Welcome to our ENGL 10600I blog discussion about various exciting topics. For our first topic I chose one that pertains to all of us in this class: culture shock.
Your assignment is to read through the following two articles,
http://studentservices.engr.wisc.edu/international/incoming/living/culture.html, and
http://studentservices.engr.wisc.edu/international/cultureshock.html,
create your 20-word list, and post your comments and opinion on what you read and on the topic in general.
The deadline for this topic is Sunday, September 21.
Have fun and take care,
Kinga
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14 comments:
Culture shock is exaggerated, in the sense that when a person is foreign and suffers emotional stress, people immediately attribute it to culture shock. Culture shock is just one of the many factors, that causes a person discomfort on a place different than his home. Everyeone has his place were he feels less secure, or a group of people where he feels less secure with.
It all depends on the person and on his backgrounds. The degree of confidence and security a person has will determine how "much" he will be subjected to culture shock. But the problem is not culture shock itself, it is only one of the many problems a person has. Culture shock like a magnifying glass, it makes the smaller insecurities and emotional problems of a person manifest in larger ways. All this will unfortunately, will deteriorate a person's emotional stability and psyche while in a foreign place.
Changing the subject, communication problems are "over blamed" upon on the article. I have never felt any type of discomfort due to bad communication. There are some people that I do have a hard time communicating with/understanding each other...but that will only determine how well we get along, not how bad and miserable I feel inside.
Culture shock is very common among the international students. I have seen many of my friends in the exact situation that is mentioned in this article. It is a psychological illness caused by the unfamiliarity of a place or a culture. When someone moves to a new place with a different culture, it is like being born again. A person tries to "make sense" out of every situation, makes several attempts to decipher the local language and doing daily chorus is a big obstacle. No matter how intelligent or confident a person is, he has to face to this disorder. The amount of time spent in this phase might decrease if his culture and the newly adopted culture is similar.
I think one of the reasons for culture shock is the high expectations from oneself. Every foreigner goes abroad with high expectation and enthusiasm about the place and his abilities. When he is in a foreign land, everything is in disarray and nothing seems to go in his way. Thus, he gets frustrated. We can blame this illness when we hear foreigner saying "I hate this weather." or "This is not even food". Person seeks solace by isolating himself from the local people because he does not want to add up to his frustration.
As a natural tendency, he looks for various methods to let out his frustration. Usually, it is in a form of crime or alienating the local people. He also spread spread the stereotypes among the people he thinks are in the same boat. He prefers to stay close to the people from his homeland or are in the same situation.
I feel that this is issue has been neglected by our society. It is a very serious matter because in a country like the USA every year many students come to study, more number of families move. If people are more educated about this subject, crime rate can decrease considerably. Education about is very essential because the person suffering from this does not know about it. We cannot eradicate this problem totally but we can help people to make a smoother transition. By spreading a message about culture shock, we can definitely make this world a better place to live.
I think cultural shock is a term that describes people's reaction after moving to a new place. When I went through the articles posted on the discussion table, I could relate quite a lot to it. Specially the phases mentioned in the first article are quite true but a little exaggerated when it says, “foreign visitors may begin to believe that the local people are unfriendly.” It may be just my view I think. The main problem I faced while I was in the ‘cultural shock’ was I missed my family and food. I never ‘felt miserable’ due to a change in language or traditions, probably because I was prepared for it.
After having discussed how I went through cultural shock, let me discuss how I coped with it and overcame it. I learnt how to cook food by going through the Internet a couple of times and eventually after a few trials I could cook well. I felt at ease after I got to taste the food I used to have at home.
I think I was pretty lucky to come to a place where all the facilities are readily available so I didn’t have to go through a huge cultural shock. If I were to go to a place where life is difficult in terms of communication, transport and nutritious food, I would totally be in state of cultural shock the whole while I was there.
In general sense, Culture shock is period that adjusting one’s mind to a new environment. The symptoms are different from person to person, but they do have similar cause. It is feeling of being nobody. This makes foreigners to feel themselves being insecure and trifle. The seriousness of one’s intensity of culture shock is determined by how open-minded one is. The article shows some extreme cases of culture shock or miscommunication. For instance, If Oxen student accepted what native said word by word, there is nothing to be mad about. But he thought the native was being sarcastic which caused him to react defensively. If he had a better understanding of native's culture, there would not be such a miscommunication. To get over Culture shock, one has to get out and interact with people in that culture, as he makes native friends and gets better at surrounding’s native language, one becomes immune to feeling insecure and trifle.
The article is very informative and helpful for those who go to distant lands particularly international students in a foreign university. "Culture Shock" is experienced by every individual but the victim might not be aware of it. For example, just consider my case. It was after reading the articles that I came to know that I was suffering from "Culture Shock". I feel depressed particularly when I am unable to convey my views correctly to someone due to the inability to speak English fluently.
It's true that the intensity of "Culture Shock" varies from person to person. Some might be confident enough to deal with the problems calmly while others might end up feeling homesick and insecure. But whatever may be the symptoms, "Culture Shock" is something that should be taken seriously. The article gives some nice ways to cope up with the problem. The most important thing is that one must know that such a thing as culture shock exists. Although it takes time to get over culture shock, but the remedies mentioned can be very helpful in avoiding some of the serious affects.
It is really common that the majority of the international students will experience culture shock when they go to a country which is unfamiliar to them.I can understand the symptons described in the first article,but the degree of symptons may varies from people to people.
People who has different character,personal background and so on play an important roles while one facing the culture shock,and the duration of the adjustment can be very different as well.Holding a positive attitude toward the problem is really important to help a person to adjust himself.One should not resist the eviornment.For instance,it is really understandable for international students havin problems communicating with the native. The more problems we have ,the more we should practise talking with the others.We should think for the best because the culture shock usually will cause a person to consider himself into a terrible situation.We should pay more attention to this problem,the more we prepared for it,the less time we will cost to overcome it.
After I read the articles, now I know that the feeling that always around me is called “Culture Shock”. I must say “Culture shock” depends on the regardless of maturity, disposition, previous experience abroad, or knowledge of the country in which they will be living. For me, I think I experienced much more “Culture shock” than others, because I went to USA without any preparation.
Even though the articles say “Culture shock” makes me feel helpless and unhappy, I still think the experience of living in a foreigner country is necessary. I can see how I deal with everything without my parents such as renting the apartment, traveling during the breaks. I think the articles already tell us how to cope with “Culture shock” that is fight or grope or inch the way toward a new and flexible personality, a personality that retains its own cultural identity by recognizes that right of members of other cultures to retain theirs.
When I read about culture shock, I can definitely understand the subject since I have traveled to many countries and I moved from my home to the United States. I think this document is a bit dramatic, even though very educational. Mostly for Americans, (not being stereotypical), culture shock is basically more "shocking" because they tend to see things that are just different as weird or uncommon.
I did have a hard time when I moved to Purdue but, it was not culture shock, more like homesickness. And I don't think homesickness and culture shock are necessarily similar. Obviously, moving to or visiting a new place is not always easy, since different cultures have different customs and lifestyles. I just think it should be seen as an adventure and not as a scary experience.
The subject gets more complicated when talking about nationality and backgrounds. Some people more than others, are very sensitive about their backgrounds and tend to be easily offended with ignorant comments. I know because I have gone through that. When I say I'm Latina, people think I am from Mexico and they are surprised to know I have a TV in my house. Even though it annoys me very much, and probably annoys and disrespect many people that go through this, I think that we should be more open minded and understand that not everyone is equally educated and we should not feel offended by them.
I truly believe anybody can undertake a culture shock with the right attitude and the eagerness to learn and appreciate other countries with all their charming differences.
I felt strongly that I am suffering from culture shock now. The articles are very helpful in understanding my problems. I thought the TA sent me e-mails to ridicule rather than help me. And when my roommates were chatting I sometimes felt they are jeering at me. Now I realized that those uncomfortable feeling reasoned from "circumstances of beleaguered self-esteem." According to “How to Cope with Culture Shock”, I got several ways to relieve my pain. I used to consider that I can not be busier any more. But if I still have time to get myself in to seriously culture shock, I may have a lot of leisure time which I have not exploit into study. After finishing reading the articles, my mood gradually lightened. Not only because I got methods to solve my problem. But also I came to understand that I am not the only who experiencing the suffering. I got encouragement to stick it out, the culture shock.
Culture shock is the newcomer's reaction when they came to a place shared no culture, or little culture, of their own for the first time. It is natural and I believe most of the international students who came to US for the very first time have been or are being through it. To be honest, the four stages of the culture shock, excitement, problems, recovery and stability, is exactly what I was through last year.
Twelve months age, when I first came to US, I felt so glad. The sky was blue and air was fresh, although the weather was unpredictable; squirrels run along the campus; people, both students and faculty, are nice and warm hearted. Weeks later, everything turned into nightmares. The weather is lousy and just one night it could down from 80F to 50F. I didn’t have much to talk to my roommate, due to the little interest in common. I couldn’t even find the right way to study since I could barely get what the lectures were about. I missed my family on holidays even more. However, every got better as spring came. The more fluent my language is, the more I could communicate with others and the less I felt homesick and lonely. When I came back this summer, I feel nothing weird at all, and I finally passed the culture shock.
I find the articles really informative as well as true as I have seen few of my friends undergoing similar situations as stated. Culture shock is true for all but the degree is confined to the individual's self-confidence and adaptability.
When one moves to a different place, it is not always easy to adjust to the culture or the lifestyle of that place. One has to make a big effort to merge with the people there. It is this ability that determines the effect of culture shck on an individual.
If a person is used to going from place to place, then he/she suffers relatively less in terms of adjustment, but in case of people who do not usually leave home, it is a difficult situation.
I too have a been a victim of culture shock, not for long though. It was towards the end of my first semester at college, when I began to dislike the place. Nothing was of interest to me. The very food which I was so fond of in the beginning was tasteless. I just wanted to go back home but I could not. Gradually, I realised that this would be my home for the nex four years and I would have to live here. So it was my choice to live life complaining about things or by enjoying them and take everyday as a new challenge. I chose the latter and things seemed easy then onwards.
Finally, after the freshman year I went home for the summer. When I came back, I felt more refreshed. I am now ready to face another year with a focussed mnd.
Culture shock comes with severe side effects such as depression while one is totally isolated from his/her own culture. The new culture brings him/her a large excitement followed by a lost of identity which one used to have or enjoy in his/her original culture. To some degree, the recovery from this phenomenon relates to the personality of the person as well as his/her maturity.
Personally, I think culture shock is beneficial, especially when one is trying to achieve his/her goal of getting involved into another culture. When I first came to the US as a high school ex-change student, I went through one of the most severe case, depression. I knew nobody when I first got into my high school and the most of the Asians I met there were native born Americans. I was overwhelmed and had to talk in English 24hours a day. After all the stages of culture shock I went through, I was improved tremendously both in English and in personality. In contrast, some of the foreign kids I met in college who came here and hung out with kids from their own country all the time, refuse to embrace the new surrounding culture and fail to comprehend the culture difference. Lack of the experience of culture shock would lead them to the result of developing increasing dependence on their colleagues, and inability of living a life on their own with the new culture surrounding.
Culture shock does it exist? I guess, it's more of a personal question as people can respond to it differently. But I personally think that in todays day and age, globalization has broken all the barriers between different countries; barriers of trade and commerce, communication, travel and culture. Hence, “shock” is too strong a term to be associated with a new culture. Nowadays when a person travels to a new place which has a different culture to offer, it wont come as a shock to him, as he is probably aware of it, but he is just experiencing it for the first time. If someone is very conservative, and if they are unwilling to accept the traditional ideas that a different culture has to offer, only then will they experience cultural shock. Culture shock could have existed in the past, when people were more conservative in their general ideas.
This article reminds me about my past years. I was suffering cultural shock severally when I first transferred to American high school. To get into American high school, I had to take simple interview with one of the faculty of it. However, I couldn’t do even basic conversation at that time. She asked me some basic questions, but it was one of the most frustration moments in my life. I believe language, which causes communication problems, is the major reason of the culture shock as the article mentioned. If people can communicate well with each other, there will be less culture shock.
On the other hand, I think culture shock isn’t one-side thing. Even people around outsider get the culture shock from him. For example, my high-school friends occasionally asked me about many of my behaviors and thoughts, because those were neither familiar nor understandable in their culture. Even though they understood me at the end, it was quite embarrassing experience.
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