What is it? Why should you know about it?

Since you will soon be entering a new culture, it is quite possible that you will be experiencing what we call culture shock. Culture Shock may be defined as the feeling one experience when taken out a familiar environment and thrown into a completely new and different one. In your own country, you are among people who understand you--who know who you are and think and behave in a similar manner as you. You know what to expect from them and they from you. However, when you enter a new culture you suddenly encounter people with new behaviors and a new way of thinking-a simple gesture of movement or utterance may mean something completely different. Your situation in this new culture may be compared to “a fish taken out of water”.

A knowledge of Culture Shock may be useful to you. Arriving in a new culture, you may experience feelings or emotions that you do not understand. The purpose of this discussion is to make you aware of what Culture Shock is, how a person may feel when experiencing it and what can be done about it. With this new awareness, once you are in the new culture, you may be able to analyze your own feelings and decide whether you are experiencing Culture Shock or not. If you decide you are, then an understanding of Culture Shock is perhaps, the first step on the road to recovery. When you begin to understand or become aware of something, you can then begin to take care of it.

How can you tell if you have culture shock?

An individual undergoing Culture Shock experiences a variety of feelings. According to studies in the field, the following general feelings may be experienced: estrangement, anger, indecision, frustration, anxiety, unhappiness, loneliness, homesickness or illness.

The individual may have feelings that best protect or defend him from the strange environment. For example, he may have the felling or rejection or regression. Rejection means that he is rejecting or feeling rejected by the environment, which makes him feel badly. The feeling of regression means that the home country becomes most important and he chooses to remember only the good things about it.

More specifically, the individual undergoing Culture Shock may experience the following symptoms:

1. a particular concern for cleanliness or dirtiness
2. a helplessness - a dependence on his own countrymen
3. more irritation than he usually shows for things that go wrong
4. a fear of being cheated, injured or robbed
5. a concern for pains or skin eruptions he might have
6. a need to be back home with his own people who understand him
7. a delay or refusal to learn the language of the country.

In addition, here are some of the stages an individual goes through when he is experiencing a new environment:

STAGE I. This may be called the “tourist stage” or the stage of “euphoria”. At this state, the person is experiencing the country for the first time. He is fascinated and thrilled with all the new. He tends to only see the similarities with his own country.

STAGE II. This stage may be called the “hostile or aggressive stage”. At this stage, the person is slowly beginning to feel uncomfortable. He begins to see differences in the new culture which he cannot understand, and therefore disturb him. At this stage, he is very critical of the new culture and may gather together with his countrymen to speak against it.

STAGE III. At this stage, he is slowly recovering. He is becoming interested and sensitive to the new culture and people around him. His sense of humor returns and he can even begin to joke about his new experiences and difficulties.

STAGE IV. At this stage, he is almost fully recovered. He is truly understanding and experiencing the new environment in a meaningful way. He has accepted it and is actually enjoying it.

What can you do about culture shock?

Now that you have an idea about the feelings involved with Culture Shock, perhaps we can discuss how to deal with them.

Students cope with this problem in various ways. Some choose to flee from the problem completely. They prefer to withdraw or isolate themselves from their new environment, perhaps with their own countrymen. Others choose to reject their own culture or “go native”. They become completely immersed in the new culture. Still others attempt to fight the new culture-they want to try to change what they don’t like in it rather than try to adapt. As you can see, none of these methods is satisfactory.

Which method is the most satisfactory? First, it is perhaps most important to understand yourself – your beliefs, behavior or “own cultural identity” and how you relate or interact with other people. Secondly, you should begin to understand the new culture – the beliefs, behavior of the people in this new culture. As you begin to understand both your own culture and the new culture, you can now begin to adapt or adjust to the new environment.

Choosing to adapt to the new environment is a difficult process. You must be open - free of fear to learn and to change your behavior, if necessary. In this process of adapting, you must remember not to forget yourself – your true beliefs or values that you have grown up with. You keep these, but you also accept and try to integrate the aspects of the new culture that seem desirable and will help you achieve your goals while you are there.

Culture Shock can be a valuable growing and learning experience. It forces your to experience yourself and others in a new way. It gives you a special self-awareness or understanding. It can show you how much of you own behavior is influenced by your culture. It also gives you a special awareness of others and how much their attitudes and behavior can be determined by their culture.