Culture shock is an incredible phenomenon. Many individuals who travel and or live and must try to assimilate into another culture of people often face this. Culture shock is precipitated by the anxiety that results from losing all familiar signs and symbols of social intercourse. These signs are the thousand and one ways in which we orient ourselves to the situations of daily life: when to shake hands and what to say when we meet people, when and how to give tips, how to give orders to servants, how to make purchases, when to accept and when to refuse invitations, when to take statements seriously and when not.
I find it increasingly interesting that people cope with culture shock in ways that make it oftentimes unseen by the natives of the new culture. For example, there are hundreds of international students at the University of Richmond who have experienced culture shock at some point. Yet, many American UR students go through each day without even noticing the pain and shock that our peers go through. Some of our friends and peers can be experiencing feelings of indifference or dislike of UR American student attitudes, feelings of "having enough" of the food and just want mom's cooking, missing TV programs at such-and-such time, dislike for the water or air conditioning, it's too hot/cold, life is too fast/slow, things are so much "better" at home, they celebrate the wrong holidays, and so forth.
I realized that American students just don't know how good we have it. Not experiencing culture shock is a luxury that many Americans have. I'm not sure if this is a blessing or a curse. I am eager to experience culture shock one day. It is so important to understand what our brothers and sisters all over the world are going through when they immigrate or temporarily live in a country so different from their own.
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