Absorbing Culture Shock
Is it possible to fit in everywhere — to be an “international”? Are there people who can ignore their own culture and adapt completely to other ways of life? It is doubtful. Each of us has attitudes, emotions, prejudices, habits, and mannerisms that are as much a product of our culture as is the language we speak or the beliefs we accept and react to regularly.
BODY LANGUAGE
Many people think that knowing and using some of the languages of people insures automatic communication with them. But when we consider that communication includes all behavior and circumstances, it is clear that knowledge of the written and spoken language may by itself be insufficient. Your peace of mind and efficiency depend on hundreds of signs and symbols about which you are largely unaware. These signs and cues you use to orient yourself to the situations of daily living include when and how to greet people, eat food, get from place to place, and talk informally with others.
When you enter a strange culture, all or most of these familiar cues are removed. You may be like a fish out of water. No matter how broadminded or full of goodwill you may be, props have been knocked out from under you and you will be affected. The mental and emotional adjustment required of those living abroad is real.
The problems of adjustment come to all, but to each with varying intensity. It helps to know that such problems will arise and to know what it is you are experiencing. This difficulty in confronting and coping with new cultural circumstances has been termed “culture shock.” It affects nearly every traveler — even experienced ones. Yet, millions of people have lived through it. You can, too.
An intercultural experience is a potent and personal teacher; it forces you into realizations about others and about yourself. Indeed, the greatest “shock” may not be in the encounter with a different culture but in the recognition of how your culture has shaped you and what you do.
This difficulty might also be termed “role shock.” Many times what is really “shocking” to people is not necessarily the new culture, rather it is a change of roles they are forced to assume within their family or organizational structure as it functions in the new culture.
Accepting the fact that adjustment is a challenge, but remembering that it is a temporary condition that will pass as you become familiar with the language, mannerisms, and local customs, is the first step towards adjustment. You may not like to believe that you are experiencing emotional stress, but it is wise to admit it when it happens. Even mild cases generally involve four phases and occur during the earliest part of a stay abroad.
PHASE I: “How quaint!”
The spirit of adventure carries you through the “honeymoon” phase. Generally, someone will help you get settled; you will be excited about the “newness of it all,” and possibly things will go well. You are comfortable as long as you can see similarities between your native culture and your new environment. Normally this phase does not last if you remain abroad and must seriously cope with real conditions of life.
PHASE II: “It’s just not like home.”
When the newness and excitement wear off (from a few hours to six months), the real challenge starts. As you begin to see and feel differences, things may go wrong, and you may begin to feel disoriented. Because language is the most common communication tool in any society, it offers the greatest security in personal relationships. If you do not have an adequate interpreter, you may be stripped of your primary means of interaction. You will be unable to display your education and intelligence, symbols that give you status and security back home. As you meet other educated and intelligent people but are not able to respond to them on their own level; you may feel that you are on the level of a child again. This could prove most frustrating.
Culture shock is a psychological reaction that is manifested in physical behaviors. Another sign that you are in the critical second phase of cultural adjustment is the tendency to sit around with other “foreigners” and complain with them about the country and the people.
You may be excessively concerned over the washing of hands, the cleanliness of drinking water, food, dishes, and bedding; as a result, you may fear physical contact with attendants or servants. You can be identified by your absent-minded, far-away stare, and you may feel a dependency upon long-term residents from your country. You may experience fits of anger over delays and other minor frustrations, or fear excessively the possibility of being cheated, robbed, or injured. You will show great concern for minor pains and eruptions of the skin. Finally, your frustrations will be highlighted by a terrible longing to be back home, eat the food you’re accustomed to, visit familiar places and relatives, and, in general, talk to people who “really make sense.”
This phase may also be characterized as a “culture fatigue,” something like battle fatigue. One just gets tired of not being home. In spite of one’s ability to cope on a daily basis or in specific cases, one eventually becomes generally uncomfortable.
PHASE III: “It’s starting to make sense.”
The first sign of your recovery from this critical phase is the return of your sense of humor. You enter the third phase when you begin to recognize communicative cues: people’s faces, actions, and tones. And you begin to piece together a pattern of behaving and living. Mastering the language, you begin to communicate more effectively. As you build your familiarity and knowledge, you find yourself making it through each day with greater ease.
Many government and private organizations specialize in preparing Americans to adjust to their experience of living abroad. One such program suggests to its participants that to be adequate “culture shock” absorbers, they have to first develop self-awareness — an understanding of their own feelings and cultural patterns, what offends or confuses them and why they feel dissatisfied, as discussed on the previous pages. It is suggested that the visitor temporarily suspend judgment about conditions he/she finds unpleasant or confusing until he/she learns more about the people and the reason they think and act as they do. The recovery stage progresses rapidly as he/she begins to empathize with the natives of the host country. He/she imaginatively meets each challenging or perplexing situation, concerned more with gaining new insights and new friends than with feeling sorry for his/her inadequacies or the country’s seeming oddities. He/she remembers who “the foreigner” really is.
PHASE IV: “I understand.”
The fourth and final phase will carry you through your stay abroad. Now that you are willingly adjusting to the new culture, you can accept it as “just another way” of living. It does not mean that you can accept and understand the differences. You will still have moments of strain and times of misunderstanding, but you will probably have fewer problems than a “first-timer.”
CULTIVATING AWARENESS
Furthermore, to the extent that you have the following general characteristics, you will adapt readily to varying cultures:
AWARENESS OF SELF: You need a positive self-image and must have the ability to adapt. You need to be emotionally stable in situations that challenge personal feelings. Self-motivation allows you to act positively rather than react negatively to a strange environment.
AWARENESS OF OTHERS: A tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty makes it easier to understand others.
AWARENESS OF CIRCUMSTANCES: Sensitivity to circumstances allows you to pick up behavior patterns more quickly. If you look, listen, and appropriately imitate, you will communicate more effectively with people around you, and you will be able to establish pleasant relationships
Adjusting to a new culture can be a powerful learning tool. Although you may suffer temporary frustration, discomfort, and anxiety, these feelings can facilitate self-understanding and personality development. Because you deal with the situation yourself, you will learn. The very experiences that disrupt your personality and its relationship to your surroundings will be the basis upon which you can build an expanded, enlightened personality.
Half the battle of cultural adjustment is won if you realize you will experience it. And the other half is won by using your cultural sensitivity to learn and make the adjustment a positive experience. Once you realize that many of your problems are caused by your failure to understand another’s cultural background, you will also realize that you can gain an understanding and learn to communicate. Then you can really start enjoying yourself.
(Text adapted from Intercultural Communicating. Inter-regional Center for Curriculum and Materials Development, 1987.)