I grew up in the US and my husband grew up in Ireland. We’ve settled down in Dublin, but there were a few culture shocks along the way.

When I first moved here, I found it baffling that many Irish people I met hadn’t visited other parts of the country they deemed “too far away.”

In the US, driving a few hours for a vacation would be considered easy. But my partner seems to think anything over an hour is as long.

It seems to boil down to the relative sizes of both countries. Driving from the top to the bottom of Ireland takes just over six hours, but in the US, it takes over 14 hours to drive across the state of Texas alone. 

My partner and I have found there’s a major difference in mentality when it comes to attainable driving distances.

When we were planning a road trip around County Kerry last summer, I thought we could just visit the whole region since it would only take about three hours to drive around.

My partner was absolutely horrified at how much driving we’d be doing and would’ve preferred to stay put in one location. Thankfully, he thoroughly enjoyed the experience, and ever since, we’ve taken many scenic road trips.

Ireland has two official languages, English and Gaeilge, or “Irish” as it’s known locally. 

The official Irish language is taught starting in first class in primary school (the equivalent to first grade in the US), and it can be found all over the country — both written on road signs and buses and spoken on the radio and TV.

Because of Ireland’s proximity to other European countries, it’s also common for students to learn another language, such as Spanish or French. 

I didn’t have quite the same experience with language learning in the US school system. Regardless of the number of classes I took, I never really achieved fluency.

I’ve realized that American children seem to be raised to be more independent and self-sufficient. It’s common to leave home at 18, whether it be to move away for college or simply move out to freely experience legal adulthood.

But in Ireland, it’s more common for people to live with their parents well into their late 20s, or until they move in with their significant other.

Compared to my Irish partner, I think I had to grow up faster in terms of living on my own and becoming financially independent. 

My partner and I have discussed all of the emergency drills we used to practice in school, such as fire drills, earthquake drills, and tornado drills.

Some of these were a foreign concept to him — Ireland isn’t known to get tornadoes or earthquakes — but he was also completely stumped when I mentioned active-shooter drills.

When I first explained the concept from my experiences in kindergarten through high school, he was completely shocked that children were taught to run into a corner and hide at school from such a young age.

I never really questioned or considered the significance of it growing up. Now, viewing it from an outsider’s perspective, it’s horrifying to think about the reality of these emergency drills. 

This story was originally published in August 2022 and most recently updated on September 11, 2024.