British expat shares six things that surprised her about moving to Australia

A British expat listed the six culture shocks that surprised her the most since moving to Australia.

Charlee moved from London to Sydney in November and posted a TikTok on Wednesday detailing what she wasn’t ready for.

The 25-year-old said she looked silly when she was driving as traffic lights and car indicators are different to the UK, and thought ‘how are you doing?’ meant ‘where are you going?’

“If you’re thinking of moving to Australia, here are some things you definitely need to know,” he said.

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Expat Charlee (pictured) moved from London to Sydney in November and shared six things that have struck her the most about living in Australia. The 25-year-old said she looked silly when she was driving as traffic lights and car indicators are different to the UK, and she thought ‘how’s she doing?’ meant ‘where are you going?’

First, Charlee admitted that she didn’t quite understand some of the general terms used in everyday language.

‘When I first came here in November and people were asking me how I was doing, I told them I was going to the supermarket. They looked at me like I was crazy,” she said in the clip.

‘Now I understand what this means, it means ‘how are you?’

Charlee then said that she has trouble opening doors at first because of the type of locks used in Australia.

“In the UK, most doors are bolted shut,” he said.

“Now I’m not a locksmith, however I can tell you that in every country I’ve been to, if you want to open the door, you turn the key towards the center of the door and the latch lifts.

‘Please don’t do that in this country. You look like an idiot and it’s the other way around.

Charlee came to understand that most doors Down Under require the key to be turned out of the door, not in.

Charlee was also caught off guard while driving as in Australia the gauge is usually on the right hand side, while in the UK and most of Europe it is on the left hand side, but this depends on the make.

“When I go to signal, I turn my windshield wipers off like fucking crazy,” she said.

‘This is one of the things that’s still pulling me [off] and I’ve been driving here for 10 days.’

Charlee also mentioned how ‘crazy’ Aussies can get in rush hour traffic when they drive home from work to put on their ‘flip flops and tank tops’.

Charlee was caught off guard while driving as in Australia the indicator is located on the right hand side, while in the UK and most of Europe it is on the left hand side. He also mentioned how ‘crazy’ Australians can get into rush hour traffic when driving home from work (file image)

Charlee said she has been whistled by the Australians for being too slow at intersections when the lights turn green.

“Usually in the UK, (the lights) turn red and amber at the same time so you know it’s about to turn green,” he said.

‘It doesn’t do that in this country, it just goes from red to green right away.

Charlee said this doesn’t give you a chance to change the song because you might miss it when the lights turn green.

For the last two culture shocks, Charlee said that cow’s milk tastes like “Halloween chocolate” and that a lot of people have mullets.

Overnight, the video surpassed more than 250,000 views and left hundreds of stitches.

‘I laughed so hard at this. I totally forgot about some of the stuff,” wrote one woman.

Another said: ‘I still don’t know how to respond when a Brit says ‘are you okay?’ So there’s that.

Others pointed out that which side the car’s gauges are on depends on the make of the car.