Have You Ever Experienced Culture Shock?

You might have thought that culture shock is something you will experience very vividly once you have a sudden change of environment. After all the word "shock" I would say is rather a strong word; used to describe this feeling of surprise as a result of this change. It also entails a more negative rather positive connotation to this surprise of change. Thus when we hear the term culture shock we are somehow eluding more to something that is less of a pleasant experience.

Nevertheless, to begin with, culture shock is very individual.  Depending on where you are in your life and how much you have exposed yourself to other cultures you might or might not experience culture shock. Also, culture shock has different stages, including stages where you feel extremely positive and even idealize your new environment or new culture.

We will go further into each stage in this article, however, two parameters that I found particularly interesting when it comes to culture shock are its intensity and time in respect to the individual. Here we will explore how these two parameters make the impact of culture shock less evident to some people, thus you can argue that they might not experience culture shock or even themselves not feel that they are passing through different stages of culture shock. On the other hand, you can have a very strong physical, mental, emotional, and psychological response to culture shock in other people.

Lastly, we will take a look at how you could respond to culture shock and also provide a completely new perspective on how this whole topic could be approached based on our years of experience of being brought up, working, and living in different cultural environments.

Culture shock stages

A popular theory is that when a person transitions from one social context to another one they must adjust their behaviors. The abrupt move can cause a world of confusion as you get acclimatized and start to understand your new surroundings. Overall the culture shock can be divided into four stages that someone will go through. You could also include a fifth stage the one concerning returning to the initial environment but we will not focus on this here. All stages are primarily anchored to emotions.

o   The Exhilaration or Honeymoon stage

As the name also suggests this is the stage you are overwhelmed with positive emotions, curious, and anticipate new exciting experiences. Time-wise this stage is a rather short one but the intensity is very strong. It is the same stage as when you get to travel for a short trip or holidays. Overall it characterized by openness to learning about the host culture and also a positive attitude to interaction.

o   The Discomfort or Anxiety stage

This is a stage that actually lasts longer and characterized by confusion and frustration. In addition, there is a feeling that what is different is actually inferior. That creates a negative feeling of inferiority and can lead to disengagement from the host culture. You start to oppose the people of the host culture and blame the culture for this frustration. You may feel that they don’t understand you because you are unique. This kind of offensive relationship can grow if you are not careful and as it is after the exhilaration stage it happens rather abruptly but could last months.

o   The Alteration or Adjustment stage

In the alteration stage, you start feeling more relaxed and balanced. Your view of the culture is changed and you create a positive image in a few key areas in your host culture. Over a long enough period of time, you begin to learn the culture, and the more you see things through your host culture’s eyes, the easier it is to adjust back. This is one of the most important phases - if not the most important - of moving and living abroad, as the level of the adjustment you will reach can have a large impact on your daily life, behavior, and social interactions.

o   The Adaptation or Acceptance stage 

The adaptation stage is characterized by a new sense of belonging and sensitivity to the host culture. The adaptation stage marks also the beginning of cross-cultural identity and thus a place of richness and opportunity that allows personal growth, growth in spirit and character. You come to see the host culture and its opportunities in a different way, and its meaningfulness is deeper and more fulfilling. Biculturalism puts more emphasis on one’s own culture and an emphasis on other cultures rather than leaving one of them out of focus. Your relationship with both cultures is upgraded. Your ability to adapt to the host culture is upgraded. Here we assume that the individual chooses to adapt or accept to some degree the new culture, however, there are other views that can be discussed e.g. how someone reacts if he chooses not to accept a new culture, which we will not describe here, but has interesting oservations too.

One thing that should be mentioned is that although the above stages are expected to happen sequentially you could also have a situation of a temporary cultural shock occurring and being also quite specific to some customs only to culætural variations in a new location. In addition, you could also have a reoccurrence of cultural shock in later stages of adaptation, so as we mentioned before the intensity and time varies, as well as it can re-occurring even after long-term adaptation.

Culture shock to your advantage

I would like to use this last part of the article to turn the attention to an aspect that could be much more beneficial when dealing with culture shock. This is the suggestion that cultural experiences can be shaped to become a learning opportunity through culture shock. Knowing the stages of culture shock and the anticipated behavior with the right planning we could achieve this.

The right planning could entail that you in advance define and consider each stage to you as an individual,  consider the social value of cultural adjustment as an objective; develop positive expectations and encouragement for the outcome of cultural adjustment; introduce the concept of equilibrium between your personal values & ethics and the ones from your host culture. The overall goal will be to try to identify "typical" behaviors and encourage self-management in the different stages.

As we mentioned earlier the second stage- the discomfort stage-  is characterized by this inferiority feeling, which can be recognized with some effort, and thus it could be considered a good time to take stock and look for that source of truth so you can start all over again and take on the new culture with a new mindset. This challenge is much better tackled by someone who already feels well integrated into the new culture than by someone who wants to find the difference, the host culture is more likely to understand and empathize. And if you are deliberate about it, you can align with the host culture, demonstrate mutual respect, and learn further about yourself too.

Lastly, be open and take as much time as needed to understand a culture and to get used to a new setting. It’s also important to remember, that taking advantage of cultural shock, recognizing, and planning the stages doesn’t mean that you will not hand in any struggles. Although you may be struggling it is okay to feel this way, there is nothing wrong. Do not compare yourself to others and do not give up if you cannot succeed as quickly or as easily as you had hoped. Trust yourself and try to find ways to feel empowered, and you will eventually succeed.