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Culture and Cross-Cultural Issues | Academic Culture | Second Language Anxiety | Communication Skills
Culture Shock
Culture shock can be viewed as a normal part of the growth experience that forces you to reflect upon yourself and your own culture. The result is a new understanding of your own values, beliefs, and behaviors. Adaptation can be facilitated by your understanding that culture shock is common, and your willingness to employ available coping strategies.All humans experience some form of culture shock upon arriving in a new environment. The intensity of the experience, however, will vary for each person. Entering a new country as a faculty member or TA, especially for the first time, means a sudden loss of the comfort and familiarity of home. For some of you, culture shock is simply the minor difficulty encountered during your stay in the United States, such as learning to drive on the right-hand side of the road. For others, separation from your home, family, and culture combine to create a deeply felt "shock." The impact of culture shock on your life could be influenced by the way you confront your new environment, your interpersonal communication skills, your emotional well-being, and your willingness to learn new behaviors or modify existing habits, as well as your understanding of change as a growth experience.
Casse (1981) identifies three stages of culture shock: newness, distress, and integration. Not everyone will experience these stages, and not everyone will experience them in the same order. You may go through this process several times, on an emotional roller coaster ranging from exciting highs to depressing lows, before you fully adjust to living and working in the United States.
Newness, the first stage, described as elation and excitement, is sometimes called "the honeymoon stage." Everything seems exciting, and the experience seems like a big adventure. People seem friendly and helpful. You might be preoccupied with looking for similarities between the new culture and your home culture. The new sights and sounds will seem interesting and exotic and are generally viewed as positive.
Sometimes newness can give way to the second stage, distress. A period of frustration, disorientation, or depression may set in. You may observe more and more unexplainable and disturbing differences. You may feel mildly uncomfortable or embarrassed for a short time, or you may feel enraged, helpless, isolated, depressed, and homesick. You may become hostile and fearful about your health and welfare, and you may withdraw from participation in the new language and culture. This response is normal and usually passes with more time and experience. Useful resources and strategies for coping can be found in Second Language Anxiety and Coping Strategies.
After some time, effort, patience, and persistence, however, most people are able to integrate. A sense of humor about your experience is central to this process, and it can give you a renewed interest in the culture and the people. Through increased exposure, you will gain a better understanding of the new culture and figure out which aspects are most comfortable for you. During this period, you are likely to find your own personal balance between the cultural ways learned in your home culture and the cultural ways learned in the United States.
Culture shock is, to some degree, inevitable. Some situations can be frustrating, so it is helpful to see each encounter as a learning experience and a chance for personal and professional growth and development. Just knowing that culture shock exists, that your feelings are normal and natural, and that you are not alone, can go a long way toward helping you adjust. Familiarizing yourself with cultural similarities and differences helps, too.
This chapter about culture and cultural adjustment is meant to stimulate your thinking about the cultural environment and how it may affect you and your teaching experience at Ohio State. Culture exerts an often invisible influence on people's thoughts, feelings, and actions. Knowledge and experience combined with patient and persistent effort can facilitate your adjustment. Still, many people experience the emotional turbulence of culture shock. Awareness of that phenomenon can help mediate its effects.
As described above, socialization is an ongoing process. Universities in general (and Ohio State in particular) are characterized by a specific culture, one for which U.S. students and international students are differently prepared. Some of them may be undergoing their own culture shock while attending your classes. An understanding of key features of U.S. Academic Culture may help you adjust. It may also help you help your students adjust.
References
Casse, P. (1981). Training for the cross-cultural mind: A handbook for cross-cultural trainers and consultants. Washington, DC: Society for Intercultural Education, Training, and Research.Cushner, K., & Brislin, R. W. (1996). Intercultural interactions: A practical guide. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
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