The biggest cultural shock i experienced was seeing that people from other countries see their rising as way to describe themselves instead of their sun
I'm from Poland and Polish astrology has a lot of differences from western astrology. How we see signs, planets, houses is different, because of our history and culture, which sometimes clashes with western tradition. That being said there are always at least tiny similarities in all subjects of astrology between those two. All expect the rising.
I grew up with sun being you, literally. All your morals, all your beliefs and your very existence was your sun. Rising was the obsticle you needed to defeat to become better you. It is the biggest lesson of your life and the theme of your struggles. In a way rising was supposed to be your biggest flaw, and sun was supposed to be your best self. So it was interesting to learn how it is shown in western astrology, but definetly gave me a cultural shock.