CULTURE SHOCK

    The definition of culture shock is the trauma you experience when you move into a culture different from your home culture. Culture shock is the personal disorientation aperson may feel when experiencing an unfamiliar way of life due to immigration or a visit to a new country, or to a move between social environments, also a simple travel to another type of life.

Cause of shock culture

    Besides language barrier, frustration, anxiety and stress also occur whenever people can‘t do all the things they are accustomed to doing in their everyday lives. These can include work, home and leisure related activities that they are either no longer able to do at all or no longer able to do like they are accustomed to. For example, sometimes because of differences in transportation services people cannot move around as freely or as widely as they are accustomed to. Additional issues such as telecommunication system, things like grocery shopping, gas-station system, getting to work, and other things can lead to frustration also.

The Symptoms of Shock Culture

Although "culture shock" is generally understood as a temporary shock felt when confronted by different cultural customs, ways of thinking and behavior patterns, it actually refers to a psychological state of depression caused by the experience of successive failures in unfamiliar social situations. General symptoms of culture shock include: 

irritation 

homesickness

loneliness 

nervousness 

loss of appetite s

leeplessness 

feeling tired 

extreme pride in one's home culture 

hypersensitivity or excitability 

confusion 

incompetence etc.

    After some time (usually around three months, depending on the individual), differences between the old and new culture become apparent and may create anxiety. This is the mark of the negotiation phase. Excitement may eventually give way to unpleasant feelings of frustration and anger as one continues to experience unfavorable events that may be perceived as strange and offensive to one's cultural attitude. Still, the most important change in the period is communication. People adjusting to a new culture often feel lonely and homesick because they are not yet used to the new environment and meet people with whom they are not familiar every day.

    Again, after some time, one grows accustomed to the new culture and develops routines, marking the adjustment phase. One knows what to expect in most situations and the host country no longer feels all that new.

Coping Shock Culture

    Culture shock can be prevented by striving to become more culturally relativistic and flexible in thinking and behavior, by developing a real enthusiasm for learning about the host culture and by forming real intercultural relationships. Successful cross-cultural communications is a fairly straightforward proposition. With the correct attitude, a few good cultural informants, a few cross-cultural communications concepts and some time spent as a participant-observer, a person will quite naturally develop a repertoire of intercultural interaction skills.