [[spoiler:it was actually a prophetic act by the increasingly-prescient Paul, who had already foreseen becoming mated to Chani as part of his destiny, although he didn't fully realize who she was at the time]].
212* In Creator/PatriciaCWrede's ''Literature/ThirteenthChild'', when Brent tells Eff that the feathers are a symbol of how high they can fly without magic, Eff declares that you can't fly without magic. He laughs and says he sees he will find this very educational in more than one respect -- he meant metaphorically.
213* In Creator/WenSpencer's ''Endless Blue'', Turk and Paige get into a furious argument when Turk discovers that she is partly descended from genetic modified Reds and Blues; Turk himself is a Red, traumatized by his upbringing in a society where Reds are property.
214* In Creator/AnneMcCaffrey's ''Literature/DragonridersOfPern'' series, much is made of the differences in culture that have evolved between Hold, Craft, and Weyr over the centuries since the original settlement of Pern. Holds are charged with the management of the land and contain the majority of the population, supplying food to the more specialized Crafts and Weyrs. By nature they are highly conservative and resistant to change. Crafts are the professional tradesmen, operating on an apprenticeship system and preserving the skills of the Pernese people. Weyrs are the dragons and their riders, charged with fighting off the periodic Thread incursions that would otherwise destroy most of the organic life on Pern. There's also a very significant culture clash in the main series between the modern dragonriders and the Oldtimers that Lessa brought [[TimeTravel from the past]] to battle Thread.
215* ''Literature/HonorHarrington'':
216** The series uses this in several books and cultures. Grayson/Manticore Manticore/Andermanni, Manticore/Haven, and now finally Manticore/Solarian League. One of the most hilarious ones happens on Grayson, when Honor alarms her bodyguards upon seeing a group of men heading for a public park armed with "wooden clubs" and thinks there's going to be a riot. Her senior bodyguard can hardly stop laughing long enough to explain to her that these "clubs" are bats used in an ancient sport called UsefulNotes/{{baseball}}.
217** Honor has a minor fit when her Grayson associates recommend that she hire a maid. She is originally unsure about being waited on, and questions the practice of having servants at all. However, a Grayson ladies' maid is expected to be able to handle anything related to her mistress'´appearance and presentation. This can mean anything from sewing a formal dress from scratch to hairdressing, to make-up, to keeping her mistress up-to-date on the rumor mill and helping ward off unwanted male attention. Honor quickly realises that her new servant is not a menial, but a well-paid, well-trained and highly skilled professional, and worth every penny of her quite sizable salary.
218* A girl rescued by the FiveManBand in ''Literature/BlackDogs'' is disliked by almost everyone because of her inability to follow the customs of the {{Funny Animal}}s that make up most of the band. She shows her teeth when she smiles and laughs (a sign of aggression), pulls away from their touch (displaying disgust) and tries to intervene in a battle for dominance (suggesting that they are unfit for leadership). One of the more aggressive characters goes into a near-homicidal rage when she is around.
219* In ''Literature/TheSecretGarden'', Mary expects to be dressed by the servants since she had been in India. "It was the custom." The English maid finds the notion silly.
220* In the second book in the ''Literature/{{Petaybee}}'' series, the ordinary Petaybeans take issue with the customs of the cult that raised 'Cita.
221* The women of the Dales and the invaders in Jane Yolen's ''Literature/GreatAltaSaga''. Garunian society is extraordinarily patriarchal, whereas that of the Dales is anything but.
222* In the ''Literature/IncarnationsOfImmortality'' series, the SassyBlackWoman version of Atropos laughs at Japanese culture a bit. Also, Mym, a Hindu, is a bit offended by Western culture and the fact that its version of the afterlife is the "correct" one.
223* Some of the most interesting parts of the Ring of Fire series are about how Germans see modern Americans.
224* Creator/RudyardKipling has a fondness for this trope. Several of his short stories are light comedies about this.
225* Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse:
226** The ''Literature/NewJediOrder'' is all about this on an epic, AnyoneCanDie scale. The two sides of the conflict are the familiar galactic civilization from the movies and the [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Yuuzhan Vong]], who each see the other's society as repulsively, irredeemably evil (the fact that the Vong are a religious extremist, totalitarian dictatorship obsessed with both feeling and inflicting pain is understandably off-putting, while to them the galaxy's rampant use of machines and especially droids is as horrifying as if they'd been using ''zombies'', and a hideous slap in the face to their gods to boot). [[spoiler:It's eventually revealed that the Vong's leader set the whole thing up as part of an insane plan to become a god, which ''nobody'' is happy about]].
227** This is one of the main sources of conflict between the Mandalorians and the Jedi. Besides being a ProudWarriorRace, Mandalorians are extreme {{Mama Bear}}s and [[PapaWolf Papa Wolves]] who treat protecting family as sacred as their love of battle. They find the Jedi practice of taking Force-sensitive children away from their families for training and the Jedi philosophy of forming no attachments to be repulsive.
228** One specific example about a CultureClash concerning Mandalorian Culture, is Kal Skiratas marriage to his wife Ilippi. Kal of course wanted to pass on his culture to his sons and daughter, which was an idea that Ilippi was vehemently against. After Kal wanted to take their oldest son out on missions with him, to start training him, when he was eight, this was the last straw for Ilippi. She took the children and left, hurting Kal deeply. This later on resulted in his two sons Tor and Ijaat rejecting Kal as their father, which is referred to as one of the cruelest things one can do to a Mandalorian. On the bright side, Kal later on makes up with his daughter Ruusaan and she embraces the culture of her father, marrying a clone later on.
229* In John Barnes's ''[[Literature/ThousandCultures A Million Open Doors]]'', when the hero, from a planet founded on the ideals of the medieval troubadours by way of the 18[[superscript:th]] century Romantic movement becomes an assistant to the envoy to a culture dominated by Rational Christianity, best described as the love-child of John Calvin and Creator/AynRand.
230%%* From ''Literature/TheKingdomsOfEvil'': Everyone and everywhere.
231* The war between the SteamPunk and PsychicPowers-fueled Sharonans and the {{Magitek}} powered Arcanans in Creator/DavidWeber and Linda Evans ''Literature/HellsGate'' series stems from this. Also, on Arcana itself, the three main civilizations are a ProudWarriorRace, a caste system with magicians on top, warriors in the middle and everyone else as serfs and a mildly hedonistic republic.
232* In Creator/JorgeLuisBorges short story "Averroe's Search", this is the reason why Averroes, an Islamic philosopher, has PopCultureIsolation and never can understand the terms ''tragedy'' and ''comedy''. TruthInTelevision too. Borges comments at the end that his own attempts to understand Averroes are presumably as unsuccessful as Averroes' attempts to understand those two words in Aristotle's ''Poetics'' -- there must have been a whole load of cultural quirks that the people of Averroes' Andalus took for granted, but which we simply don't know about (like the live dramatic performances of ancient Athens, which had no counterpart at all in Averroes' day.)
233* Elizabeth Bathory vs. all Slovakians in ''Literature/CountAndCountess''.
234* The Clans and the Tribe in the ''Literature/WarriorCats'' series are rather similar, but there's enough difference in them that they can clash at times - especially when the Clan cats insist that the Tribe try to live like them in order to drive off intruders.
235* In Creator/PoulAnderson's Literature/TimePatrol story "Gibraltar Falls", Feliz, from a [[LadyLand Matriarchy era]], has to fight to see men as equal -- just as men from other eras have to fight to see women as equal, Thomas notes.
236* Found several times in ''Literature/TechnicHistory''. CultureClash between Humans and Ythrians is a primary theme of ''Literature/ThePeopleOfTheWind'' both on the Macro level between the Terran Empire and the Ythrian Domain and the micro level between the Human and Ythrian settlements on Avalon. In the first case it is a war and is brought on [[NothingPersonal by politics]], not FantasticRacism; though ignorance and difficulty understanding each other is a problem, there is little actual hatred. In the second case it is more a matter of neighbors misunderstanding each other and occasionally rubbing each other the wrong way. Nonetheless, in both cases the cultural differences between Humans and Ythrians loom large.
237* In Scott Westerfeld's ''Literature/{{Leviathan}}'', this is what causes some tension between the combined Clanker-Darwinist crew aboard the living airship: the Darwinists (who [[OrganicTechnology alter DNA to make and use genetically-engineered "beasties"]] as things from medical equipment to modes of transportation and communication and weapons of war and prefer natural aesthetics) see Clanker tech as cold, lifeless, and a mockery of nature, while the Clankers (who create machinery to fulfill needs, [[DieselPunk run their walkers (also called "Clankers") on kerosene]], and prefer angular aesthetics) see Darwinist creations as "godless abominations." The two sides are caught up in an alternate-historical version of World War One, and when they are forced to work together they are very unnerved when having to work with the others' creations.
238* In ''Literature/GreekNinja'', everyone suffers a bit of a culture shock upon arriving to Japan. Specifically, Dawson almost walks into a house without taking his shoes off.
239* It takes time for immigrants to learn the rules of how ''Literature/{{Palimpsest}}'' works. Mild examples like making eye contact or speaking to the locals may be forbidden under very specific circumstances.
240* In Creator/JohnCWright's ''[[Literature/CountToTheEschaton The Hermetic Millennia]]'', much of the story revolves about how many people from different eras and so different cultures -- and the historical change was often one of bitter reaction and conflict -- are woken out of cryogenic slumber together. Many conflicts ensue.
241* This is a common theme in Creator/MCAHogarth's books -- in particular, ''Literature/{{Paradox}}'', which features a loose Alliance composed of dozens of genetically engineered "Pelted" races who developed widely differing cultures during the exodus from earth on GenerationShips, as well as a few completely alien species.
242* In ''Literature/TheDarkElfTrilogy'', the first time Drizzt Do'Urden meets a human, the teenage boy pulls a sword on him. Drizzt doesn't speak Common at this point, so he instead easily disarms him, ''juggles the sword on his scimitars'', then hands it back. In drow culture doing something like that demonstrates that one is both more skilled and not an enemy, but instead it scares the living daylights out of the kid, and he runs away screaming.
243* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'':
244** In ''Literature/AGameOfThrones'', [[{{Jerkass}} Viserys Targaryen]] quickly loses favor with the [[ProudWarriorRace Dothraki]], so they confiscate his horse and force him to walk as they mock him. After getting sore feet from walking far, they allow him to ride in a cart. Due to his [[LanguageBarrier refusal to learn the Dothraki language]] or ways, he thinks they have apologized and he's being honored like a king. For the Dothraki, carts are only for children, pregnant women, the crippled, and the elderly. A grown man riding a cart is seen as a laughingstock, as it means he is too weak to ride a horse.
245** In ''Literature/AClashOfKings'', Robb sends Theon as an ambassador to his father, Balon, to propose an alliance. His letter proposes to give Balon a crown of his own if they join forces. Balon is immediately incensed at the idea of Robb ''giving'' him anything, as his culture demands that [[ProudWarriorRace he take what he want by force]]. Also, Robb assumes that Theon will have pull with his own father, not realizing he'd [[IHaveNoSon be rejected as an outsider after being away for so long]]. Finally, Robb didn't seem to consider that this culture, [[RapePillageAndBurn which idealizes taking whatever they're strong enough to take]], might decide to start raiding ''his'' lands instead.
246** This is heavily deconstructed in ''Literature/ADanceWithDragons'', where it's probably the biggest problem with Daenerys Targaryen's reign in Meereen. She is of Valyrian blood, the people that annihilated the old Ghiscari empire, and she absolutely despises the cultures and traditions of her new nation. While most of those traditions are equally despicable to a modern audience, Dany soon learns that ruling over a people while trying to overthrow their basic customs, culture, and economy, is no easy task.
247** Jon Snow similarly has trouble negotiating between Stannis Baratheon's court and the Free Folk. Not only are their cultures very different, but both the Westerosi and the Free Folk are pretty rigid in their mindsets. Stannis wants to seal an alliance by marrying one of his men to Val, the sister-in-law of 'King-Beyond-the-Wall' Mance Rayder; from a Westerosi perspective Val is the equivalent of royalty, or at least a noblewoman, and plenty of the lords in his retinue are eager for this chance at power. Jon has to explain ''several'' times that the Free Folk a) have no hereditary king ''or'' noble houses, so Val (while she is genuinely a well respected leader in her own right) holds no special status amongst them and neither would her 'husband',[[note]]Jarl, Val's deceased lover, was soundly mocked for precisely this reason, as the more senior Free Folk believed he only had his position due to his relationship with her and they regarded him as her 'bitch'[[/note]] and b) don't practice arranged marriage but instead believe a man has to capture a woman and ''live'' through the experience to be worthy of wedding her, so if Val is forced to marry someone she doesn't want then she'll probably cut her 'husband's' throat. Regardless, Stannis and his court stubbornly keep referring to her as "the Wildling Princess" and demanding to know when a marriage can be arranged. In the same vein, Stannis regards Mance's infant son as a prince...but to the Free Folk [[ShapedLikeItself he's just their king's son]] with no automatic right to his father's position; in a society where AsskickingLeadsToLeadership, the idea of a ''baby'' being eligible to lead them is absolutely ludicrous. "You don't become King-beyond-the-wall because your father was."
248** In the backstory to the series, this was the catalyst of Aegon the Conqueror's invasion of Westeros. (On the surface at least; Aegon and his sisters Visenya and Rhaenys had already been scouting out the possibility of invading for years beforehand.) King Argilac Durrandon proposed an alliance between the Stormlands and the Targaryens, via a marriage between Aegon and Argilac's daughter Argella; obviously no one in Westeros recognised Aegon's already existing marriages to his sisters as valid. Aegon refused on his part but instead offered Orys Baratheon as the prospective bridegroom, since by his own standards his second-in-command was a highly suitable match: Orys was his most treasured companion after his two wives, an extremely competent warrior, and carried the blood of the dragon in his veins. By ''Westerosi'' standards, however, Aegon was simply offering his subordinate... who was also heavily rumoured to be his bastard half-brother. Argilac took it as a gross insult to both himself and his daughter and maimed the messenger in a fit of rage, sending back his own insult to the Targaryens -- who promptly started mustering their army.
249* In the ''Literature/Foreigner1994'' series humans are initially unaware that the alien [[RubberForeheadAliens atevi]] form government-like associations that have no connection whatsoever to geography. Humans mistakenly thinking that they're dealing with a single government when they're actually dealing with multiple ones leads to a human/atevi war which nearly wipes out the human LostColony.
250* Creator/NealStephenson frequently explores CultureClash and ValuesDissonance in his works. Friends or allies from different cultures and sub-cultures sometimes have to pause and step back a moment to understand where their companions are coming from. Many an antagonist in his works is a thoroughly evil villain from the protagonist's perpective, but is "good" by his own code as a WellIntentionedExtremist, KnightTemplar, or an example of outright BlueAndOrangeMorality.
251* ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''
252** The series has a very subtle example in Pippin's conversations with Denethor. After their first conversation, rumors abound that Pippin is a hobbit prince (which is technically true since Pippin's father Paladin Took is the current Thain, but the Thain's only function is to lead defenders if the Shire is invaded); that he is in Minas Tirith to negotiate an alliance, which is false (except perhaps on a personal level); and that an army of hobbits is on its way to reinforce Minas Tirith (HaHaHaNo). In appendix E, Tolkien states that Westron (the common tongue of Middle-Earth, which was rendered as English in the books), has two second-person pronouns, one formal and one informal, but that the formal one has fallen into disuse in the Hobbit dialect. The implication is that someone overheard Pippin talking to Denethor, assumed no-one who wasn't at least a Prince would dare to assume to be on FirstNameBasis with the Steward of Gondor at a first meeting, and the rumor mill just spun off from there. Meanwhile, Pippin was just talking to the Steward in the same way he talks to everyone, from his neighbors to Gandalf to Orcs.
253** ''Literature/TheHobbit'': After Bilbo steals the Arkenstone and takes it to the Elvenking and Bard to negotiate a deal with the dwarves, Bilbo treats the entire thing like he is negotiating for a business transaction and makes the whole affair sound like a mess of legal matters rather than a brewing war between the dwarves, men and elves.
254* During book 1 of the ''Literature/TairenSoul'' series, one of the Fey flies over to a Celierian woman and talks to her briefly (throwing up a magical wall around both of them). The woman doesn't know his language and thinks that he's just told her he's about to kill her. In actuality, this was the Fey's way of saying "[[EternalLove Hello]], [[OneTrueLove soulmate]]." The magic was just because he didn't want them to be interrupted by the understandably panicked crowd around them.
255* A major theme in ''Literature/{{Hellspark}}'', which is set in an interstellar future with a wide variety of societies, and features a community of people who were forced to live together without adequate preparation for their cultural differences. At the point when the protagonist shows up and starts mediating, there are people about ready to kill their neighbors over apparently little things like what kind of boots they wear.
256* In the ''Literature/DreambloodDuology'', this is common between Kisuati and Gujaareen, even when the Gujaareen are of the shunha caste and stick very close to their Kisuati roots. The main point of contention is the dominant religion of Gujaareh, namely Hananja's Law. The Kisuati view the Gujaareen custom of Gatherer priests gathering -- read: killing -- people in their dreams when 'their time has come' as barbaric.
257* ''Literature/{{Victoria}}'' has many, but the most obvious is the ultimate one: Azania versus the Confederation. Or, briefly explained, a society of [[LadyLand mostly lesbian, tech-optimistic Amazons]] versus one of [[EvilReactionary reactionary Christian fundamentalists]]. For just one example of the ''little'' things they disagree on: In the Confederation, women who do not dress modestly and femininely are subject to public disapproval, whereas Azania has actually [[RealWomenDontWearDresses outlawed dresses]], considering them a symbol of the old female slavery their ancestors fought so hard to escape.
258* The short story ''The All-American Slurp'' is about a Chinese immigrant family's struggles to integrate into American culture.
259** When they are invited to dinner by their neighbors, the Gleasons, they politely refuse the offer of sour cream dip, as most Chinese people don't eat dairy products. Later, they pull the strings out of the celery sticks before eating them, which surprises the neighbors. They also misunderstand the concept of a buffet dinner; when they see the table piled with food but no chairs around it, they bring some chairs over, only to be told that they're supposed to take food from the table and eat it in the living room.
260** The mother buys a skirt for her daughter to wear to school, but later sees that all the other girls are wearing jeans.
261** When eating at a fancy restaurant, they slurp their soup (in Chinese culture, this cools the liquid while also showing appreciation for the meal), and the other diners give them strange looks. The daughter is so embarrassed that she flees into the bathroom.
262** At the end, the family gets to see this trope from their point of view when they invite the Gleason family to dinner at their house. Meg, the daughter, takes food from multiple dishes at the buffet table, when the Chinese custom is to take from one dish and finish the serving before taking from another. Mrs. Gleason mixes the prawns, gravy and rice together on her plate, and Mr. Gleason struggles with using a pair of chopsticks.
263* In ''Literature/TheUnexploredSummonBloodSign'' the fictional country of Flanguild is a true meritocracy that abruptly switches people out of their jobs when someone who's better shows up. For this reason, Rachel is irritated by the foreigner [[OneManArmy Kyousuke]]'s insistence that he face Flanguild's enemies alone: he thinks he's being nice and heroic, but in Flanguild terms, he's saying 'you're obsolete'. Even knowing that Kyousuke isn't interested in her job doesn't make Rachel feel better, because she knows she ''should'' want her royal {{Protectorate}} to have the best bodyguard available, but at the same time she wants to keep the status she's worked so hard for, and she is [[TragicBigot culturally hardwired to perceive all her peers as rivals]].
264* ''[[Literature/TroyRising The Hot Gate]]'':
265** After Dana "Comet" Parker is transferred to the ''Thermopylae'', she is put in charge of an all-male team of South American engineers. Her being female immediately puts her at odds, and her being a "norte" (North American) is seen as even worse. And she actually demands that they do their jobs maintaining the shuttles? *Gasp*! How dare she? Doesn't she know that every single one of them is a scion of a powerful South American family? People like them are there merely to bide their time until they are inevitably made officers. Who does this American farm girl think she is? She is "educated" several times in the ways of Latin America and the concept of "class" not just as an economic divider (the way it's treated in the US and most of the Western world), but in how only "the right people" should be put in top positions, with everyone else being "rabble". It works the other way too, with South American officials having trouble understanding someone like Tyler Vernon, automatically ascribing him certain qualities simply because he's the richest guy in the world and only meets with the President of the US when his (Tyler's) schedule opens up. One of Parker's subordinates, who has picked up a few things, explains to his father that Tyler doesn't fit into their "upper class" mold. He's a typical American billionaire, who only wants to get rich, without trying to adjust his own culture to that of his financial peers.
266** Parker gets an even worse reaction than Dana from the Pathans, Afghan SpaceMarines, who were, until only a few decades ago, fighting the US as insurgents. Immediately upon seeing Parker in her standard-issue gym shirt and shorts, they demand that she covers herself up, as her current appearance is "an insult to God".
267* In ''Literature/MasterOfFormalities'', this is why the titular position exists. Masters of Formalities are there to mediate between the various noble houses that run the planets of the galaxy. Over the two millennia of humanity settling the stars, the many human civilizations have diverged significantly, so some form of mediation is a necessity to avoid this trope.
268* In ''Literature/ShadowOfTheConqueror,'' Lyrah (a Hamahran) and Cueseg (a Tuerasian) constantly clash. Most of the conflict comes from him being so lewd that even other Tuerasians think he's perverse, and her being [[ParalyzingFearOfSexuality exceptionally puritanical]] even for a Hamahran. After some [[PervertRevengeMode uncomfortable conversations]], things settle down to a CrazyCulturalComparison between the two.
269* ''Literature/HorribleHarry'': In ''Horrible Harry and the Dragon War,'' the class has to make animals out of papier-mache for a project. Harry and Song Lee both decide to make dragons, but Harry makes a fierce, greedy, fire-breathing Western dragon while Song Lee (who is Korean) makes a beautiful, wise, and kind Eastern dragon. When Harry calls Song Lee's dragon stupid, the entire class ends up in a boys-versus-girls war.
270* ''Literature/TalionRevenant'': {{Discussed}} as the reason Nolan is chosen for undercover work in Hamis posing as a Sinjarian lord. Only someone from the region knows every little custom, which could give an undercover agent away otherwise. It's demonstrated by something as small as peeling an apple in a specific way. Nolan also encountered some very serious examples previously, such as a Daari who attacks him since he's a Talion (who his culture teaches means he's demonically possessed) then an old woman in [[spoiler:Temur]] who tells him to kill [[spoiler:Marana]] because she's a "demon twin" (i.e. second born identical twin).
271* Features prominently in the third ''Literature/TheQueensThief'' novel. The Attolians consider Eddisians to be mountain barbarians to the degree that they sometimes don't even realize Eugenides is insulting them, because they can't conceive of an Eddisian DeadpanSnarker. He uses this to greater advantage in the end when "sparring" with a man who intends to kill him. After disarming him, the man fully expects Eugenides to take the next strike in accordance with Attolian sparring rules. Eugenides--who had subtly hinted earlier why he always mistreats wooden practice blades--instead grabs the edgeless weapon and rams it into the man's solar plexus.
272* Comes up frequently in ''Literature/DriftlessWormhole'' thanks to time travel plus different locations. When Nigel is unsure how to address Mateo by his surname(s), Mateo [[FirstNameBasis tells him to just call him by his first name.]] To Mateo, this is just tact, while to Nigel it's actively friendly. Nigel also tiptoes around class issues, since he sees Mateo as being lower down socially than him and doesn't want to be rude about it, while Mateo sees himself as middle class and considers that the most honorable status to have.
273* The three remaining (intelligent) species left AfterTheEnd in ''Literature/{{Maddaddam}}'' are the surviving humans, the [[ArtificialHuman Crakers]] who were designed to be vegetarian pacifists, and the Pigoons who are intelligent pigs, the unintended consequence of gene-splicing human cerebral cortexes into genetically modified pigs. Naturally the three groups run into issues such as the Crakers not understanding human taboos about sex since female Crakers go into heat and therefore all human women smell willing and available to male Crakers. Meanwhile the Pigoons have no qualms about cannibalism and therefore offer a dead piglet as a peace offering during negotiations since they were well-aware that humans were fond of pork.
274* ''Literature/TheLeftHandOfDarkness'': On the planet Gethen it's insulting to give direct advice. This leads to PoorCommunicationKills when the human diplomat Genly visits -- he dismisses all of Estraven's cautious warnings about the volatile political climate as coy, manipulative doublespeak, and thereby distrusts the one person who's genuinely trying to help his mission.
275[[/folder]]
276
277[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
278* ''Series/NinetyDayFiance'': The foreign fiancés, being from other countries, occasionally have conflicting values with their American partner and their families. For example:
279** Paola from season one freaked out her fiancé Russ's conservative parents by coming downstairs in skimpy pajamas.
280** ''The Other Way'': Brittany was portrayed as a Hard-Drinking Party Girl who clashed with her traditionalist Muslim fiance.
281* ''Series/{{The 100}}'' has a lot of culture clash between people from the Ark and the Grounders. Most significant is their handling of criminal punishment. While the Ark [[AllCrimesAreEqual uses capital punishment left and right]], they view it as a utilitarian measure (no sense wasting precious resources on someone who breaks the law), and so make it fairly clean and painless, and even then they refuse to execute anyone under the age of 18. This makes them pretty hesitant to hand Finn over to the Grounders for punishment, since Grounder executions '''a)''' don't have exemptions for minors, and '''b)''' are more about revenge than utility, involving lengthy torture sessions where everyone with a grievance against the accused gets a chance to go at them with fire and knives.
282* ''Series/AlienNation'': Much of the drama is produced by many differences Newcomers have with Humans. As just one example, they are very frank and open about sex (possibly because their reproduction needs a [[BizarreAlienReproduction third party catalyst]]) and have no homophobia (although it's more of an InformedAttribute as gay Newcomers only briefly appear).
283%%* The basic premise, along with FishOutOfWater, of both ''Amish in the Big City'' and ''Breaking Amish''
284* Minor case in ''Series/{{Arrow}}'': When in Russia, Anatoli offers Oliver and Diggle each a very strong glass of vodka before a mission. Diggle politely declines, but Oliver pours him a glass anyway. He doesn't say anything, but the message is quite clear: When a Russian mob boss offers you vodka, ''you drink the vodka''.
285* On ''Series/BabylonFive'' a cultural misunderstanding was the cause of the Earth-Minbari War. To the Minbari, opening the weapons hatches on your ship is a polite greeting; to Earthlings, it's a sign of aggression, not helped any by the selection of a hotheaded captain all too ready to resort to shooting, in spite of Sheridan's warnings that he was the wrong man for the task.
286* One story from Series/BeyondBeliefFactOrFiction featured a man finding himself in the Wild West. He is accused of walking around in his underpants, even though he is wearing sensible sneakers, hiking shorts, and a t-shirt.
287* ''Series/{{Blindspotting}}'': In episode 3, when Rainey suggests physically punishing Sean after he kicks both Ashley and Trish, saying that it's acceptable to do so three times in a child's life. Ashley ([[DarkAndTroubledPast who has been physically abused herself]]) is appalled when Trish and Miles talk about it like it's totally normal, and continues to be when other characters suggest physical punishment as well.
288* ''Series/TheBuccaneers2023'': The girls' American sensibilities are at odds with the reserved English and the London marriage mart. For example, Nan blithely compares the debutantes to cattle. Her unique perspective captures the attention of two men.
289* ''{{Series/The Chosen|TVSeries}}'': In Season 3, Tamar explains that her jewelry is meant to honor her family and ancestors. Mary Magdalene mistakenly assumes it's a form of ancestor-worship, which wouldn't be befitting for a worshipper of God. The end result is tension.
290* A central theme in ''Series/{{Defiance}}'', which has five alien races and humans all living in the titular town, which is justified as some races or individuals simply don't care to learn about other races customs.
291** Irathients don't trust inoculations for their children, partly because they're immune to just about everything (though can still be carriers), which ended in a slaughter when Defiance was first founded.[[note]]The game reveals that they might be justified: they were literally being killed with intentionally bad inoculations before the Pale Wars started.[[/note]] Nolan also mistakes Irisa's visions for PTSD, though the fact that she does have issues with her past confuses the matter.
292** For Castithans, bath time is a family bonding ritual, and the kind of naked physical closeness they demonstrate seems almost incestuous by human standards. Bathing alone is actually considered deviant, or at least eccentric, behavior. In one scene, Datak is annoyed that Christie insists on bathing alone.
293--->'''Datak:''' Who does that, I ask you?\
294'''Stahma:''' ''[[AskAStupidQuestion Humans]]''.
295** Castithans see nothing wrong with parents kissing their children on the lips. In the second season, when Stahma kisses Nolan, everyone instantly understands that she's basically calling him family.
296** Christie has shown an increasingly harder time with Casti customs. When Stahma attempts the familial kiss on her, she is extremely uncomfortable and refuses. Though given that Stahma may or may not be trying to seduce her (bearing in mind that she's her daughter-in-law), a little awkwardness on her part is warranted.
297* ''Series/EmilyInParis'': This is the show's {{central theme}}. Emily, who is a young American woman, goes to Paris and finds her attitude/views clash with that of French people's on many things. For instance, she finds an ad which consists solely of a nude woman walking over a bridge problematic at best- the French simply don't get what the issue is. She's pretty surprised by how casual Antoine and Silvie are about having an affair, of which his wife also knows (Silvie's even her close friend). When her colleagues are told about her firm's "corporate commandments", which include avoiding workplace romances, Luc heatedly accuses her of seeking to "kill their French soul". In addition, they also find a lot of her ideas for marketing overly crass and unconventional for their tastes. Nonetheless, some like Camille and Gabriel are still charmed by her.
298* ''Series/GameOfThrones'':
299** Part of Ned's fish-out-of-water reaction to King's Landing, notably when he compares haughty knights to strutting roosters.
300** Balon Greyjoy's response to Robb's offer of alliance is to proclaim that "No man gives me a crown. I pay the iron price."
301** Jon and Ygritte's relationship is full of this, teasing each other about their cultural blind-spots.
302** Tycho Nestoris has a visibly low opinion of Westeros' feudal system of titles and bloodlines and seems to regard their conflicts as petty. He's also quite unforgiving of Davos' past as a smuggler because he comes from a ProudMerchantRace.
303** While the Dothraki call Jorah Mormont "the Andal," the Mormonts are actually blood of the First Men. The Andals are the Saxon invaders to the original Briton occupants of Westeros. In the books, the Andals were a second migration thousands of years after the First Men, bringing (among other things) the seven-in-one god you hear about. They settled primarily in the south of Westeros, and their influence is not felt much above the Neck; northerners claim to descend solely from the First Men, keep the "old gods" by worshiping at a heart tree, and generally do not become knighted because the Faith of the Seven invented that office. To most peoples of Essos though, all Westerosi simply are "Andals". Jorah doesn't bother correcting them either.
304* In ''Series/JudgingAmy'', a teenage exchange student from Africa caused a stir when he was discovered sleeping in the same room as his host family's daughter. Turns out that, in his homeland, people sleep communally, he consequently had difficulty sleeping alone, and he did not realize how his actions would look to Americans.
305* In ''Series/TheMandalorian'':
306** In the episode "The Heiress," its eponymous lead ends up meeting [[spoiler: Bo Katan (of ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'']], and is shocked when [[spoiler: she removes her helmet.]] As Mando was raised in a sect that strictly adhered to "The Way" (as in, never remove your helmet when in the presence of others), he's absolutely incensed and accuses [[spoiler: Bo and her allies]] of not being [[spoiler: true Mandalorians.]] [[spoiler: She]] simply retorts that he was raised by a group of religious zealots who sought to restore Mandalore to its ancient traditions, whereas [[spoiler: she was never taught to such an adherence.]] He storms off with the child shortly thereafter.
307** The Mandalorian's beliefs are also incompatible with [[spoiler: the Jedi ideology]], even though both parties remain polite about it. The Mandalorian's culture places emphasis on children and caring and protecting them while [[spoiler: Jedi are to let go of their attachments]].
308* In ''Series/MartialLaw'', this occurs frequently between Sammo (China) and the other cops (United States). One example is Sammo lighting up incense in his office for good luck but his co-worker Dana was turned off by the smell and asked him to remove it due to smoking regulations in the office. It even occurs between Sammo and his disciple Grace due to Grace being raised in the United States.
309* In the last episode of ''[[Series/{{Mash}} M*A*S*H]]'', Klinger proposes to his Korean girlfriend by saying he'd like her to wear one of his white wedding dresses. She is initially shocked that he wants her to wear a funeral dress.
310* ''Series/MidnightSun2016'': Algerian-born Frenchwoman Kahina is more impulsive, hot-tempered and intent on quick action, feeling frustrated by working with the staid, slow-paced Swedes at times.
311* Behind almost every plot and joke in ''Series/{{Outsourced}}'', which is based on the premise of an American manager heading up a call center in India.
312* In the ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' episode "The Pony Remark", Jerry says that anyone who had a pony when they were a kid is a SpoiledBrat and he hates them. This offends an old Polish woman, since ''she'' had a pony when she was a kid, and pretty much everyone else in Poland did as well. The woman dies the next day, despite reportedly being in good health for her age, causing Jerry to worry that his pony remark was what did her in.
313-->'''Jerry:''' I didn't know she had a pony! How was I to know she had a pony?! Who figures an immigrant's gonna have a pony?! Do you know what the odds are on that?! I mean, in all the pictures I saw of immigrants on boats, comin' into New York Harbor, I never saw one of them sittin' on a pony! Why would anyone ''come'' here if they had a pony?! Who leaves a country packed with ponies to come to a ''non''-pony country?! It doesn't make ''sense''! ...Am I wrong?
314* In Season 9 of ''Series/{{Smallville}}'', Clark Kent now wears a [[BadassLongcoat black version of his future costume]], as an homage to traditional Kryptonian garb, but ComicBook/GreenArrow says it looks ridiculous. Pretty funny coming from a guy who wears tights. To be fair, that black outfit that Clark was wearing was quite unpopular with much of the fanbase, and the showrunners were taking pains to make it clear that it was only temporary.
315* ''Series/TheSpanishPrincess'': The Spanish retinue all insist on following their customs, for instance Catherine taking a siesta in the afternoon, to the annoyance of the English.
316* In one episode of ''Series/StargateSG1'', Jack tries to teach Teal'c boxing, but Teal'c dismisses the footwork as "dancing". In a show with aliens, every episode has culture clash.
317* This happens quite a lot in the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' franchise.
318** ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'':
319*** A milder example would be T'Pol suggesting to Captain Archer and Tucker that the crew's recently lowered efficiency might be due to lack of sex.
320*** A more severe case was the aliens who were shocked and offended by the Enterprise crew eating in their presence.
321** ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'':
322*** In "The Big Goodbye", the first HolodeckMalfunction episode, the simulated 1930's people mistake Captain Picard's Starfleet uniform for a bellhop's uniform and laugh at him.
323*** Data's uniform was mistaken for pajamas when he went back in time to 19-century UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco.
324** ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' has a Cardassian woman who misinterprets HappilyMarried Miles O'Brien's brush-offs as flirting.
325* ''Series/TalesOfTheCity2019'':
326** When Shawna finds out that she was adopted, she runs away to Ohio to meet her biological mother Connie's brother Buzz. When she asks her uncle if he ever met her biological father, he hedges that Connie was "popular" and found it easy to make "gentleman friends" - clearly trying to avoid offending Shawna by directly saying Connie was [[MyGirlIsNotASlut promiscuous]]. Shawna, who grew up in San Francisco, is completely unperturbed.
327---> '''Buzz:''' I don't want you thinking my sister was...cheap, or anything like that.
328---> '''Shawna:''' Oh no no no, I get it. She was sexually liberated and non-monogamous.
329** When Shawna drops the word "queer" in conversation, Buzz's wife Maura looks uncomfortable and says, "I don't think we're supposed to use that word". Shawna is quick to reassure her, we've reclaimed it! Cue awkwardness as Shawna has to explain that she isn't straight, and Buzz and Maura are very unsure as to how to react.
330[[/folder]]
331
332[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
333* In ''TabletopGame/{{BattleTech}}'', the Clans have spent the past three hundred years away from the rest of humanity, developing their own culture of military strength and honor. When they returned to the Inner Sphere, much Cultural Clashing ensued. Inner Sphere armies were shocked when the Clans simply asked who they were going to be fighting rather than spending resources on an intelligence network. The Clans were likewise shocked when the Inner Sphere lied to then and then arranged for long-term battles of exhaustion rather than the quick and clean combat Clan culture demanded.
334* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'':
335** This is very prevalent within the Imperium. To start with, the Imperium itself is composed of the almost entirely separate Imperium proper and the Mechanicus, only united because they decided to agree that their gods are the same person. There's plenty of culture clash ranging everywhere from simple misunderstandings to outright bigotry on both sides. On top of that, with tens of millions of different worlds and relatively difficult travel between them, huge numbers of very different cultures have evolved. Every time someone from one world visits another, or even just part of their own world that they're not familiar with, you can guarantee this trope will come up. And then you have all the interactions between the various different military forces, with the differences in culture and traditions between regiments from different worlds being the least of it before you even start looking at the various fanatical superhumans.
336** While most xenos and humans are usually too busy literally clashing to even look at each other's culture, this happens on occasion. Da Orks for example are rather confused by human command structure. Due to the way Ork biology works, an Ork's authority is proportionate to their size. It's easy to tell a Warboss from a Nob since the Warboss will tower over his subordinates. Humans on the other hand are more or less all the same size, and sometimes ''shorter'' ones are the ones in charge. Orks however have figured out that the humans in charge usually wear fancier hats.
337* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' also has quite a bit of this. The Empire is mainly based on part-medieval, part-early industrial revolution Germany, but the "good" factions also include various other European influences, particularly French aristocracy and British Arthurian legends (themselves largely based on the culture clash between traditional Celtic culture and the rise of Christianity). Elves, dwarves and humans are nominally on the same side, but often come into conflict due to misunderstanding, or deliberate dismissal, of each others' cultures.
338* This is a constant theme in ''TabletopGame/RocketAge'' and the source of most of the setting's conflicts. Humanity makes huge assumptions about alien cultures, such as labeling the entire Martian courtesan sub-caste prostitutes, rather than the complicated geisha-like role they actually serve, or applying the moral norms of the 1930s to alien cultures with more open values. On the other side of the coin many Martians can't comprehend how human society works without castes or slavery.
339* ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}'': Common; due to the setting's theme of GreyAndGreyMorality, many conflicts are caused by cultural misunderstandings rather than something as idealistic as good versus evil.
340** The goblins, hobgoblins, and bugbears of the ancient Dhakaani Empire had a natural instinct towards working together for the common good; the weaker races weren't slaves and the stronger races weren't brutish overlords, everyone simply understood their place in the hierarchy. When they defeated the Daelkyr, the aberrations broke this instinct, and the empire fell apart as the races warred for petty reasons. By modern times, no one can understand how goblinoids could have produced an empire. Enter the Heirs of Dhakaan, descendants of those who recognized the corruption and hid away in bunkers. They look down on modern goblinoids as savages just as much as they do the humans or elves, while non-Dhakaani goblinoids see them as obsessed with something that has long been lost.
341** The lizardfolk of Q'Barra are the ancient protectors of [[SealedEvilInACan powerful seals]] in the region. They have maintained their watch for thousands of years due to the fact that the celestials who gave them the task also bound them with a shared dream that teaches them morality, language, and gives them missions. Their society has remained almost completely unchanged because they are all taught the exact same way from the exact same source (barring some rebels who were corrupted by demons). Recently, they have broken the peace and started attacking settlers, because the settlers have started disturbing the seals. The idea of being ''ignorant'' is completely alien to the lizardfolk, who dream about these things every single night and so cannot comprehend that the settlers might simply ''not know'' what they're doing is wrong. In their experience, the only reason to mess with the seals is to deliberately try to free the demons.
342** The elves of Valenar are descended from the rebel slaves who fought the giants and escaped Xen'drik. Their entire society is built around emulating their warrior ancestors, even gaining power from their spirits. Therefore, despite being signatories of the current peace, they are constantly raiding their neighbors because they ''want'' to be attacked. They want a new war to start so that they can fight valiantly in it. Most of the other nations are assuming a much more long-term plan with them than actually exists.
343* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'': This trope formed the crux of the ''Alara'' block; a massive world got splintered into five "Shards" eons in the past, and the cultures evolved in drastically divergent directions, due in part to each only having access to some of the colors of magic, rather than all five. When those five shards fuse back into a single world, the result of these alien cultures interacting ran the gamut from friendly to hostile.
344
345[[/folder]]
346
347[[folder:Theater]]
348* ''Theatre/CyranoDeBergerac'': One of the principal themes of the play is to compare the conventional Frenchmen's culture with the [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Gascon's]] Culture. First PlayedForLaughs, then PlayedForDrama:
349** PlayedForLaughs: At Act I Scene IV, De Valvert and Cyrano engage VolleyingInsults. De Valvert, part of the [[DecadentCourt court]] [[JerkJock De Guiche]] [[GirlPosse pays]] loses, but not because his insults are {{Lame Comeback}}s, but because his [[InsultBackfire insults are really compliments]] for a [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Gascon]] [[MartyrdomCulture mindset:]] being called ImpoverishedPatrician and "Poet" are not truly insults for Cyrano.
350** PlayedForDrama: At Act IV Scene X: The Spanish Army is very surprised to see a [[MartyrdomCulture single]] [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy company]] make a LastStand instead of [[RunOrDie retreating.]] Lampshaded by the Spanish Officer:
351--->'''Spanish Officer:''' Who are [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy these men]] [[LastStand who rush on death?]]
352* ''Theatre/TheTeahouseOfTheAugustMoon'' is about the comedy that ensues after a green American officer is sent to a small Okinawan village in 1946 to oversee reconstruction.
353[[/folder]]
354
355[[folder:Video Games]]
356* In ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords'', among the Echani, repeated duels constitute a courtship and possibly foreplay if the proper rituals are observed. Your female Echani party member doesn't bother to tell you that.
357* ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIII'':
358** PlayedForLaughs when Connor [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sF2dyF7vZic#t=213s sets out to assassinate William Johnson]] in Sequence 6. Kanen'tó:kon gives Connor a hatchet, which he plants into the side of the Homestead. Achilles [[WhatTheHellHero chews him out,]] but Connor [[{{Exposition}} explains]] that the Mohawk plant a hatchet into a post when going to war, and remove it when it is finished. Achilles' retort is priceless.
359--->'''Achilles:''' You could have used a tree!
360** Less PlayedForLaughs are the interactions between Connor and Haytham. Haytham attempts to establish paternal authority straight off the bat. Connor, who has grown up in a matrilineal culture, is quite perplexed at why the white man thinks sleeping with his mother gives him the right to command.
361* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' series is all about this. The [[OurElvesAreDifferent Dunmer (Dark Elves)]] traditionally enslave the beast races ([[CatFolk Khajiit]] and [[LizardFolk Argonians]]), which those races are understandably not fans of. The Khajiit have a somewhat loose view of personal property, which naturally leads to conflicts outside in other lands where this behavior constitutes theft. The Altmer (High Elves) consider themselves [[CulturalPosturing better than everyone else]] and think they should be in charge, which is a bit of a problem for the [[HumansAreDiplomats Imperials]] as they think exactly the same thing. When the cultures aren't just clashing, it often escalates to full blown FantasticRacism.
362* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'', the Gerudo are a OneGenderRace of women, and as a result, are shown to have a very hard time interacting with men. They have a special class dedicated to helping Gerudo understand how to woo men (one particularly bad student keeps flunking the lessons by being ''way'' too aggressive), and traveling Gerudo that Link encounters are often quite awkward when interacting with him. At least one actively flies into a panic when Link talks to her, whispering to herself to try and remember the lessons she was taught about what to do around a "voe".
363* ''VideoGame/GodOfWarPS4'': Mimir reveals that the Norse prefer to die in battle and think dying of old age is dishonorable. Anyone who dies of old age goes to Hel instead of Valhalla. Kratos is disturbed by this. While Spartans also prefer to die in battle, they respect any warrior who dies of old age because only a real badass is strong and skilled enough to survive that long, and they go to the Elysian Fields with the other warriors.
364* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'':
365** A recurring theme in ''Stormblood'' is the clash between differing cultures and sensibilities, inevitably leading to conflict when the two sides can't come to an understanding.
366*** At the Azim Steppe, Gosetsu is shocked when the Dotharl leave the body of one of their fallen hunters for the wolves, confronting the leader of the Xaela tribe about it. When she explains the tribe's belief in reincarnation, Gosetsu slights her further by declaring the idea that a baby could be the soul of a fallen warrior returned to be "madness".
367*** In the Blacksmith storyline, Sekka comes to Limsa Lominsa's Blacksmiths' Guild in hopes of learning how to forge the finest swords in the world. She's aghast when she finds that the guild is more focused on fulfilling orders and commissions than a goal or an ideal in their craft. She soon tries to impose her beliefs on the rest of the guild, even challenging the Warrior of Light to a smithing contest to prove herself right. She winds up losing due to being overly focused on showcasing her skills rather than fitting the sword to the client, humbling her and making her more open to Brithael's gradual and laissez-faire style of learning.
368*** In the Weaver storyline, Keimei, the heir to a famous fashion brand in Kugane, finds himself taken with the styles of Eorzea and resolves to bring them to Hingashi. He commissions the Warrior of Light to weave dresses in these styles for his favorite geiko, Kotocho, to show off in festivals and special gatherings. He and Kotocho are met with both praise and scorn for violating long-held traditions as Eorzean standards of beauty and style are introduced to an entirely new continent.
369** The people on the alternate world of the First have very different cultures from what the player and their companions know from the Source. Thankfully, the Crystal Exarch who summons you and your companions to the First has thought this through, and introducing yourself as "[sharing] a homeland with the Crystal Exarch" heads off most of the problems. For instance, the dwarves of the First are a ProudWarriorRace who are never seen without their helms except in the presence of family. [[DevelopersForesight If you start the Healer questline as a Lalafell]], Giott will immediately scorn you for not wearing your helm around strangers... until you explain where you come from, at which point the dwarf immediately backs off.
370-->'''Giott''': You're from the same strange land as the Crystal Exarch? I suppose your people have their own customs, then. Alright - I'll say no more of it.
371[[/folder]]
372
373[[folder:Webcomics]]
374%%* ''Webcomic/{{Harkovast}}'' features numerous clashes and misunderstandings between the different cultures.%%Like?
375* ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'': The considerable differences between human and troll biology and culture often lead to confusion, faux pases and miscommunications between the characters. For instance, troll reproduction involves using "pails" to contain genetic material, leading trolls to view such things as obscene. This causes Vriska considerable embarrassment when she sees a cleaning bucket laying around John's house, and when he doesn't understand what she's talking about she pretends that trolls consider cleaning products obscene to hide her embarrassment. Later, Terezi has some trouble grasping why casual use of "fucking" in a conversation might lead to her statements being construed as blatant come-ons.
376-->GC: [=TH3R3 1S NO PL4N TH4T DO3S NOT 1NVOLV3 FUCK1NG 4ROUND=]\
377GC: [=BUT W3 W1LL M4K3 SUR3 4LL OF OUR FUCK1NG W1LL B3 4PPL13D 1N 4 CONSTRUCT1V3 D1R3CT1ON=]\
378TG: ok could you try to be somehow even less subtle when you hit on me thanks\
379GC: [=WH4T=]\
380GC: [=WH4T D1D 1 S4Y?=]\
381TG: man\
382TG: nevermind
383* ''Webcomic/TemplarArizona'': Mose is betrothed to an eleven-year old girl whom he only knows from letters and photographs. His friend-with-benefits Tuesday is utterly appalled by this.
384%%* ''Webcomic/{{Endstone}}'': [[http://endstone.net/comic/4-29/ Deer don't kiss.]]
385* ''Webcomic/AxeCop'': Played for drama (rare for the comic). On seeing a mermaid snarl at him, Axe Cop chops his way through her -- only to learn that for mermaids, snarling is an expression of goodness and smiling a sign of evil. Axe Cop is stunned and rather saddened to realize he's just hacked his way through a good guy.
386* ''Webcomic/{{Newman}}'' features a dark elf culture where husbands are the wives' slaves (quite literally, collar included and often chains).
387* ''Webcomic/StandStillStaySilent'' has surprisingly little of this in its MultinationalTeam. There is however one case between Lalli and Emil concerning the fate of a PlagueZombie dog to which Emil had gotten strangely attached. Emil ends up giving it a MercyKill, convinced that it is sufficient to free it from a FateWorseThanDeath, but has to delay burying until the next day. However, Emil is an atheist and the dog's spirit is actually still in there. Lucky for the dog, Lalli is a mage and knows the process to actually free its spirit, which involves separating the dog's skull from the rest of the body and putting it on top of a tree. Lalli decides to do this after coming back from his night scouting shift and Emil gets a nasty (from his point of view) surprise when he notices Lalli isn't having breakfast with everyone else and decides to bring him his bowl himself.
388[[/folder]]
389
390[[folder:Web Original]]
391* In several v-logs and behind-the-scene looks, WebVideo/{{Benzaie}} is puzzled by many American customs.
392* ''LetsPlay/{{Mahu}}'': In "Second Chance", the Galactic Commonwealth meets new, alien races and cultures. While the Commonwealth is mostly friendly and open minded, it is not rare to see their culture and that of another alien race to clash.
393* Omegaverse story ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/21114455/chapters/50243699 A Fox Dies Thinking Of Its Den]]'' is all about the interactions between a Chinese and a Dutch in the 17th century.
394** On one side, it's PlayedForLaughs when the Ming Confucean Tatpho doesn't get ''why'' those white barbarians wear pants and cut their hair so short, or believe the Virgin Mary is a mother goddess.
395** On another side, gender issues are straight-out PlayedForDrama -- since Tatpho cannot envision why his brand-new husband would hate [[MisterSeahorse his ability to bear sons]], since Chinese culture is very much HeirClubForMen but Christianity is very much hostile to anything not strictly entering into the male-female categories.
396** Marriage also is complicated, with Pieter being disturbed by his husband having a concubine and seeing nothing wrong about [[AndNowYouMustMarryMe abducting him to force him to bear his children]].
397* This trope is part of the drive between Creator/GavinFree and Fiona Nova of Creator/AchievementHunter. Both were born in Europe (Gavin in Great Britain and Fiona in France), thus certain things in America are vastly different where they were from. This trope fits more with Gavin, who didn't move to America until his 20s, though Fiona's EstablishingCharacterMoment was her blowing up at Creator/MichaelJones in a game of ''Jackbox'' over choosing "lollipops" as a candy she wouldn't expect to get on Halloween over "full-sized candy bars" as both items would be right where they came from.
398* Sometimes happens in male same-sex shipping culture due to the differing ways portmanteau ship names work in Western vs. Eastern (mostly Japanese) fandom. The former usually choose the more phonetically pleasing sounding combination of the two names and that's that. In contrast, Eastern fans use both variations and arrange them specifically depending on which man they see as being "on top". His name goes first and the man "on bottom" makes up the second part. Western and Eastern shippers are sometimes left frustrated with each other because of this: the Western fans seeing such a distinction as unneeded at best and even regressive at worst (due to "weaker" characters usually ending up in the second half of the ship name), while the Eastern side are annoyed their counterparts can't (or won't) tag their offerings this way. The disagreements aren't usually serious and both sides know what the other expects by this point, but the occasional arguments break out even so.
399* The crossover between ''WebVideo/{{Hermitcraft}}'' and ''WebVideo/EmpiresSMP'' leads to a bit of culture shock, as the two groups have very different styles of playing ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}''.
400** Some of the Hermits make intention to trade with diamonds as currency as they do in their home world, but on Empires, this system is mostly left by the wayside in favour of an extensive barter system using the main export of one's own empire, which said empire has a trading monopoly over.
401** Conversely, many of the Empires rulers have difficulties adjusting to the scale at which Hermitcraft operates, from the wealth in resources of the Hermits and their corresponding ConspicuousConsumption (such as using Nether stars to decorate the Nether Hub like actual stars in the night sky), to the sheer ''size'' of many of the buildings alone.
402[[/folder]]
403
404[[folder:Western Animation]]
405* In the ''TabletopGame/{{BattleTech}}'' animated series, the Clans believe that if you are captured, you have to serve your captors. The Inner Sphere believes that if captured, your first duty is to escape. This is the cause of much culture clash -- the Inner Sphere suspects their captive of attempting sabotage...and upon finally being honorably freed by her clan, the prisoner is disgusted by the Inner Sphere's lack of honor, more convinced than ever that they are AlwaysChaoticEvil barbarians who have to be forcibly "civilized" by the Clans. Meanwhile, the treacherous Inner Sphere captive of the Clans goes unsuspected because they believe in his promise of service. This is actually an aspect of the TabletopGame lore which they decided to highlight.
406* In ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'', the Scotsman and his family repeatedly mock Jack's outfit, saying he is wearing a basket on his head and a dress, and mock his katana for being small compared to their claymores. When Jack tries to greet them by bowing, they ask him why he bent over and stared at the ground. On the flip side, Jack cannot stand bagpipe music and most Scottish cuisine.
407* In ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'', both ComicBook/JonahHex and Batman's old sensei mock Batman's costume.
408* The ''WesternAnimation/HouseOfMouse'' episode "Mickey and the Culture Clash", where Mickey reads a letter in the newspaper saying Minnie wants a more 'sophisticated' boyfriend. He tries to be more fancy, but then finds out it's all a trick by Mortimer so he can steal Minnie away from Mickey.
409%%* The premise behind ''WesternAnimation/MikeLuAndOg'' (pictured above): Her urban city ways against their strange island customs.
410* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'':
411** An animal version of this happens in the episode "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E9BridleGossip Bridle Gossip]]" when several of the locals mistake Zecora [[FurryReminder pawing for water]] as a threat display, and only [[GentlemanAndAScholar Twilight Sparkle,]] who already knows about zebras, isn't scared (at first). [[ShownTheirWork Note that this is a real difference between zebras and horses.]]
412** In "Luna Eclipsed", Princess Luna tries to be regal and gracious in Ponyville, using the patterns of behavior and speech that she remembers from over a thousand years ago. She ''terrifies'' everyone -- save for [[GentlemanAndAScholar Twilight Sparkle,]] who knows enough about both cultural history ''and'' royal protocol to realize what Luna is attempting to convey by her conduct.
413* Happens in the third season opener of ''WesternAnimation/BobAndMargaret'', when the titular couple moves from England to Canada.
414* The Almighty Tallest (and likely the Irken society in general) of ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'' are completely ''baffled'' when they learn that humans aren't ranked by height. They have trouble wrapping their minds of people taller than the average Irken but on average incredibly stupid. Dib is similarly gobsmacked when he realizes the Tallest are only leaders by virtue of being, well, the tallest.
415* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'' had the boat from Avalon take Goliath and company to Japan, where they ended up assisting a group of Japanese gargoyles. As the sun was rising and they were preparing to pose before they turned to stone for the day, Goliath learned of differing customs. Whereas Western Gargoyles face outward and assume intimidating poses to scare invaders, Eastern Gargoyles face ''inward'' and assume poses of benediction to reassure the residents inside. This initially caused some issues between Goliath and Angela. Angela, having been brought up by humans, wished for her father to acknowledge her as his daughter. Gargoyle tradition dictates that gargoyle children were always to be treated as the children of the entire clan and not claimed by their actual parents, which is why Goliath is unwilling to claim Angela as his daughter.
416* On ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'', [[FunnyForeigner Rolf]] is a frequent source of this.
417** In "Pop Goes the Ed", he apparently regards the quiche Jimmy brought to the party as bad luck.
418--->'''Rolf:''' It is the food of (''BattyLipBurbling'')! The party is ''cursed!''
419** In "Dueling Eds", Rolf is deeply insulted and ashamed that Eddy threw the [[ForeignQueasine sea cucumber balls]] he served at a party. So much, he asks everyone to trod on his face on their way out of the party, and later is seen having ''buried himself alive'', with only a funnel to breathe through, as part of some weird penance ritual. When Eddy tries to offer a potted plant as a token of forgiveness, Rolf just gets angry that Eddy gave him "the potted shrub of ridicule" and challenges Eddy to a duel. After Eddy suffers a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown [[ShamuFu involving fish,]] Rolf offers everyone present to dump the "Eels of Forgiveness" down their pants, and [[HereWeGoAgain gets mad when Kevin refuses to join in.]]
420* ''WesternAnimation/MollyOfDenali'': In the aptly titled "Culture Clash," Molly and Tooey meet Trini, who is from Texas. They watch a movie about Texas and then dress up like cowboys to try and make her happy. Trini then shows them that Texas is not really like that. Later on, Trini assumes that there are polar bears everywhere in Alaska. At the library, she learns that this is not the case.
421[[/folder]]
422
423[[folder:Real Life]]
424* The reason why translators, lawyers and diplomats exist.
425* Although "colored" is considered a pejorative in the USA and the UK, in South Africa, it has no negative connotations, used ubiquitously to refer to mixed-race people.
426* In the West, slurping food is generally rude, but in Japan, it's completely normal and expected. Similarly, the Chinese shovel food into their mouths by holding onto their bowls with their other hand and putting them right up to their mouth, because putting your head down over your food while you eat is seen as eating like a dog.
427* Most Western and Middle-Eastern cultures consider food being left uneaten as a sign of disrespect to either the host's skills or hospitality (not to mention wasteful). On the contrary, leaving food uneaten in China suggests that it was enough, and eating everything that you've been served can imply that the host has failed to provide you with enough food. Woe betide you if you're invited for dinner by a Middle Eastern/Chinese couple...
428* As noted in the JapanesePoliteness trope, Japan averts this with respect to flags. Not wanting to curtail the citizens right to Freedom of Speech, but also not wanting to show disrespect, Japan outlawed all Flag Burning except for the Japanese Flag.
429* Much of Korea and China's dislike of Japan is the result of this trope. Japanese culture makes it extremely taboo to make your "group" look bad to outsiders. Your group includes things like your family, your class, your company, your nation, etc. Naturally, this led to Japan not liking to discuss their role in WWII, which comes off as insensitive to Koreans and Chinese war victims. The United States, with its own share of shameful past, generally is a bit more forgiving of Japan, but some circles still are taken aback with how little the subject comes up in Japan's history courses. This is especially true when compared to Germany, who are very open about how they are remorseful for their WWII involvement.
430* UsefulNotes/McDonalds struggled when it first entered the India market in the mid-90s because it didn't do the proper market research into cultural dietary differences. They found out that people were interested in American food but they didn't think to tweak the American menu to fit local culture/tastes. Indian customers were given a menu of Big Macs, chicken tenders, and fries just like American customers. The problem is that roughly half of all people in India are vegetarians for religious reasons and everything at [=McDonald's=] is cooked with beef fat (which even non-vegetarian Hindus won't eat) so there quite literally was nothing for half a billion people to eat. The ingredients weren't given either, so people weren't willing to risk eating something that wasn't vegetarian anytime a new item was introduced. They would eventually go back to the drawing board and create a specific line for the Indian market but it wasn't until 2018 that the subsidiary made a profit.
431* JustFollowingOrders is an example of this. In German Law, UsefulNotes/ThreeDegreesOfMurder is set by the motivation of the accused when committing the crime. Thus the sentence is set based on the charge. In UsefulNotes/TheCommonLaw, motivation plays no part in the charges but rather the planning or intent to commit the act. Motive comes into play only after guilt is established. So, to British and American members of the court, the "justification" came off as more severe because not only were they admitting to playing a part in a premeditated crime (which is the most severe of the murder charges) but upon guilt, they could now say that at no point did they see their actions as wrong, which doesn't help at sentencing.
432* During the TroubledProduction of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'', the Japanese dev team would constantly apologize for the delays and screw ups, which would be a typical form of JapanesePoliteness. However, constant apologies in the West is seen as insincere since the apologizer isn't rectifying their mistakes (for example, always screwing up in school and apologizing for the mistakes while still making the same mistakes over and over). The head English localizer of the game grew frustrated to the point of outright telling the Japanese team that constant apologies was making everyone view the dev team as untrustworthy, despite being polite about the apologies. This got the team to see the error of their ways and vow to not repeat the same mistakes.
433* In the United States, tipping your waiter or waitress, as well as other service workers like bartenders, is ''expected''. When you tip the expected amount, that means you had a normal experience and are meaning your social obligation as a restaurant customer. Tipping ''more'' than expected (the expectation is at least 15% of the purchase price) shows the employee that you valued their services whereas not tipping them is the sign that they did something very wrong, and is frowned upon. In Japan, adding a tip is considered to be very rude due how people view it as you assuming that they don't make enough money or need money out of pity. Mind you, in the US it's not uncommon for people in the industries where one usually tips to actually not make a living wage. In the later 19th century US white people adopted the custom towards Black former enslaved workers. Restaurants responded pushing to have a special lower minimum wage for tipped workers. This means that it's legal to pay below minimum wage with the expectation that tips will make up for it. So while tipping is not a legal requirement of a customer, ''not tipping'' is socially taboo in the US.
434* When reviewing the work of a Japanese client, avoid using the phrase "exceeds expectations". While in the West it's a way of saying a really good job was done, it's taken more literally in Japan, leading them to wonder if you had low expectations of their ability if their work exceeded it.
435* Gandhi ran afoul of this in the wake of Kristallnacht, when he advised the German Jewish community to commit mass suicide in response to German persecution. In so doing, Gandhi was speaking from a tradition in which it is common for people to commit suicide publicly to call attention to an oppressive regime (cf. the Buddhist self-immolations in South Vietnam and the Falun Gong in China). Perhaps Gandhi imagined that a Jewish mass suicide would expose the extent of Nazi barbarity and possibly even bring down the Reich. However, in the West (not to mention North America), telling someone to commit suicide is considered not only offensive but also ''extremely cruel'', a way of telling them that the world is better off without them; not to mention that, in following Gandhi's advice, the Jews would have been furthering the Nazis' goals. To this day, Gandhi is less well-regarded in the Jewish community than in the rest of the world.
436* In Scandinavia, it's common to allow infants to sleep outside in the cold (while supervised and dressed warmly), as the fresh air allows for higher quality sleep and reduces pathogen exposure. They even sell outdoor cribs shaped like rabbit hutches called ''[[https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babyhuisje babyhuisje]]'' (baby houses) to facilitate the practice. However, for obvious reasons it can be alarming for foreigners to see. In 1997 a Danish woman named Anette Sørensen was arrested for child endangerment in New York and temporarily lost custody of her daughter after alarmed patrons called the police on her leaving her baby outside a restaurant. The charges were dropped, but the case sparked international debate and Sørensen was awarded $66,000 in a lawsuit against the city.
437* One of these was a major reason that ''VideoGame/MetroidOtherM'' was such a flop. The creators wanted to market the games to Japanese gamers better, as the series tended to sell better in the US and most of Europe. To do this, they changed main character Samus Aran into an emotionally needy, submissive and naive soldier devoted to her former boss and parental figure. This was meant to make her the ideal woman in Japanese eyes. The director of the game, Yoshio Sakamoto, even boasted about how loveable he made her. However, American gamers were ''not happy'' as the Samus they all loved was the stoic, no-nonsense, independent bounty hunter from past games. And because ''Metroid'' gets most of its sales from the West, this resulted in a flop and Samus returning to her former personality.
438* Shortly after France won the 2018 [[UsefulNotes/TheWorldCup World Cup]], an online argument ended up erupting between Creator/TrevorNoah and the actual members of the French football team. The reason? Noah decided to make a quip about how "Africa won the World Cup", as a majority of the team was composed of second or third generation immigrants with African origins. To him, he was celebrating their origins and the fact that they too can succeed and become "heroes"; but from the French viewpoint, he was quoting ''extremely racist'' far-right rhetoric about how descendants of foreigners, particularly those hailing from Africa, will never really be French. Things quickly got awkward as one side accused the other of rejecting their origins, and the other accused them of denying them their nationality for the sake of genetics.
439* Part of the reason why the Platform/NintendoGameCube bombed in North America was [[http://web.archive.org/web/20130819010845/http://www.notenoughshaders.com/2013/08/15/the-struggles-of-marketing-the-gamecube due to the differences in what Japanese gamers and North American gamers find fun in their games]]; Nintendo of Japan wanted to stick with the "fun for the whole family" image where players of any age could just play the game, smile, and laugh as they experience the game they played. On the other hand, Many American gamers at the time were high-school/college aged and were more interested in mature, bloody and/or violent games in high resolution graphics to make everything look more realistic. While the [=GameCube=] did sell reasonably well among families in North America, they were at this point only a small fraction of the gaming market.
440* In 2020, Music/{{Adele}} [[https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/adele-notting-hill-carnival-photo-instagram-hair-bantu-jamaica-a9696671.html stirred a debate online]] when she posted a photo of herself at the Notting Hill Carnival festival in London decked out in a Jamaican-flag bikini top and her hair is twisted into Bantu knots on Instagram. Several Black American social media users criticized her for her outfit choice and accused her of appropriating black culture. This in turn was met by several Black British and Caribbean social media users chiming in to support her, explaining that such fashion choices are a traditional aspect of the festival and she did nothing wrong. Essentially, the debate boiled down to what users of each nationality considered cultural appropriation vs cultural exchange.
441* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_twins_in_Nigeria In Nigeria, the Yoruba tribe revere twins and consider them a good omen, but the nearby Efik tribe considers them demonic and, until quite recently, killed them.]]
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