It was very interesting to read about the behavioral stages expatriates go through: the tourist stage, disillusionment state, and culture shock. Before reading this handout, I have never heard of expatriates or the training they had to go through in order to work overseas. While I have heard peers talk about their experiences with culture shock whenever they get back from vacationing from Europe or Asia, it had never dawned on me how difficult it must be, long-term — especially if it was for work!
Since I was young, I was taught to embrace people’s differences, values and beliefs. Little did I know, there is so much more to that. Reading about the five dimensions and having cultural differences mapped out in charts was fascinating. What is considered normal or respectable in one country, may be deemed as rude in another. Since I have a couple friends who decided to study abroad this semester, I hope to follow their adventures through blog posts and see how the cultural differences affect them, as well as how they will adjust to living here when they return!
Believe it or not, I experienced my own version of culture shock in New York City this summer. I remember talking to one of my friends about how I was lonely at the beginning of my time there and a little overwhelmed by the newness of it all. She kindly reminded me of “culture shock.” After embracing the notion, things turned around quickly in New York.
Luckily, I’ve never experience culture shock like that in Europe. I think the most obvious culture shock I’ve experienced was in Guatemala – they eat very differently from us and many things are off limits because their crops are not very healthy. Nothing like the FAA regulations down there!
Hopefully by reading your friends blogs and etc. you’ll be ready for it or at least recognize it better than I have in the past! 😉