“Culture shock is the process of initial adjustment to an unfamiliar environment”. (Pedersen, 1995)
Most expatriates moving to and living in foreign countries experience culture shock and find themselves floundering through a period of adjustment before they can begin to enjoy the experience of being in a new country and discovering its culture. There exists a body of work on the adjustment cycle of expatriates among which Peter S. Adler in his work “The Transitional Experience: An Alternative View of Culture Shock, identified the five stages of cross-cultural adjustment (Adler, 1975); contact, disintegration, reintegration, autonomy and independence more commonly described as:
Stage 1: The Honeymoon Stage
The expatriate might experience some initial excitement at being in a foreign country – everything is new and exciting, and he/she becomes superficially involved in the host culture, much like a tourist. The focus is on the novelty of the new surroundings – house, neighbourhood, office or classes. This period of excitement can last from a week to a month before the second stage sets in.
Stage 2: Culture Shock
The first “happy” stage is very quickly followed by a phase lasting from two to four months where the expatriate is irritated and shows hostility towards host country nationals. The novelty of the “new” has worn off and the primary focus is now on the differences between the new culture and the expatriate’s home culture. Small differences start to become very
America is the “melting pot” country where immigrants from various countries around the world come here and settle. They come here either for economy, political, education or medical reason. When they migrate here they bring with them their culture, religious, value and belief which makes America more diverse and interest. Yet, at the same time it often leads to two cultures collision. Cultural shock is unavoidable for almost newcomer refugee people.
Therefore, there is an apparent dynamic system of constraints and barriers and an immigrant or refugee’s level of assimilation or acculturation in which suggests that as one becomes more familiar and integrated into their new environment, the constraints and barriers they face will not be as significant (Stodolska, 1998).
Intimate Colonialism is when the government tried to set up a policy that would encourage Indian Service staff members to intermarry with Native Americans. During the late 19th century, immigration was rising and the big thing in this era was assimilation. Assimilation is integrating people to be accustomed to the United States culture, behavior, value and norms. Though Native Americans have lived in America longer than anyone, the federal government thought that instead of ostracizing them for wanting to value their traditional culture, they created an assimilation policy for Native Americans. “The government’s assimilation policy sought to destroy Native nations’ cultural and political identities by replacing them with Anglo – American norms of behavior (108).”
It can be overwhelming to immigrate to a new nation since everything is unfamiliar—new
However, his theory and most of the previous research focus on mainly immigrants’ acculturation. Considering that there are also other groups such as sojourners and expatriates, Berry’s theory and other acculturation theories may not totally apply to the groups apart from immigrants. (Lian & Tsang , 2010). Furthermore, acculturation is usually referred as an adjustment and adaptation process of cultural change as the final outcome (Adler and Gielen (2003). For this reason, the extensive body of research in the expatriation literature has focused on cross-cultural adjustment process of individuals and minority groups in response to their contact with the dominant majority and it constitutes the central conceptual framework of this
Today marks my four-month anniversary in Buenos Aires, and I am a little blown away by how quickly time has flown by. It feels simultaneously like I have just arrived, and like I have been here forever. One thing that is certain, I am far from ready to go back to the Netherlands within two months to start writing my thesis. When I travel to new cities and new countries, I tend to fall head-over-heels in love very quickly. Exploring new places is one of the simplest pleasures in life for me, as it enables me to experience the good feeling of freedom and to learn new things.
Acculturation is the method of attaining the lifestyle of one’s host country which encompasses the concurrent detachment from their native culture. Immigrant acculturation is a continuous process that can take years to decades to complete (Ajayi & Ajayi, 2008). Unidimensional acculturation occurs along a linear scale from not being completely absorbed in one’s original culture to being utterly engrossed in the new dominant culture (LaVeist & Isaac, 2013). An example of a unidimensional transition can be seen when teens become heavily involved with new friends or a new group at school and follow the crowd in order to fit in. Bi-dimensional acculturation emphasizes the integration among both the dominant culture and the original culture (LaVeist & Isaac, 2013).
The traumatic effects caused by immigration Did you know that 29% of foreign-born children and 34% foreign born parents experienced trauma during the immigration process? Thousands of people from all over the world leave their homes in search of a better life for themselves and their families. But, along the way they may experience traumatic events related to the immigration process which can have lasting effects. Separation or loss of a family member, leaving behind a well loved home and community, re-adjusting to new and different culture, food, customs and lifestyle are things many immigrants face, which add to the difficulty of being an immigrant. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder One traumatic effect that is often caused by immigration is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (P.T.S.D).
Immigrants usually go through phases when it comes to migrating to a new country and this essay was an attempt to outline those phases with an emphasis on the negative effects of assimilation. Firstly, isolation. Nearly every immigrant finds themselves isolated at first, but this tends to go away as they become assimilated with the new culture. As this happens, they start to lose touch with their cultural identity and start to change in order to fit in with the new culture. Sometimes this is forced, other times the immigrant knowingly assimilates.
The Lee family is just one example of a family having to move countries and redefine their lives in this new place. All over the world, people move every day, to and from so many places. When moving within a country it is hard because you are still having to accommodate to this new society. However, here we are looking at the change from one country to another, completely changing cultures. When going through the initial culture change there are four stages: euphoria, cultural shock, anomie, and finally either assimilation or adaptation.
Even though growing up with two different cultures have its benefits, the challenges outweigh them and can potentially bring negative impacts on someone’s quality of life. Firstly, it can be difficult to adjust the changing society norms. The convention and expectations every culture has, which may be dissimilar from one’s own. To
Many people who take trips to other countries use it to escape the boredom of their own life and to have fun in another country. Taking vacations can provide excitement when heading to different locales, give a person the tastes and sights of a new place, and overall provide a sense of pleasure to a tourist. However, there is an aspect of this that many tourists do not get to see. In her essay A Small Place, author Jamaica Kincaid makes this aspect very clear. Kincaid, along with many other natives of foreign islands, believes that tourists are “ugly human being[s]” who seemingly feed off the boredom and desperation of the natives of a certain place, creating a source of pleasure for themselves (Kincaid 262).
Nevertheless, when immigrating to the U.S. many newcomers find themselves lost the vastness of the contemporary culture this is known as culture shock. Since most people move to the U.S. from developing countries they are not used to the freedoms that America offers. An instance of this is when the speaker of the presentation came emigrated from Israel. At first inclination he found himself enthralled by the independence of Americans. Ironically, he soon became astray when traversing through the subway system.
Culture Shock-One of Common Problems in Intercultural Communication. Cross-Cultural Communication, 11(8), 71-74. INTRODUCTION Do you think studying in a different country is something that sounds very exciting? Are you like many young people who leave home to study in another country thinking you will have lots of fun?
Living in urban multicultural areas make human more educative, gregarious, inspired and knowledgeable to different backgrounds. When individuals who used to live in rural areas with an experience of one single culture, travel to urban areas, which is full of multicultural people with different nationalities, ideas, languages, foods, behaviors and ethnics with the absence of familiarity they will experience what is called “culture shock”. This will make individuals more stress and they will feel strange and different than residents in the urban area. They will be depressed and pessimistic. On the other hand, there are some positive features of exposure to a culturally diverse city.