Unfortunately, I was unable to access the culture shock video of University of Richmond international students. Instead, I decided to watch an online presentation by a student at Columbia University who explains the processes involved in culture shock for those entering America from foreign nations and relates his own personal experiences about coming to America. This presentation can be accessed at www.internationalstudent.com. In his presentation, he outlines that culture shock consists of three phases: the "honeymoon" phase, the "what am I doing here" phase, and the "where is happy hour" phase. He describes that the "honeymoon" phase is identified by a sense of everything around you becoming hazy and you forgetting who you are in the overwhelming amount of input that you are observing, all of which evokes an awe struck type of emotion. Next he argues is the "what am I doing here" phase in which after a prolonged period of feeling as if they are not themselves, the individual attempts to revert their personality back into what it was before they became immersed in American culture. However, in doing so, many students find that they cannot successfully function within the American culture as the person that they are accustomed to being and the panic that this revelation results in is built upon by other difficulties such as their inability to convey themselves and what they wish to say to others properly and their lack of deep friendships that they have developed with anyone in the new culture in the short amount of time which they have spent in it. As a result, the student seeks to surround himself or herself with others who can most closely relate to their difficulties, namely those from the same culture or region of the world. This action simply prolongs the length of the "what am I doing here phase" until the individual builds strong relationships with those in the new culture and puts forth a concerted effort to identify and embrace their new place in their community. When this occurs, the "where is happy hour" phase occurs in which the student acquires a permanent emotional equilibrium somewhere between the "honeymoon" and "what am I doing here" phases. The statistical surveys provided in the presentation suggest that the average amount of time that process of culture shock takes is 3-4 months but it could take as little as a few weeks or as many as six or seven months for some people to progress through these phases.
Although the presentation is based not only on the personal experiences of those at Columbia University and the statistics that they have gathered and its conclusions no doubt resonate with many people who have come to America, I believe from my own experiences of traveling the world that there is no such thing as an American becoming culture shocked. Or at least, the effect on American individuals is extremely diminished. In my own experiences, a vast majority of foreign cultures place the idea of America on a pedestal and therefore their perceptions of Americans. As a result, whenever I would attempt to immerse myself into a culture I would find myself repelled, not out of an affront at my social shortcomings, but out of a desire of those around me to preserve my culture as much as possible. I have no intention of appearing arrogant in this regard, but even after spending months in Costa Rica attempting to fully assimilate and immerse myself in the culture i found that the new friends that I had made wanted to talk about Eminem and school in America and what my life back home was like instead of allowing me to essentially forget who I was and become one of them. They never wanted to speak spanish with me, only ever their broken and developing English. On multiple occasions I was invited to come and speak and help teach english at the local school and I was even broadcasted on their national radio, but again, to my dismay, in english and not spanish. I find that this is an opposite type of culture shock, one that is not an overwhelming drowning in a sea of the foreign thoughts, feelings, and emotions of others experience when they come to America. Instead it is a sharing of the thoughts, feelings, and predispositions of one person, the American divided equally and in manageable amounts to all those within the hosting culture. The flow of information is reversed.
I have never encountered a culture that was disinterested in Americans to the point where it would provide a true culture shock experience. Instead, most other cultures either love Americans, as I experienced in Costa Rica, or hate Americans, as I experienced in France. In the two weeks that I stayed in Paris, culture shock in any regard was unattainable due to the vehemence with which the french people that I interacted with opposed any sharing of anything with an American. As a result of the artificial wall that they erected between their culture and myself I was unable to experience much more than sight seeing and remained relatively oblivious to their view of the world. Unlike the cultural exchanges previously described this was one of no information flow whatsoever between the french people that I met and myself and that is why I believe that there was no element of culture shock.
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