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Culture Shock
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International Travel Preparation, Safety, & Wellness
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Cultural Competence & Ethics
In this final module, we'll address matters of cultural competence and the ethics of travel. Travelers have responsibilities to the people who live and work in the countries they are visiting, and it is important to keep th
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Anna KalbarczykResearch Associate
International Health
There are a number of models and theories surrounding the concept of culture shock.
In this discussion, I'll present a few of these models to you and
discuss factors that can both help and hurt during cultural adaptation.
Given the focus on culture shock over the past decades,
a number of different definitions exist.
One paraphrased definition is the collective impact
of unfamiliar experiences on cultural travelers.
Cultural adaptation is a complex process which occurs over time,
rather than a sudden shock which strikes when a traveler first arrives.
People are affected differently, and the same person will not
necessarily experience the same process every time they arrive somewhere new.
The process of adjustment varies.
Some factors associated with easier cultural adaptation include, having
aligned expectations, understanding your role in the new place and having a well
defined role, how flexible you are when faced with ambiguity and frustrations.
And I'd really like to emphasize this one,
flexibility is quite key in being able to adapt smoothly.
And how well-prepared you are for the cultural transition and
how much knowledge you have about the culture.
So how prepared are you going in for what it's going to look like?
Whether or not you feel it was a choice to come to this culture,
and I think that's a big one, because I've seen students who are faced with having to
go to a country that wasn't their first choice.
And while they might be excited about the experience, there's some sort of
disappointment that comes with going to a country that wasn't your top choice or
is something that you're not expecting.
Maybe a culture that's very different from yours and
you didn't really feel like it was your choice to come here.
And that can really affect how well you adapt.
Some other factors include understanding the language, previous experience
traveling or living in different cultures, and feeling accepted in the new culture.
So having friends, or
having colleagues with whom you can rely, and who accept you.
There can be a lot of frustration with how slow things are in new cultures.
I think that's one of the biggest differences that we experience
in the global north versus global south.
There's a whole new concept of time and what is appropriate.
And this could be really rough on students because
you're expecting a delivery that doesn't happen when it's supposed to.
You're expecting to take a field trip and that doesn't occur.
You are expecting people to come to a meeting for
a deadline that's quickly approaching and it just doesn't work out that way.
Things don't really function smoothly, and that's okay,
it's to be expected, it's part of aligning expectations.
You might have to help things along, and
often it doesn't help if you stand by idly and complain or feel frustrated.
But it doesn't help either if you're very aggressive
in trying to get things to work your way.
If you're frustrated and you don't know whether or
not it's normal, talk to your advisor or your local mentor and check in and see.
Should I just chill out or
is there something that we can actually do to help move something along?
Here I've have presented an image
of what's called the u-curve of culture shock.
And it's described in a four stage process.
This is one model of how culture shock occurs and it's one of the earlier ones.
It's widely accepted but
the level of evidence really varies from study to study.
So first during the honeymoon period you have an initial stage of fascination where
everything is new and exciting.
You're a little bit of a detached observer of sorts and
this stage could only last a few days or perhaps a few weeks.
Then as time moves on, the traveler becomes a little bit disillusioned and
this is known as the crisis or culture shock phase.
And the new culture begins to sort of intrude on your life in unexpected ways.
So you can't really stay an observer,
you have to start dealing with practical problems.
Maybe how to get groceries, how to get around, things aren't being done for you.
Perhaps language constraints are getting in the way at work.
Or familiar cues are lacking and
you're not really sure how your colleagues feel about you.
This stage is often marked by feelings of irritability, anxiety,
frustration, confusion and hostility towards the new culture.
And there could be a desire to return home.
Then as time continues during the adjustment phase, the traveler believes
that they're developing a better understanding of the culture and
now feel that they can actually function.
This is followed by an integration or
a full adjustment phase where a more balanced perspective develops.
Most anxiety tends to disappear at this time, and the traveler feels more in
control and confident about their ability to interact in the new culture.
This is not always a smooth and
linear process, some travelers completely skip some stages entirely.
You may never experience a honeymoon phase, or
you may never experience a culture shock phase.
You might just go right from honeymoon to adjustment, integration.
People skip around, so it's not very linear.
And there are some things that are missing.
Acculturation is a big one.
Hopkins students are diverse and will have a range of cultural distances from
the host culture where you're working.
So there are a couple other models that take into account acculturation and
some other larger issues that aren't quite so personal.
This is a model of the acculturation process and
I'm not going to talk step by step through it.
But what you'll see is that there are a number of variables that play a role in
how one acculturates.
There are individual levels, your personality, your language fluency,
various situational characteristics, how long your going to be there,
what the contact is like.
And then how, sort of,
different your own culture is from the culture where you're settling.
There are a number of adjustment challenges that people can face when they
go overseas for these short term experiences.
Some of them are physical, you may experience difficulties sleeping,
an inability to relax, or a loss of appetite.
Some might be emotional, feeling depressed, feeling tearful,
being impatient, I think I see this one quite often, and feeling isolated or
overwhelmed.
And this can especially happen if you are in a location where you're not with other
people who are from similar culture.
And then there are behavioral ones, withdrawing from others,
feeling irritable, or perhaps not being as productive as you think.
And there's one example that I'd like to us that I think is behavioral.
In the United States, you would likely never not wear a seatbelt.
But often when people go to another country it becomes very easy to lose this
behavior.
So this thing that's become quite ingrained in us to do consistently here,
it becomes very easy to not do that anymore.
And similarly you might see peers or
others that you're traveling with change behaviors in ways that you don't expect.
People can become very different while traveling than they are at home and
that's part of their adjustment process.
It might be part of your adjustment to sort of deal with the fact you're with
someone, who you thought one thing about,
and here they are behaving quite differently.
This can be shocking or uncomfortable.
There are also some cognitive challenges, so people might experience memory
difficulties, they may become very sensitive to criticism and
even have a preoccupation with health.
And that's an important one because in many countries where you'll be traveling
to, there are a number of new health risks
that you wouldn't face at home necessarily.
So it can become dangerous to be preoccupied with your health.
And then on the philosophical and spiritual spectrum, people who might be
going through that culture shock phase for a long time can lose a sense of purpose.
They might become more rigid and more cynical and they might even become
critical of their own culture in addition to the culture where they currently are.
There are a number of ways to facilitate cultural adaptation, because merely being
there does not mean that you will learn, adapt, or absorb cultural knowledge.
There are a lot of catalysts for cultural adaptation and
I think some of these are logical steps you would take in any new setting.
So, increasing your general knowledge about new culture.
The period of time that you spend in a host culture can facilitate
how you're adapting.
Language and cultural competence, so language,
I think this is a recurring theme that we're seeing.
It can really help to learn a new language or to become immersed in some language.
The quantity and quality of contact that you have with the host individuals.
You often see students have a propensity to hang out with expats or
people of similar culture because it's easy, right,
we have similar things that we can relate to about our culture.
There might be a TV show that we both remember from our childhood.
And that's not something that's necessarily going to cross over
with people from a different culture.
But the more often that you hang out with people in this host culture and the more
quality time that you spend with them, the easier the adaptation will become.
And this will help to develop friendship networks and engage with new people.
So something that we didn't talk about with the U-curve or
even with cultural adaptation is this concept of reverse culture shock.
And I can say that personally,
I don't believe that I've ever experienced culture shock in that traditional way.
I'm much more likely to experience reverse culture shock.
So this model that we see here, we have something very similar at the beginning
in the host country where everything is new and interesting,
then differences become apparent and problems and frustrations start to occur.
And then you have this sort of upswing into adaptation.
But then there's another phase that happens when you return home.
So in the beginning you might be excited about returning home.
And then you might start to feel frustrated or lonely because friends and
family don't really understand what you experienced.
And they can't relate to any changes that you've made or even to sort of how
live changing or world changing something is because they weren't there.
So you might begin to miss the host culture and your friends and
you can start looking for ways to return.
Then over time, people start to gradually adjust to life at home.
Things start to seem a bit more normal and routine, although not exactly the same.
And then even further, you incorporate what you've learned and
experienced into your new life and career.
And I think that this model is a little bit more accurate, I can say for
my own experiences, but also for other people that I know.
I have a colleague who would argue that there's either a 5B or
a 6A a sort of missing step here.
Especially if you've been in another culture for a little while,
maybe over a year.
And you go through this phase that they call getting short.
You're getting ready to go home, you've purchased your plane ticket, and
you just sort of start to check out.
And all those little things that you had adapted to
in that U-curve start to get under your skin again.
Things like traffic, street harassment, those different perspectives of time and
timeliness that you may have adjusted to,
kind of start to un-adjust to them as we prepare to go home.
The reverse culture shock transition often prevents unexpected challenges
because these pitfalls are anticipated, and the impact of returning home
can really be just as powerful as moving to an unknown culture for the first time.
Three factors contribute to reentry stress, unrealistic expectations,
unrecognized changes in the returnee and unanticipated changes at home.
Travelers often assume that their return home should be celebratory.
Experiences living and working abroad can be life changing and
can have an impact on your career and insights and
help you really define where you're going and what you want to do.
But when you return home, many travelers find that family, friends, colleagues,
peers are a little bit indifferent about their experience.
They may want to look at photographs but
it becomes really hard to relate to some of those larger life changing moments.
And it's challenging to return home and
to find that people aren't as excited about your experience as you are.
But I bet you have had similar experiences if you've ever been sitting with a family
member and they're telling you about their great vacation to Scotland or Italy.
And you look at the photographs and you're like, yeah, that's lovely.
But you can't relate because you weren't there, and it's not as exciting to you.
Returnees are often changed, either subtly or
not, in the way that they view certain aspects of the world.
For some, this experience might be the first time that you truly encounter
poverty, and this can change the way that you look at wealth, politics,
religion, values, family structures, and more.
So, you can see that these changes are occurring, but other people might not
necessarily notice them, and you might not even notice them at first.
And then, of course, things can change while you're gone.
Cultural evolution can range from superficial changes to profound ones.
Some examples might be, new laws being passed on gun control or
on abortion or a new election cycle.
And so while you might have been detached from these things while you were overseas,
it can really hit you when you come home.
So what do when you're experiencing reverse culture shock.
I mean some of these recommendations are quite, easy to say, but
hard to do, if you're not feeling excited about being home.
It's important to remain active, to focus on those relationships that you might have
let slide while you were overseas, try to rebuild your friendship networks here.
And then don't ignore those little nitty gritty things.
Due dates for classes, health records, bank accounts, address changes,
anything that might be going on that you have to address now that you are home.
And of course if you are feeling ill at all, whether mentally or
physically, please seek care,
it's really important because you never know what you might have.
I hope this has been helpful and
will help you to not only adapt in your next trip but also on your return home.
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