Culture Shock
Culture shock was a new term to me. I know it only from my English lectures. Firstly, when I looked at these words separately, I’ll find words like traditions, customs, way of life, for “culture”, and words like alarm, fright, distress and verbs like stun, scandalize, traumatize for “shock”. So, then I understand, new traditions that scandalize you, new mores that alarm you, and a different way of life that frightens you; that’s culture shock. It may hit as soon as you arrive. Or, if you’re a different complexion, height or dress than the people in your new country. Or, one day, after a while in your new residence, you gesture with the left hand, and people look at you scandalized. Then you are disappointing and in your letter to family “I just don’t understand these people!”Speaking about myself I didn’t feel culture shock, so it’s very difficult to predict my feelings in the other countries between a lot of different people.To some culture shock is a horrible experience that devours their precious time abroad and leaves them exhausted and confused, to others it is a business impediment that can crash the most thought out deal. Students get confused, families can be torn apart, and the “lucky ones” come away feeling guilty – asking each other why “someone as lucky as me” would be experiencing feelings like this.Some people feel culture shock after two weeks, others after a month or more. Surely it depends on people. Everybody it senses different. Some of them don’t like food, others miss their family, friends, or don’t like the local people.Often when a person takes up residence in a foreign country there is a period of excitement and exhilaration when everything seems new and challenging and fascinating. There may appear to be more similarities than differences. Some surprises always await persons when they arrive in a new place. People may walk and talk more quickly, traffic patterns may be confusing, and buildings may look different than expected. Such differences are easy to see and quickly learned.
Sometimes people worry about “losing their culture” if they become too well adapted to the host culture. There is no reason to worry: it is virtually impossible to lose the culture in which you were raised. In fact, learning about the new culture often increases your appreciation for and understanding of your own culture. Don’t resist the opportunity to become bicultural, able to function competently in two cultural environments.Well, when people return home some of them feel reverse culture shock. It is somewhat similar but it refers to when a person who has been away from their native culture goes back to live there and how they adjust and what they can and can’t cope with back in their native environment. And there are many a time when people have a very difficult time adjusting back to their native environment, especially when (in my opinion) they have lived an extended period of time in another culture, and not only another culture, but another drastically different culture.