Culture Shock: What It Is and How to Deal With It

Culture shock is a condition experienced by individuals living in a new cultural environment. Individuals who undergo culture shock in new environments may experience anxiety, frustrations, and happiness it includes the shock of meeting many new people and the shock of being separated from your culture and family. In some cases, culture shock can trigger depression and feel homesick. Many studies and approaches have been used to identify on how international students adjust to the new culture, it has all been agreed by researchers and patrons of the students that international students have trouble in their initial stages of culture shock. They face difficulties because they are unaware of social rules in the host countries. International students lack culture-specific social skills that allow effective interactions within the host country. This is usually one of the main reasons why international students face social difficulties in situations that they never experienced problems in their countries of origin. Identify culture re-shock can hence as the percentage of social difficulty experienced in cross-cultural interactions (Alexitich & Chapdelaine, 2014) 

Students usually go through different stages of culture shock. The process can be broken down into five stages during culture shock. The first stage id the honeymoon stage when one first arrive in the new environment. A student experiences mixed feelings of excitement and feeling intrigued.at, this stage one has the close memory of your culture. The second stage is the distressing stage. This stage one may feel confused, overlooked lost and isolated due to the loss of familiar supports that you were used to. The third stage is the re-integration stage where one can reject the differences he experiences while in the host country. At this stage, a student may be conscious and start comparing cultures and how you dislike it. In the autonomy stage, a student will accept the differences and similarities between the two cultures. A student gains confidence and feels relaxed and a feeling of coming up with the situation. At the independence stage, both the differences and similarities are valued important student may feel full of potential and ability to trust yourself in the new culture. The experiences and situations in the host country become enjoyable and one is able to make good choices depending on your values. (Searle & Ward, 2015) 

Numerous approaches try to explain culture shock. There are approaches that offer cognitive explanations, behavioral explanations, and psychological explanations. Cognitive explanations describe culture shock among international students depends on their ability to make correct attributions about cultural beliefs, behaviors, values, and norms of the new environment. Behavioral explanations identify culture shock to occur because the students do not know the systems of punishments and rewards associated with the behaviors of the host country. (Chung & Toomey-Ting, 2012) The psychological approach explains culture shock experienced by international student’s wellbeing in the host country, and the student’s ability to interact and socialize with host citizens. In the final approach that explains culture shock is the phenomenological approach that explains that culture shock is transitioned from a state of low self and cultural awareness to a high state of cultural awarenes s. (Furhan, 2010) 

Culture shock may affect a student in many ways. Foreign students face academic problems, personal problems, and sociocultural problems. Academic problems that these students face include language; the students are forced to delay their educational goals to study the host country language. The symptoms of culture shock may be worrying sometimes. Culture shock may intensify personal problems like loneliness, overambitious goals to succeed, homeliness and unnecessary depressions. Culture shock may lead to sociocultural problems like conflicting values and assumptions. Culture shock may also lead to dating and sexual problems, racial discrimination, and difficulties in making social contacts. A student may undergo depression and stress and hence their health can get easily affected. The depressions can lead to headaches or stomach aches. A student may experience hardship in concentrating in coursework. The students may experience an emotional breakdown since some of them become more irritable or tearful. Anxiety levels may increase since one does not know what to expect at the end of the day. The social behaviors of the host country may either impress, confuse or surprise you according to the morality level in your country of origin. Climate can affect international students leading to further culture shock; some of the students may be allergic to the host county climate, especially during the winter period. The burden of studying the host country language can be stressful and tiring, it may lead to underperformance in your coursework since comprehending reading materials is hard. Culture shock may lead to loss of identity and one can easily develop the feeling of being lost and overlooked, one’s confidence levels may reduce and experience changes in mood and feeling vulnerable. (Shin-yih, Lin, & Sawangpattankul, 2011) 

Though Culture shock greatly affects the international student, it is usually a temporary phase and the effects of culture shock can be minimized. A student will reduce the effects of culture shock by understanding and embrace the feeling of culture shock, as is a normal experience. A student may minimize culture shock effects by keeping in touch with home, via phone, Skype, and even electronic mail. Taking regular exercise can also help reduce culture shock effects. Making friends with fellow international students can be beneficial too. A student can also take full advantage of the help offered by the institution especially the orientation programs offered in those institutions; it will create a platform for you to establish contacts. (Bochner & A, 2001) 

References 

Alexitich, L., & Chapdelaine, R. F. (2014). Social Skills Difficulty Model of Culture Shock for International Graduate students. Journal of college student Development , 20-21. 

Bochner , W., & A, F. (2001). The psychology of culture shock. In The psychology of culture shock (p. 384). New York: Routledge. 

Chung, L., & Toomey-Ting, S. (2012). Understanding Intercultural Communication. In S. Ting-Toomey, Understanding Intercultural Communication. New York: Oxford University Press. 

Furhan, A. (2010). Culture Shock. International Journal of Intercultural Relations , 21-22. 

Searle, W., & Ward, C. (2015). The prediction of psychological and sociocultural adjustment during cross-cultural transitions. International Journal of Intercultural Relations , 449-464. 

Shin-yih, C., Lin, Y.-c., & Sawangpattankul, A. (2011). The relationship between cultural intelligence and performance with the mediating effect of culture shock: A case from Philippine laborers in Taiwan. International Journal of Intercultural Relations , 246-258.