Cultural Differences

              Coming to Ireland I did not know what to expect. I did not know if it was going to be different compared to the States. Turns out there is a lot of things that Ireland does differently than back home. One difference I noticed very quickly was the fact that vehicles are driven on the wrong side of the road (left side of street) compared to back at home we drive on the right side of the road. Over my time here I have finally adapted to that difference, it took me a little while to get into the habit of looking both ways before crossing the street (so I don’t get hit by a car or anything).

Here is a picture of a road in Ireland. Cars drive on the left side going to somewhere and coming back they drive on the right side.

 

          When my cottage-mates and I first went to a grocery store our professors had advised us to bring reusable bags to carry our groceries in, because Ireland doesn’t use plastic bags, or paper bags to sack your groceries in. But we did not listen to the advice, and instead we brought our backpacks not thinking how much groceries we would need (but we were able to stuff it all in our bags). We all learned after that experience that we should always bring our reusable bags with us for groceries, however you can also buy reusable bags at the check-out for a small price if we had forgotten our bags, or needed more but we don’t want to do that so we will just remember our bags unless we absolutely needed more.

Here is a reusable bag that was given to us when we first got here.

       Another thing that is different from the States is it’s relatively budget friendly to eat better here in Ireland, because they have amazing deals that you could definitely not find in stores back at home. Just to list a few examples: we can get three packages of meat of choice for ten euros, so that is a really good deal we always get some kind of meat every time we go to the grocery store. We also can get two bags of certain fruit of choice (like apples for example) for three euros, three!! That’s amazing because we go through a lot of fruit, so it is great that it is cheap for how much we can get. Lastly we can get two half gallon milks for four euros, which is great for all the milk lovers here.

Here is an example of meat that we can get 3 for 10 euros. This picture has chicken, beef, and salmon.

            Over time I have had to get used to different sayings that Irish people say that I would not usually hear back in America. For instance, when I would say ‘thank you’ instead of them saying ‘you’re welcome’ they say ‘cheers’, or it can also mean ‘thank you’ when they say it to you first. Another thing they say is ‘good on you’ which I assume is supposed to mean ‘good for you’ or something like that. Along with getting used to different sayings I also had to get used to different vocab that Irish people use. For example, ‘take away’ is the same thing as ‘to go’, ‘crisps’ is really chips, and ‘chips’ is another word for fries, so I easily confuse those two all the time. I could go on, and on about different sayings/vocab possibly write a whole book I’m sure but I won’t bore you.

Here are some delicious chips! Very good with salt and vinegar with it!

 

                  One last difference I wanted to touch on that I thought was interesting was when I talked to some students from a high school, and I had asked them about how their schooling system works. Basically how it works is when kids start going to school what we consider elementary school is what they call primary school, and during this stage in a child’s life it was fascinating to find out that children must talk to their teachers in Irish (Gaelic) only they cannot speak English to their teachers, but I think they can speak English to their peers. Primary schools are very strict on having students speak only in Irish because their trying to preserve the language because from what I understand a majority of people in Ireland like to speak English rather than Irish, so because of that primary schools are forcing students to speak the language to preserve their culture. After primary school then there’s secondary school, and from what I understand secondary school is like a middle school and high school I believe compared to us. Then after secondary school people can choose to go to college kind of like in America after high school people normally go to college. Also when I talked the students they told me about practicing religion in schools, like in primary school students had to do communion in school every day which I thought that was very intriguing since in America we don’t do that in schools.          

            Even though I have experienced so many differences it’s made me appreciate this country even more for how long I’ve been here so far. And it’s also made me appreciate for what I have back at home in the U.S. This experience has been nothing but amazing, and has really opened my eyes to see how different everything is compared to America, and has made me look at things from a different perspective.