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Good morning, everyone.
I don't know how many among you have had the experience of living in a different city or a different country. But because most people hardly realize the challenge it means that I decided to come here today and explain of what consists culture shock and the different stages of cultural adjustment. By doing so, I expect you to realize how difficult, stressful, painful the process of assimilating to a different culture can be, but mostly I expect you to understand this process, so that if someday you decide to move to a foreignn country you'll be aware of what to expect, and consequently, able to better respond to it.
Culture shock happens when we leave a familiar surrounding, like the place we have grown up in, and that we arrive in a completely different and unfamiliar environment. This impact is not superficial. It is not only about dealing with a different language or different values. It means not having any point of reference with the outside world at all.
It might be hard to conceive the dimension of culture shock. Try to think about a fish inside a fish bowl. This fish, it has been swimming in the same water through all its life. We, human beings, have been swimming in the culture we were raised in as well. And what is culture? It is all the common things shared by a group of people: behaviour, beliefs, ways of life. It is everything you have learned from your family, school and environment. Culture is important because it sets people together and mostly because it is culture that shapes our identity. It gives us a feeling of belonging and of having a sens to the world.
What happens then when you get immersed into a totally different culture? You feel like a fish out of the water. You no longer find all the familiar signs and symbols that allowed you to orientate through your daily life. Some of them you have learned inconsciently. They go from the way you look at people to the way you answer the phone, from how to behave to how not to behave. Basically, by the absence of all these familiar signs and symbols you have the feeling of being a child again, you no longer know how to react by instinct to situations from the daily life - and that is not a very pleasant feeling.
Before we go on through the different stages of culture adjustment, I want to make sure you have understood what culture shock is: it is the difficulty in adjusting to a new culture. It is the feeling of desorientation that causes a lot of anxiety and frustration and emotional instability, as well as feelings of hostility towards this new environment.
But let's abandon the "theoretical world" and see how culture shock happens for real. Psychologists discovered that there is a pattern that follows culture adjustment, that can be represented by a curve. It is really interesting. Although people adjust differently, no one, even the most open-minded person in this world is free of experiencing culture shock.
So, here we are. Let's pretend you are moving to another country. Let's pretend you are moving to Brazil. This graphic shows your mood and your emotional state through a period of 6 months living abroad.
• At the very beginning, you feel euphorical and veeery positive about the new culture. You have just arrived in Brazil and everything is exciting! You are overwhelmed by the beaches, the weather, the brazilian lifestyle. Everyday you discover new things: new food, new language, new people. At this point, you do notice differences between your old and new culture, but you see them through a "romantic" light. Thats why psychologues call this first stage by "honeymoon phase". And just like honeymoons, it will soon come to an end.
• All the excitement felt during the honeymon phase will eventually give place to
a phase of hostility and disappointment and even depression. You will suddenly face too many changes and difficulties concerning language and every other cultural element, and it is at this point that desorientation is mostly felt. Out of a sudden, the cultural differences become too obvious and quite disturbing. That is when you really start missing home, missing french food and french habits. If in one hand you have the impression that everything was better and easier back home - creating the illusion that there's no better place in the world but France, wondering what the hell you are doing in South America -, on the other hand, you totally start to dislike and even to criticize the new culture. Brazilian people are no longer the happy and cheerful people during honeymoon phase, right now, to you, they have become annoying, irritating and unpredictable. You tell yourself things such as "brazilian are so lazy and procastinating", "I'm sick of eating black beans everyday, where is my baguette?", and so on. The tendency is to stereotype the new culture.
That is considered a critical phase. Either you will take your time and try to adjust to Brazilian environment, try to understand and get to know Brazilian culture, either you will drop out. You could drop out physically, by going back to France, or emotionally, staying in Brazil but only hanging out with french people, speaking french all the time and isolating yourself from the new culture. Thats why it's called the negotiation or the withdrawal phase.
• If, indeed, you stick to the experience of living in Brazil and that you take your time to adjust to it, you will regain your sense of humour. Why? First of all, you already have a routine. Second, things are no longer that new to you, you already know what to expect in most situations, so you feel confident about dealing with brazilian culture. You start to see it in a more positive way, it begins to make sens, you understand and accept the behaviour of brazilians. That is the adjustment phase. You are not completely adapted to the new environment, though. But you develop ways of tolerating and dealing with most of the cultural differences.
• Aaaand, if you have succeeded through the two last stages, congratulations! You have arrived to the "feeling at home" phase. You not only enjoy being in Brazil, you actually end up adopting certains behaviours from Brazilian culture. You might even prefer certain traits of the new culture rather than your own! It is as if you were embracing Brazilian culture as your own.
But this emotional roller coaster is not over. The day you decide to go back to France, guess what? You might experience it all over again and probably in a more intense way. That is the 5th phase, so called the "reverse culture shock". When arriving in France, you will have difficulties readapting to your own culture - you might have the impression it is no longer the same. You might get depressive. You feel like everything has changed a lot since you left, and when you talk to your friends you no longer share the same ideas, and you miss brazilian people, and no one seems to understand your behaviour. That is completely normal, though. I like to think that when you are in a foreign country, it is just as if the world turned twice faster for you than for anyone else; you learn too many things in a short period of time. That can be confusing.
I hope you have all enjoyed finding out more about culture shock. To conclude, if you ever spend some time abroad, I suggest you to keep in mind 5 things:
• Learn the language and study about the new culture: try to find out as much as you can about it, not only the good things but the bad as well, so that you know what to expect
• Don't push yourself too hard on adjusting. Adaptation requires time. Recognize the sorrow of leaving your old country and accept the new country.
• Be positive, be positive about the good and the bad experiences. Be optimistic.
• Be open-minded, don't stereotype people. Instead, try getting to know them better, do make contact with people from the host country.
• Keep your own culture alive. Living in a foreign country doesn't mean you have to abandon what you are. Keep in touch with relatives and close friends; and if you can, try teaching the host nationals something about your culture, so that they can know who you are, be familiar with you as well.
And don't forget: Adjusting to a new culture can be difficult and frustrating, but it is worth it. You will grow as a person. Living in a foreign country will open new doors, introduce you to different ways of thinking, and give you the opportunity to make life-long friends.
