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Overcoming culture shock
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Survive shock by being open-minded about other cultures
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CROSS CULTURE expert Robert Kohl defines culture shock as, "The psychological disorientation most people experience when they move into a culture markedly different from their own. It comes from the experience of encountering ways of doing, organising, perceiving or valuing things which are different from yours, and which threatens your basic, unconscious belief that your culture's customs, assumptions, values and behaviours are `right'."
In other words, everything that is part of your day-to-day habits and thought process is being challenged, leaving your head reeling. All your cultural cues — right from food and clothing, to driving and value systems — are either questioned or have become invalid. Failure to realise the phenomenon of culture shock, as well as failure to identify and accept it, can have disastrous results both professionally and personally. The symptoms can manifest themselves in several forms — you could feel frustrated, unsettled; your productivity could be affected negatively; you try to make sense by trying to fit everything into the narrow prism of your stereotype view of the host country; there is frequent misunderstanding and miscommunication, intense sense of loneliness, homesickness, persecution complex, and even resentment.
There are four stages to culture shock.
The first stage is the "Honeymoon Stage" where everything is new and you are fascinated and excited. There could even be a reversal of attitude where one is putting down one's own country, culture, infrastructure, etc., in relation to the new experiences.
Next, you go into the "Unsettling stage." This is where your predominant feeling is one of frustration in trying to adapt; you feel impatient, incompetent, filled with self-doubt and angry. This stage could also find one looking at the world as "Us" and "Them" and all unsatisfactory interactions with the locals are taken very personally.
Third stage is the "Turning point". This is a dynamic stage where you are finally adjusted because you have gained understanding and adapting well; you are feeling buoyant and positive. If this doesn't happen, this is also the stage where people throw in the towel and return to `home sweet home'.
The fourth stage is "integration" where you not only appreciate what the new culture has to offer, but also have adjusted and made it a large part of yourself. If after this point you come back home, you are hit with what is called the reverse culture shock.
The best ways to deal with it is:
* Prepare yourself before you go: understand how and what makes the new culture think and tick the way they do and where, when and why they are different. After all, forewarned is forearmed.
* Socialise, get to know people - both your own kind and the natives. It is amazing how much moral support and assistance they can provide.
* Get local language instructions. Small things like being able to read the labels in a grocery store can give small comforts.
* Get a local map and understand the lay of the land. Explore and make the immediate effort to find out what is where.
* Take as many walking trips around the neighbourhood as possible.
Get comfortable. Every time you encounter a person from the new culture, examine your stereotypical views for its validity and adjust it.
You can e-mail the wrtier at proetique@yahoo.co.in.
CHITRA DANGER
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