Currently Abroad - Study Abroad

Congratulations on your arrival to your host country!

Culture Shock — All students going to all countries will experience culture shock. When you are living in a different country for an extended period of time, culture shock happens. Your familiar world has disappeared when you enter a foreign environment, and social norms and customs change dramatically. Keep in mind that things abroad will be different, even in an English speaking country!!

What is culture shock? When we are children, we unconsciously learn thousands of social cues. These cues are words, gestures, body language, and social norms that we depend on in our daily lives. Some examples of these are how to greet people, how to buy products, when to refuse invitations, when to take someone seriously, or how to ask a question. When you enter a foreign environment, you are no longer surrounded by familiar signs but subjected to different customs, cues, and social norms. In this new culture, you will probably suffer from anxiety, frustration, and/or confusion.

Four stages of culture shock exist. Most students go through each stage one by one, and the length of the entire experience can vary depending upon the individual. Study abroad students tend to have at least two low periods while overseas, and the harshness of this period fluctuates. It is important to be aware of culture shock and to realize that your feelings are normal. Keep in mind, this period will pass and you will learn a lot about yourself during this time.

Euphoria — Everything is new and exciting. You are living in a unique place and you see only the best aspects of the environment. However, you begin to notice that where you are living and the local people are different than what you are used to.

Irritation and Hostility — You begin to notice more and more things that are different than what you are used to. It is no longer exciting living in this foreign country. Although you were initially excited and curious about your new surroundings, you begin to feel irritated, frustrated, angered, and/or depressed. Small nuisances and inconveniences lead to catastrophic upsets. Some symptoms you may experience include homesickness, boredom, withdrawal (spending excessive time reading, only socializing with other Americans, or avoiding contact with local people, etc.), sleeping for excessive periods of time, compulsive eating or drinking, irritability, nightmares, exaggerated cleanliness, and stereotyping of or hostility towards local people. You could feel as if you have lost the ability to work effectively, have unexplainable fits of weeping, and physical ailments (psychosomatic illness).

Most people only experience a few of these symptoms, but the second stage of culture shock can be a difficult period and may last for a long time. It is important and helpful to be aware of these symptoms in order to understand when it happens to you or your friends. Taking steps to counteract these feelings is also a way to feel better. It is also important to share this information with parents and close friends back home. This way they will be able to provide comfort because they are aware of what is happening.

Gradual Adjustment — You begin to adjust, and your attitude towards your local country, its customs, and people improve. Cultural differences do not seem as important and you are able to interpret such customs. Overall, the culture is more familiar and you begin to feel more comfortable and less isolated. Your sense of humor reappears and jokes about yourself and host country can be made. Your self-confidence will improve and the situation will not seem as discouraging or stressful.

Adaptation or Biculturalism — You completely recover once you can approach your home culture and the overseas culture with confidence. Your attitude has changed and you accept your new environment as another way of living.

No one is immune to this adjustment period, no matter how open minded, happy, or what good intentions you may have. Gaining knowledge about your surroundings and language will lessen the effects and help speed you through the process. Your attitude is the most important aspect. If you treat others rudely, they will in turn treat you rudely. If you become dependent on your friends from home, they will become irritated with your constant problems. Leaving home “completely” leads to a faster adjustment and more satisfying experience abroad. If you refuse to learn or change, this experience will be worthless for you. Although at times it might not seem like it, you have the capacity and ability to learn this new culture and language! Even English speaking countries such as Australia, Great Britain, and the Republic of Ireland speak English different than Americans.

An anthropologist, Dr. Lalervo Oberg has suggested the following factors for “successful intercultural adjustment.”

Open mindedness: The ability to keep one’s opinions flexible and receptive to new stimuli seems to be important to intercultural development
Sense of humor: A sense of humor is important because in another culture there are many things which lead one to weep, get angry, be annoyed, embarrassed, or discouraged. The ability to laugh off things will help guard against despair.
Ability to cope with failure: The ability to tolerate failure is critical because everyone fails at something overseas. Persons who go overseas are often those who have been the most successful in their home environments and have rarely experienced failures, thus, may have never developed ways of coping with failure.
Communicativeness: The ability and willingness to communicate one’s feelings and thoughts to others, verbally or nonverbally, has been suggested as an important skill for successful intercultural communicators.
Flexibility and adaptability: The ability to respond to or tolerate the ambiguity of new situations is very important to intercultural success. Keeping options open and judgmental behavior to a minimum describes an adaptive or flexible person.
Curiosity: Curiosity is the demonstrated desire to know about other people, places, ideas, etc. This skill or personality trait is important for intercultural travelers because they need to learn many things in order to adapt to their new environment.
Positive and realistic expectations: It has been shown frequently that there are strong correlations between positive expectations for an intercultural experience and successful adjustment overseas.
Tolerance for differences and ambiguities: A sympathetic understanding of beliefs or practices differing from one’s own is important to successful intercultural adjustment.
Positive regard for others: The ability to express warmth, empathy, respect, and positive regard for other persons has been suggested as an important component of effective intercultural relations
A strong sense of self: A clear, secure feeling about oneself results in individuals who are neither weak nor overbearing in their relations with others. Persons with a strong sense of themselves stand up for what they believe but do not cling to those beliefs regardless of new information, perspectives, or understandings.

*Dr. Lalervo Oberg “Factors Important to Successful Intercultural Adjustments”

How to Cope with Culture Shock

Keeping an open mind and learning about your host country prior to your arrival will help in your readjustment time.

Once overseas, take the time to learn as much as possible about your local surroundings. Try to explore with the help of a map. Find out where the closest bank, post office, telephone, grocery store, etc. are. Learn how to use the phone and Internet. Familiarize yourself with some of the basic names and phrases which appear on signs, menus, etc. Do not spend all of your time on Instant Messenger talking with your friends from the U.S.!

An important thing to remember is that the institution at which you are studying, the host family, the local stores and restaurants, etc. are not there just for your benefit. Everything that exists in the city or town where you are living has existed prior to your arrival and will continue to exist after you leave. Your status as an American student does not affect this. Do not expect the food served on campus, in a restaurant, or in a host family’s house to be what you are used to. Complaining about the differences in the new country will not improve or better the situation. Be sensitive to the people around you and learn to live with the conditions as they are—remember, it is not forever, just for a few months. Do not constantly compare your new surroundings to the U.S. Try not to make harsh judgments about the new environment where you are living as well as the local people and customs. You are a guest in the country and it is up to you to adapt.