When you first walk off the plane in your host country, you might look around and not be able to read the signs.  If you can read everything, this will be great, but for many of you, as panic sets in, your first thought might be to turn around and hop back on the plane that just brought you to this strange land.  For others of you, you may feel a great sense of excitement and an eagerness "to begin."  And for a handful of you returning to a place where you have already been, stepping off the plane may feel like some sort of homecoming.  As time goes by and you settle into your routine, register for classes, begin the process of making new friends, and explore the area you now call home, you will be going through many emotional and possibly physical changes.  This is what is known as culture shock.  You cannot avoid these changes, but if you recognize them when they occur, you will be better prepared to deal with their consequences.

The Importance of Defining "Culture"

It is difficult to begin a discussion on culture shock and cultural adjustment without first defining the word "culture" and what makes culture.  According to American Heritage Dictionary, culture is defined as "the arts, beliefs, customs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought created by a people or group at a particular time."  If you were to ask several different people what they thought culture meant, you might get a list like the one L. Robert Kohls did when he wrote Survival Kit for Overseas Living:

• Manners and customs
• Ceremonies and rituals
• Ideas and thought patterns
• Arts and artifacts
• Religious beliefs
• Knowledge
• Concept of self
• Beliefs and ideas
• Laws (written and unwritten)
• Language
• Social institutions
• Myths and legends
• Values and morals
• Accepted ways of behaving

The Implications of Cultural Adjustment

As described in the beginning, cultural adjustment is a continuous, on-going process.  It never stops, and it varies from one individual to another, from culture to culture.  Still, the end process usually results in a change in the individual, and sometimes, in the setting.  Your own personal adjustment process may require you to confront not only differences in your new culture but your own cultural assumptions and values.

The concept of adjustment implies change.  In cross-cultural adjustment, one is concerned with the changes in thinking and behavior required when moving from one country to another.  In your case, you will be moving from your American culture to one abroad.  The nature of the adjustment depends on the nature of differences between your original culture and the new one, and on the objectives you seek to complete in the new culture.  The concept of adjustment assumes that you already have well-established sets of behaviors for "operating" in your own culture.  As you enter into new cultures, those behavioral patterns may no longer satisfy your needs.  In developing new patterns of coping with your new environment, you may experience differing degrees of disorientation and discomfort. 

Culture Shock

Culture shock is not quite as sudden or as shocking as most people expect.  It is part of the process of adapting to your new culture.  You may experience some discomfort before you are able to function well in your new setting.  This discomfort is the "culture shock" stage of the adaptation process.  The important thing to remember is that this is a very normal process that nearly everyone goes through; it may reduce any anxiety you are feeling just to recognize this.

Just as you will bring with you overseas clothing and other personal items, you will also carry invisible "cultural baggage" when you travel, as was discussed in the previous chapter.  This baggage will play a major role in your adaptation abroad.  Cultural baggage contains the values that are important to you and the patterns of behavior that are customary in your culture.  The more you know about your personal values and how they are derived from your culture, the better prepared you will be to see and understand the cultural differences you will encounter abroad.

Know What to Expect

Anticipating future events and possibilities often makes it easier to deal with them when they happen.  For example, it helps to anticipate you departure and to plan ways to maintain relationships with people at home, such as giving them nice stationery with a box full of pre-addressed, stamped envelopes.  Be sure to allow ample time to say goodbye to all the people who are important to you.  This assures people that you will continue to care about them.

Planning to stay in touch does not require a promise to write or telephone on a strict schedule, but it does help to establish a realistic interval between communications.  You will be extremely busy, so it is essential that long periods between communications will not alarm your family and friends at home. Of course, e-mail is a fast, inexpensive way to stay in touch with people at home.

Some surprises always await when you arrive in a new place.  People may walk and talk more quickly or slowly, traffic patterns may be confusing, and the environment may look different than expected.  Such differences are easy to see and quickly learned.  The housing arrangements at your university, the manner in which classes are taught, registration for courses, and other procedures may seem strange and confusing.  The international student office is the best place to go for help with such matters.

Studying abroad, however, means making big changes in your daily life.  Generations of students have found that they go through a predictable series of stages as they adjust to living abroad.  At first, although the new situation is a bit chaotic and confusing, most students find it exhilarating, a time of new experiences, sights, sounds and activities.  With so much to learn and absorb in the new culture, the initial period of settling in often seems like an adventure.  During this time you will tend to look for and identify similarities between your home and host culture.  The procedures maybe different, but there are patterns, things you can learn and depend on.  You may classify other aspects of the culture that seem unusual or even unattractive as curious, interesting or "quaint."  There will be many opportunities to meet people in your community and such opportunities can be rewarding cultural puzzles.

Emerging Differences

Gradually, as you become involved in activities and get to know the people around you, differences-rather than similarities-will become increasingly apparent to you.  These differences may begin to seem more irritating than quaint.  Things like not getting refills on a cup of coffee can stir a sense of hostility within you towards the host culture.  Small incidents and difficulties may make you anxious and concerned about how best to carry on with academic and social life.  As the differences emerge, they can be troubling and sometimes shocking.  But culture shock usually grows little by little as you interact with other students, faculty and people within the community.  For most people it is a gradual process that cumulates in an emotional state we call "culture shock"; it is seldom as dramatic as the term implies.  Some common symptoms of culture shock are:

• Extreme homesickness
• Desire to avoid social settings which seem threatening or unpleasant
• Physical complaints and sleep disturbances
• Depression and feelings of helplessness
• Difficulty with coursework and concentration
• Loss of your sense of humor
• Boredom or fatigue
• Hostility toward the host culture

Students are often unaware of the fact that they are experiencing culture shock when these symptoms occur.  Still don't despair, there are ways of dealing with this period, and it often helps just to recognize that culture shock may lie behind your symptoms and feelings.

Coping with Culture Shock

One way of dealing with culture shock is to step back from events that have bothered you, assess them, and search for appropriate explanations and responses.  In this way, the very events that most disturb, frustrate, or confound you may become your best tools for learning about your host culture.  Try the following:

• Observe how others are acting in the same situation
• Describe the situation, what it means to you, and your response to it
• Ask a local resident or someone with extensive experience how they would have handled the situation and what it means in the host culture
• Plan how you might act in this or similar situations in the future
• Test the new behavior and see how it works
• Try to stay open-minded, flexible and good-natured.  Remember that a smile and a laugh will work wonders.

Throughout the period of cultural adaptation, take good care of yourself.  Take short, fun trips if possible, exercise and get plenty of rest, write letters and/or telephone home, eat good food, do things you enjoy with friends.  Try to take special notice of the things that you particularly enjoy about living in the host culture.

Although it can be disconcerting and a little scary at times, the "shock" gradually eases as you begin to understand the new culture.  It is useful to realize that often the reactions and perceptions of others toward you-and you toward them-are not personal evaluations but are based on a clash of cultural values.  The more skilled you become in recognizing how and when cultural values and behaviors are likely to come into conflict, the easier it becomes to make adjustments that can help you avoid serious difficulties and frustrations.

Will I "Lose" My Own Culture?

Sometimes students worry about losing their own culture if they adapt too well to the host culture.  Don't worry: it is virtually impossible to "lose" the culture into which you were born and raised, especially during such a relatively short trip abroad.    Try not to resist the opportunity to become bicultural, able to function competently in two different cultural environments.

Just as culture shock derives from the accumulations of cultural clashes, so an accumulation of small successes can lead to more effective interactions within the new culture.  As you increase your abilities to manage and understand the new social system, practices that recently seemed so strange will become less puzzling.  Eventually you will adapt sufficiently to do your best in your studies and to relax and fully enjoy the experience.  And you will recover your sense of humor!

Intercultural Communication

Perhaps the major contributor to unease in a foreign environment is the increased difficulty, or even impossibility, of communicating what you wish to communicate and of receiving the information you wish to receive.  You will bring your communication habits, both verbal and non-verbal, that sometimes do not transcend cultural limits.  Studies of intercultural communication have shown that the amount of time and energy needed for simple communication increase rather dramatically as cultural differences increase, even excluding differences in language.  Your gestures and other non-verbal cues can act, unbeknownst to you, as hindrances to communication.  Your perceptions of any person or situation can be quite different from the other person's perception.

You should try to recognize that other cultures may use different verbal and non-verbal communications methods.  Body language, the use of "personal space" when talking and other non-verbal communication can be very different than what you are used to in the United States.  Likewise, some cultures are not nearly as frank, sarcastic or confrontational when discussing certain topics.  Sometimes things are implied, but not actually expressed.  It is important to remember that differences in communication styles are just that--different.  You should avoid making judgments about a person's rudeness or lack thereof until you understand how verbal and non-verbal communication styles differ in your host culture.  You will be studied and perhaps judged by your own communication styles.

Imposition of Personal Values

The tendency of people to impose their own values and assumptions onto people in the new culture usually inhibits cross-cultural understanding.  While you are abroad you should avoid making definitive, prejudicial judgments that may result from your own cultural responses.  You should be open-minded, receptive to different ideas, concepts and behaviors.  A certain amount of "cultural self-analysis" might reveal much about your own motivations and value system; such knowledge can contribute to increased communication skills, increased acceptance and understanding of others, and more productive interaction.  Until you have acquired enough self-knowledge to realize the true extent to which your personality is shaped by cultural habits and values, you will not be completely capable of comprehending and learning from the cultural habits and values of a different society.

Influence of Time Within a New Culture

Cross-cultural adaptation is a continuing process, with continuous evaluation of insights, knowledge, physical skills and emotional skills.  Of course, it is possible to live for years in a new culture and never be affected by it; but those involved in cross-cultural adjustment never cease to learn from the experience.  It is important for you to be flexible with newfound knowledge, to be prepared to discover that any single piece of information might not have universal applicability in the culture.  Language learning provides an example: you will often learn new words or terms and then, until you learn more, you may use that vocabulary in inappropriate situations.

It is possible to misunderstand cultural generalities and misapply the generalization.  A non-American, perhaps, after perceiving with some difficulty that "Americans are frank," may misapply the insight and behave rudely in a given situation.  One possible reaction you might have to living for some length of time in the new culture is withdrawing from it, isolating yourself from the most threatening aspects of the culture, and perhaps clinging to people from and material representations of your own culture.  Another possible reaction is to view negatively all aspects of the new culture, to belittle it, to consider its norms and values inferior to your own culture

A more positive reaction is to assume or take on many of the new culture's norms, especially those involved in expressing yourself to others, both in image and language.  As the length of your time in the new culture grows, your ability to learn from your experiences should increase, as should your awareness of your own culturally influenced assumptions and of your personal motivations and value systems.

Some Tips to Aid Cultural Adjustment

• Join the International Student Association on campus or participate in activities organized by the group.
• Participate in sports or other on-campus activities similar to ones you participated in at home, or try something completely new!  Talk to staff members in the Student Activities or Athletics office.
• Get involved in activities at your University or the surrounding community.  Get to know local people and try to appreciate their culture while sharing your own.  Immerse yourself as much as possible in the new culture; this becomes easier over time and usually makes adjustment easier.
• Concentrate on the long-term advantages of studying in another country.  Keep in mind that everything you are experiencing is helping you to grow and gain valuable knowledge that you will draw on for the rest of your life.  Even the worst situations will pass, so try to make the most of your experience.
• Do not expect too much of yourself to begin with.  It is unlikely that you will do as well in your studies as you would at home during your first few months abroad.  You are dealing with another language, a different academic method, and many other situations.  Make allowances for yourself.
• If you do not like your new surroundings and find a lot to criticize, try to think of one thing each day which you can like about the new environment, even if it something quite small.
• Talk to those who understand about cultural adjustment and culture shock: friends who have already experienced the same thing, your foreign student advisor, or the college counselor, if there is one on campus.  These people all want to help you through this experience and see you succeed.
• Keep your sense of humor!  This is probably the single most important thing you can do to aid your adjustment.

Return to regular view	Text-only	Updated: 3/3/06