I moved to Germany from Pakistan in 2013 and it’s been a while.

Few of the cultural shocks are following:

• Personal space: There’s no such thing as personal space in Pakistan. For example, if you’re in trouble or going through tough time, your family and friends will jump in and irrespective the fact that you don’t want them near you, they’ll invade all personal space and still help you or at least try. Or they will tell you that they are there for you. I was so used to it until I came to Germany.

• Not asking twice: In my culture, for example, if our guests are on a dinner table, we will usually request them “Please eat more” or “Please try this or that”. And repeat this mantra not just once but several times. This is how the culture is, keep requesting until the person agrees on it. And your guests will resist first(it’s considered polite, but feels fake), and will eventually surrender. While in Germany, I had a German friend and used to stay with her family once a year. If they asked me if I need something and I’d say no, they wouldn’t ask me again. So it took me some time to first think and then reply accordingly.
• No one gives a shit about what you do: I was used to the culture where I had to think about my surroundings and cultural values before I do anything. And if I was to cross my limits, there were tons of people around me who would do whatever it takes to stop and warn me. In Germany, or in general Western world, unless you say you’ll kill yourself, nobody basically will give a shit.

• White kids are misbehaved: In my culture, we used to think that Western kids/teens are very uncultured and rude to their parents. Well, my experience is quite different. The German kids I met and noticed not only are very well behaved, but they also respect their parents. In turn, the parents respect their kids and quite often treat and consider them as adults. I am 28(not anymore) and in my culture my parents and grandparents will say “oh, you’re still a kid, you don’t know much about life and existence and you’re not fully matured to take any big decisions”.
• Humor: In my culture, your entire existence can become my subject when it comes to cracking jokes. We crack jokes on race, color, living status, family and everything which you can possible imagine. The sarcasm, taunt and humiliation are part of our daily life. Well, all of this happen in a positive enjoyable way and never meant to hurt a person at extreme levels. Well in Germany, maybe I didn’t understand German people well, the max humor I got from someone is “You’re sweating like a fat pig”. I don’t know if it even counts in humor.
• Nobody cares about FOOD(literally): I was at a meeting with my office colleagues and we were served lunch. I noticed nobody said a single word about food and how the certain steak or salad tasted. One by one all of my co-workers ate the lunch and got done with it, like nothing happened. Now,repeat this “lunch served” situation in Pakistan, the colleagues will start with ”oh man, this room smells so good, I think we will be served mutton beryani…”. The next person would reply… ”Man, I’m so hungry, I hope they have steak”. During lunch, they will share their experience about food and it’s aroma and tell their co-workers to try a particular food that they found more delicious. That conversation will go like…”Oh yar why are still eating bread/chapatti, try the mutton only. Oh and I tried the kebabs, don’t forget to try it…. Also the rice isn’t cooked well, I would say don’t waste time on it. Okay man, I’m so full and done but now I have to find some sweets”. These are the types of suggestions co-workers will give to each other.

**Thanks everyone for showing interest in my answer. I will now add more differences as i experience them in daily life **

• Cold heart: A workplace colleague of mine was with us for few years, and recently moved to a different office location. How do you think Germans would have reacted when he said goodbye on his last day? Well, they just said ‘bye’. If it was in Pakistan, we would hug this colleague. Wish him luck for the new office location, crack some jokes that you’ll have terrible time there without us and that we are better off without you… I mean, it wouldn’t be just simple goodbye without even a handshake. I really don’t understand this kind of behavior, to me it’s like you don’t care enough.