voice messages are used a lot here I spent the first two years in Chile sort of doing this mhm the food in Chile is very bad hi everyone this is Pancho for dating Beyond borders and we're here in Santiago the Chile to ask foreigners about the biggest cultural shocks they've experienced while living here let's hear what they have to say [Music] so what's your name and where are you from my name is Alishka and I'm originally from CCH Republic my name is n and I'm from the Netherlands my name is G and I'm from Portugal
hey my name's Annie and I am from the United States and my name is Daman and I'm from the UK how long have you lived in Chile so far one year I came last year for 10 months and then came back now I arrived in 2008 so what is it like 15 years I was traveling by myself and looking for a place to live outside of the United States I really liked speaking Spanish and as soon as I got to Santiago I felt in home so I had a baby with my Chilean girlfriend in the
UK in 2004 and uh came here in 2005 to be a part of her life what were your expectations of Chilean culture when you first came here and did did Chile live up to those expectations I had absolutely no idea what to expect when I arrived to Chile it was a mega culture shock I honestly didn't have that many expectations because I didn't really know about Chile in the United States Argentina is much more known as a place in Peru I mean just for like a place to visit t for tourism Chile I knew it
was like a long skinny country at the end of the globe that had lots of mountains and ocean and it's super similar to like California where I grew up Europeans they think only of like favellas and stuff of Latin America and then I actually came back came here to Chile and the infrastructure is amazing way better than in Portugal so like for example I have my bike like the the bike Lanes here go all around the city there's a lot of events to do and in my opinion I don't think the crime is too bad
I have the thought that Chile is like Latin America light in the same way that Hong Kong is like Asia light it's more of a welcoming and less stereotypical Place compared to maybe other parts of Latin America I think the safety thing is a big issue and the fact that the country is stable and the way that people interact with you as well because you have the identity of a foreigner this is important I remember for example when I was in Colombia or in Brazil people are like you know looking at you and really sizing
you up and here I don't have that as much uh or for too what would you say are some of these cultural shocks that you felt upon first arriving here voice messages voice messages are used a lot here if I want to be in touch with someone I'm just used to text them and here I have some friends and I text them and they always answer by the voice message I think because I came from Europe and I also lived in the UK for quite a bit the culture shock mainly is how behind Santiago really
was when I arrived so I felt like I was going backwards in time there wasn't really a big culture shock but I was very disappointed with the food the food in Chile is uh very bad I'm passionate about Venezuelan food Colombian food Brazilian food they're all super great but the Chilean food besides like kazela it's not the greatest it's very like junk food I think Chile is very limited with a cheese offer for me I know it's ridiculous but yeah I'm used to eat a lot of cheese there's some really good stuff but um they're
really lacking in the cheese department and I'm a cheeseaholic and the cheese here are socks that has been said by more than one person do you agree yeah because if you like sandwiches and burgers like I do Chile does have some of the best of fast food on the planet but that's pretty much where it's at the bar culture is completely different here like when you go to a bar people don't talk to you you go to your go to a bar sit at a table you're with your friends and you don't talk to strangers
whereas like in New York City or in London you go to a bar as a woman and you can sit by yourself and then just like start shooting the with people would you say it's EAS or hard to make friends in regards to Chileans yeah I I I feel like they're very adventurous they can be a bit weird when you compare to like Venezuelans and Colombians they're like more easygoing I would say is is that what you mean with weird like a little more more Personality yeah yeah yeah yeah which is not bad I feel
like they have more personalities here in Chile like different interests like there's a big passion with East Asia here in Chile like people love like Korean stuff and Japanese stuff which is funny because like we're very far away it's like a across the Pacific but people here are very passionate about like anime and that kind of stuff in terms of outdoor activities it's quite easy like to make friends and to go do those set activities in Britain it was pubs drinking very sort of uh intense drinking in the evening which is uh I thought of
as normal and then the Casual sort of violence that goes on in the UK when you know they have a saying over there pint in a fight a Great British kns so when I came to Chile it was mindblowing how healthy uh the relationship with alcohol is here compared to like some Anglo cultures for the very simple reason one word a Salo what would happen is is that you get invited to a barbecue at a friend's house you'd arrive at let's say I don't know 1:00 in the afternoon you'd spend the whole day drinking you
want to take a break you go sit on the couch there's kids around so no one's being too you know there's not there's no sort of fights breaking out and stuff like that and it's food Julian Spanish has a Fame of being a little hard to understand did you experience any of this absolutely I grew up in California and so I'd been around Mexican Spanish and then I went to Argentina for a couple months before I came to Chile and i' live in Italy so like I understood Argentinian Spanish really easily and then I got
over the mountain here I came in from Mendoza down the mountains and arrived in Santiago and I was like what the hell are people saying it was really difficult but I mean it's interesting and fun I like the differences and once you learn the dialect of Chile um after you've been here for a while you can really get what people are saying and it's hilarious Chileans are hilarious I don't think so I think Spanish from Spain like catalunia like that is much much harder much harder in the beginning people were saying ah Spanish because of
the slangs like you guys have a lot of slangs and a lot of like just words here but once you learned the word just like it's I don't think it like I I don't think the accent is hard to understand it's a real stereotype that we talk too fast yeah yeah it it is it is I mean I met people from Spain and I like talking with with them in Spanish and they were like I don't even know what kind of Spanish are you guys talking about can we show everyone what it sounds like to
have a conversation in Chile and Spanish yeah so if you got any of that please let us know I as I said I didn't speak Spanish when I arrived I had two years of difficulty humiliation let's say you have a certain intellectual level but when you have to articulate your thoughts in a second language which you're just acquiring essentially you're stupid cuz you have to ask for repetition you don't understand things if there's a group of people talking you're lost so I spent the first 2 years in Chile sort of doing this mhm yep very
cool I made my first phone call successfully after 2 years in Chile like to order a pizza I remember that very clearly you know what's really cool Pancho is that now Chile and Spanish is my Spanish so when I interact with people from you know Argentina or from Spain and things like especially from Spain or Mexico they're like what the hell you know cuz I have my Spanish is Chilean with a British accent as well why would you say is your favorite thing about Chile and the one thing that you maybe still cannot get used
to the one I don't like it's the winter here because there are no heatings in the houses so I'm basically cold all the time is there one thing you feel like you still cannot get used to yeah when when when you agree to something you have to reconfirm always you have you can never go with the first yes yeah a that's a very big struggle I really liked that I could get along with women Chile and women um were really inviting to me and I made some really awesome girlfriends and that's important to me cuz
in some cultures some women aren't so nice to foreign ladies had experiences with Italian women in the past that like they didn't want to be my friends at all um because Italian men wanted to have sex with the foreign woman and the women didn't I don't know yeah it was an issue what would you say is the best part about living in Chile I would like say the differ Landscapes we had I mean it's really like a country like you can do a lot of like outdoor activities so how has living in Chile changed you
as a person I think I can very honestly say that coming from the Netherlands was extremely Square yeah Square minded not flexible and I think what Chile has taught me is to become more flexible to look at the gray areas and to adapt way faster than I would have done in in Europe and I think that's the biggest learning care I've so far [Music]
