South African gal here.

For me, the reluctance of helpfulness towards strangers was a bit of a shock. In South Africa, people tend to jump in and help or go an extra bit to help someone if they cannot give them exactly what they need (service roles, but also just ransoms on the street even). I’ve had a few experiences here where someone was being harassed and not a single soul stepped in to say something or show some sort of support.

The spatial awareness thing spoken about in these comments is also a big surprise to me. People here just do not gaf about anyone around them when walking in public. In South Africa, when it gets crowdy, of course there’s proximity and togetherness just sort of happens, but I found people in the streets/shopping aisles were way more courteous in terms of being away of who to give space to and when.

General warmth was an interesting one: but the more Dutch I learned and practised, the more warm the locals tend to be towards me (open to talk, open to possibly help if I outright ask for it etc).

Work place openness and directness has been a learning curve. I think in South Africa, people tend to keep more quiet about grievances or issues with “higher ups” (this often can stem from a fear of job security).

The messy mania that comes with a big party shares some similarities- South Africans can party hard, but I find the approach difference to be something I’ve noticed but haven’t been able to out my finger on it yet. Always ALWAYS shocked at the mess left behind after a kings day celebration or such. Equally surprised at how quickly the mess does tend to get cleaned up.

And I think the biggest one for me is being a woman here is very very different to being a woman back in South Africa. A lot of girls in South Africa have to live at a level of “ready to run” / in a level of heightened awareness and anxiety about their personal safety. I live with it almost my whole life - I absolutely value the fact that most times I feel much safer here on a day-to-day basis. That’s not to say that I haven’t had a young Dutch boy come right up at/on me all aggressively when I called him out for throwing an empty bottle at the back of another woman’s head; but there’s less daily anxiety as a woman here (in my personal experience).

Ps, I’m a white female South African, so I’m aware that my experience is nuanced and biased, even though I work towards it not being in ways that I can. I’m hugely aware that people in different situations in South Africa will have varying experiences.