- Reflect on the Culture Shock video and your own experiences and expectations of culture shock
My family traveled a lot while I was growing up so I thought I had become pretty comfortable with being in new places and experiencing different cultures. However, all of my trips as a child were with my family and I always had my Mom to turn to if anything happened or my brother to keep me company. This all changed when I decided to take a summer course in China when I was 15. Unfortunately I was placed in the wrong program and I ended up spending a month living alone in an apartment in ShangHai, enrolled in a class where the next youngest person was twenty years older than me. I had never traveled alone before and I felt very isolated living alone and without anyone I knew. I'm not sure if it was a combination of jet lag and pollution but the first day I got there I passed out for a second in a mall while I was getting supplies. Once I started to get used to the area and living abroad things started to get better but I don't think I overcame culture shock during that month. I think if I could do it again I would try to enroll in a program with people my own age and potentially go with a friend. Visiting Korea with my girlfriend was a very different experience and I didn't really feel any culture shock. I think its important to have people and things that make you feel at home when you are in a place that feels very foreign.
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