M.

Iqbal Algifarik

F041201018

Cross-cultural communication (B)

MY FUTURE STUDY PLAN ABROAD

Education is important to me, and in order to get an education myself, I don't want to limit myself to just
studying in one area. I plan to continue my studies at the University of Melbourne Australia, majoring in
International Law. I had to do a lot of preparation to get to that goal, especially financial and mental
preparation before exploring the university. Of course Australia will be different from Indonesia, in
terms of food, culture, and even the people. For this reason, things like culture shock must be dealt with
immediately before going there.

In Indonesia, there are many ethnic groups. With different diversity in one area. Because of that I often
have to try to adjust to people from different cultural backgrounds. Melbourne might be different. And
the way I would adapt will be different too. When I’m on my way to later,, which of course would uses a
commercial plane, I will remember and practice the theory of Intercultural acculturation (Berry, 2008;
W. Chen, 2010; Halualani, 2008), which in time will be very useful for me because I as an immigrant
must be able to adjust to new things in the country that I have visited and will live in later. The process
of intercultural acculturation cannot happen overnight.

Next, I definitely have to learn English, because Australia itself is a country that uses English. According
to Ward & Kennedy (1993), fluency in the host language is proven to have a positive impact on
sociocultural adaptation, such as establishing relationships with native citizens of the country
concerned. On the other hand, the negative impact of ignoring the importance of the target language of
the country that will be lived in is a sense of stress, being isolated, and feeling insecure with the social
conditions there. With that in mind, I have studied and strengthened my ability to speak English by
reading English texts, listening to English songs, also frequently practicing my listening and speaking
skills through the TOEFL test, and English courses.

Before I reached Australia, of course I was familiar with the term “Culture shock”, because I was about
to face a new culture that I had never been to before. Emotional problems will often occur because
people from different countries have to live in a strange place, especially since I will be studying there
for 4 years. Personal expectations are a crucial factor in the management of culture shock. Often broken
expectations cause a newcomer to feel insecure and unable to adjust to the new situation he faces.
According to Pitts (2009) & Ward (1996), realistic expectations help adaptation between cultures, and
furthermore that an expectation based on the positive side of the destination country will facilitate
adaptation to the pressures there. Starting from this theory, I still do not prevent myself from having
expectations of the situation and environment there. I'm just going to limit my expectations so they
don't go too far and lead to deep disappointment when things don't turn out as expected. It is also
important for me to make expectations based on objective positive data for me there later. I am trying
to develop an attitude of behavioral flexibility, which, based on the theory from Pusch (2009), this
attitude refers to an individual's ability to adapt and adjust attitudes to people from other groups (cross-
cultural).

Everything that I will go through will feel a little difficult at first, considering that culture shock is
something that is unavoidable for people who move locations to new and unfamiliar locations. This is
evidenced by the results of interviews with Norwegian students in America. In 1995, a researcher named
Lysgaard concluded and sparked a theory called the "U-Curve", there are 3 phases of adjustment to
culture which include (1) Initial adjustment, (2) Crisis, and (3) Regained adjustment. In the first phase,
which is the phase where a newcomer feels optimistic about the country he is visiting, in this case, he
expects anything that can happen that will give him a positive impact in the future. The second phase, is
the stressful phase, which is when the expectations are broken by reality, so that entrants are
overwhelmed by their abilities which they described so easily before. The last is the third phase, where
newcomers learn to adapt effectively to their surroundings. In my plan, later I will emphasize efforts to
adjust to the situation in the second phase, by socializing and seriously studying with other students.
That way, I can make myself feel welcome and possibly help me get to phase three more quickly. by
socializing and seriously studying with other students. That way, I can make myself feel welcome and
possibly help me get to phase three more quickly.

After all that has been said above, I can conclude that culture shock is inevitable. It is always there and
even becomes a scourge for foreign immigrants. Of course, in the future, the host country's government
may also need to make efforts to help migrants feel comfortable with their country. It is possible that in
the future, there will be a program for immigrants to introduce the culture of the host country so that
international students can understand everything about their country.