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Survive a culture shock
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Overcoming culture shock requires open mindedness and an understanding of others
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Holidays are fun but play by the etiquette rules
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 forms 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. All of a sudden, the well-put-together adult in you feels as helpless as a child!
Failure to realise the phenomenon of culture shock and 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 stereotyped view of the host country giving room for frequent misunderstanding and miscommunication, intense loneliness, homesickness, persecution complex and even resentment.
There are four stages to culture shock.
The first is the "honeymoon stage" where everything is new and you are fascinated and excited. There could even be a reversal of attitude where one puts down one's own country, culture, infrastructure, etc., in relation to new experiences.
Next, you go into the "unsettling stage." This is where your predominant feeling is frustration in trying to adapt. You feel impatient, incompetent, are filled with self-doubt and get angry. Your mind starts making comparisons with "home" and you are dissatisfied with everything.
This stage could also find one looking at the world as "Us" and "Them" and all unsatisfactory interactions with the local people are taken personally.
The third stage is the "turning point." This is a dynamic stage where you have at last adjusted because you have gained understanding. You feel buoyant and positive. It 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 reverse culture shock.
The best ways to deal with culture shock, so that you can be productive, creative and happy, are:
* Prepare yourself before you go: understand how and what makes the new culture think and tick and where, when and why it is different. After all, forewarned is forearmed.
* Socialise, get to know people - both your own kind and the local people. It is amazing how much moral support they can provide.
* Get local language instructions. Things like being able to read the labels in a shop can be comforting.
* Get a local map and understand the lie of the land. Explore and make an effort to find out what is where.
* Take as many walking trips around the neighbourhood as possible. Every time you encounter a person from the new culture, examine your stereotypical views for their validity and change them.
* Identify social and expatriate organisations that you can join to make new friends which helps in the assimilation process.
Finally, go with an open mind and expect everything you believe in to be challenged. Understand that people have different ways to solve the same, or similar problems and respond to societies' challenges. Examine your own attitudes and biases and make up your mind to integrate. Cultural awareness begins by understanding yourself, then learning to understand others. Only then you survive the culture shock!
CHITRA DANGER
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Metro Plus
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Chennai
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