Culture shock Essay

Culture in simplicity is a body of learned behavior, a collection of beliefs, habits and traditions, shargond by a group of people and successively learned by people who enter the confederation. Furthermore, socialisation is learned, non inherited. If this is correct, then it rump be assumed that it is not impossible to learn mod heathenish traits and to unlearn old superstars. Therefore, it must be feasible to integrate cultural differences. Cultural adaptation would involve m any an another(prenominal)(prenominal) substantials as, language verbal and non-verbal, economics, religion, politics, social institutions, values, attitudes, manners, customs, material items, aesthetics and education.Culture shock is primarily a company of emotional reactions to the issue of perceptual reinforcements from ones own culture to new cultural stimuli, which have a bun in the oven little or no meaning. In laymans terms, culture shock is the anxiety resulting from losing ones sense of wh en to do what and how. There are many dissimilar ways to experience culture shock. It can be experienced across the land or as near as ones backyard. Some aspects of culture shock include strain caused by the effort to adapt, sense of loss and feeling of deprivation, spatial relation, profession, possessions, feelings of rejection and rejecting members of the new culture, confusion in role, values, self-identity crisis, anxiety, disgust, anger on foreign praxiss and feelings of helplessness of not being capable of adapting to the new environment.Culture shock is a widely experienced phenomenon when people enter a different country. Many Americans would venture that they consider themselves very culturally accepting. Often, when these same Americans travel abroad, they experience culture shock. It is not unceasingly a negative thing. Often it is rightful(prenominal) the shock of being in a place that is completely different in every(prenominal) way from anything one has ever known.The first Push factor is that operating in an un well-known(prenominal) environment is stressful and hard work. Secondly, it leads to feelings of helplessness as nearly as self-doubt. The role of an individual may be confused due to the new environment. Lastly, the more one learns about a different culture, the more gross differences become. The different practices could disgust a person, and the person would feel guilty because they failed to respect local customs. A good example is walking by dint of a entre regardless of otherpeople coming behind. I did it so many times with a clear mind not knowing how detrimental in was to my reputation on campus. So many kids misunderstood my ignorance to certain American cultural norms and hated me with a passion. The two Pull factors are loss of status and the ever-common homesickness. Whenever something new happens to me, mostly in shock, I remember home. I feel so demoralized and want to return back home.The stages do not always have smooth transition and take a different amount of time for each different individual. There is the initial contact, disintegration of the old familiar cues, reintegration of new cues, gradual self-direction and independence. Each stage is described according to the individuals perceptions, emotional ranges, behaviors and interpretations of these. Disintegration is a period of confusion and disorientation where the differences become increasingly noticeable as different behaviors, values, and attitudes are introduced. The next stage is reintegration, which is characterized by a strong rejection of the new culture. This is the stage when visitors to a new and different country like me usually return home. It is when an individual wants to return to what theyre used to and know. Autonomy is when there is a rising sensitivity to the reasonableness of the new culture.The individual is relaxed and capable of understanding what happens around them. This stage is marked by the growth of personal flexibility and the development of appropriate coping skills. The stand stage is independence. This is described as attitudes, emotionality, and behavior that are independent but not independent of cultural influence. Basically this stage is when the individual reaches a self-actualized declare of being in which they choose to explore the diversity of the world, while still maintaining their sense of self as a changing being. It is the capability of having preconceptions, assumptions, values, and attitudes challenged. I desire that culture shock has a behavioral core, meaning the behavior determines the stage of shock, it has an emotional core, meaning the emotion experienced determines the level.Preparing for a two-year overseas college power point program in Lagos, Nigeria, I submitted to no fewer than five shots as a protective measure against everything from yellow fever to hepatitis. Although I managed to avoid anydreaded tropical disease during his assignment, I contracted one malady for which there was no vaccination. The disease was culture shock. To speak of my own experiences, I have traveled abroad several times to different countries. Each time I left Nigeria, I was convinced that the culture in the country I was visiting would not be that much different.Every time I arrived, even so close to Nigeria in in the south Africa, I was bombarded by a culture difference than mine. Even within these individual countries there were different sub-cultures that were completely new to me. I spent a few months in South Africa and just when I thought I had gotten used to the culture, something would happen that made me experience culture shock all over again. That was quite a clangoring of different cultural beliefs and a difficult one to explain to my parentsOne specific example of cultural difference is the market bargain. In America, when one goes to bribe an item, most times, no matter where one purchases it, it has a set market price. In Nigeria, there is no such thing as a set price unless you go to big stores. The vendors expect and want their customers to haggle with them and bargain the prices down. When I first tried to buy a necklace, the vendor got insulted because I wouldnt haggle and refused to sell the necklace to me. Eventually I got the hang of haggling, but as soon as I got used to that, American culture found other differences to swing my way.Towards the end of my most recent two-month stay in a college where I intend to get my college degree, I feel reached a stage of autonomy in the model of culture shock. I was astonished by the sight of students who disregard the riches of the world and dressed in shabby outfits in practice popularly known as hippies. Many of them had metals pierced through their tongues, nipples, belly buttons, lips and eyebrows. In other countries, theres nothing wrong with that, it was just shocking to have something I had always taken for granted so blatantly pointed out I was appalled to find out just how Nigerian I am.Therefore an understanding of cultural self-awareness is important to understand ones own logic and structure before one can understand another. Another essential ingredient is communication. For a long time, my work supervisor nursed a bad impression toward my attitude to work because Ialways responded contrary to her instructions. The and reason was the difficulty I had to apprehend the American accent. This problem lingered until I explained myself out. Because of this problem, many students feel uncomfortable interacting with me. It seemed to me like an unending quest to blend into the society because I had no other option other than explaining myself to a student body of seven hundred. Proficiency in communicating can also ply a major role in adjusting to culture shock. Enhancing intercultural communication improves the procedural insight of a person interacting with those of another culture.For example, it is a known fact that Ame ricans can be very expressive and open blunt fits well, an American deportee going to Nigeria, for instance, will face difficulties in holding back their thoughts as Nigerians are a fairly reserved set of people. Cultures have different perceptions of how each of these categories should be interpreted to be appropriate. Americans have very high individualism and comparatively low power distance thus, they prefer to do things themselves and are equal in terms of power. Conversely many of the underdeveloped countries such as Nigeria, Hong Kong and capital of South Carolina are characterized by a large power distance and low individualism, these nations tend to be collectivist in their approach.In summary, the home culture of an expatriate predisposes them to certain behaviors and situations. It allows them to operate efficiently in the environment. However, moving to another country changes that operating environment and makes their mental software less efficient and effective. Bette r cultural understanding gives informational knowledge, in essence, about the host country and culture. My advice is not to mimic or copy local behavior, instead, just be yourself. Concepts such as values, needs, behaviors and norms are required to be understood. This information can assist them in better executing their work tasks and by knowing that culture shock may be present and is not a permanent disease will hopefully reduce their symptoms.In order to avoid culture shock, I suggest cross-cultural training programs that emphasize the cultural differences between behaviors of two different cultures. It would provide skills and information regarding the culture so that the visitor knows what to expect with their new culture. The training is aimed at cognition and designed to change the way people hypothecate about differences between different societies. Communication, in-groups, and socially acceptable activities as well as socially unacceptable activities are all discussed and explained.Personally, as much as I think that would help limit culture shock, nothing short from going to the different cultures itself would eliminate it completely. A doctor cant cure a patient with out ever seeing them I dont think culture shock can be prevented with out exposure. I personally dont see a problem with culture shock as long as it doesnt result in something harmful to oneself or others. A result of learning about another culture abruptly through culture shock, is that the individual learns about his or her self, his or her own culture, and new identities in the different culture. The individual learns to grow towards multicultural perspectives and develop alternative futures for his or her self, thus making his or her self a more culturally accepting person.