Kazakh Ablai khan University of International Relations and World Languages

MIW 1. Culture shock

Done by: Kurbonkulieva Makhabbat

Contents:
What is culture shock?

Stages of Culture shock

Sss
Causes of culture shock

Examples
 What is culture shock?

Culture shock refers to the impact of moving from a familiar culture to

one that is unfamiliar. This impact includes the anxiety and feelings (such
as surprise, disorientation, uncertainty, and confusion) felt when a person
must adapt to a different and unknown cultural or social environment. It
might include the shock of a new environment, meeting new people,
eating new food, or adapting to a foreign language, as well as the shock
of being separated from the important people in your life: such as family,
friends, colleagues, and teachers.
 Stages of Culture shock

The
Honeymoon The Distress The Orientation The Adaptation
Stage Stage Stage Stage
The Honeymoon Stage

This is the first phase in a new culture

During this stage, everything is new
and you may feel fascinated by the new
and interesting. You may experience
experiences. Everything in the new
a feeling of euphoria and be in awe
culture is interesting and exciting.
of all the differences you see and
Everything is wonderful and you are
experience. You feel excited and
having a great time learning about the
stimulated, and you still feel close to
environment. During this phase you
everything familiar back home.
may tend to see the new experiences
During this stage, you generally
through the lens of your home culture
focus on the similarities between you
and may rely on what you are used to
home country and your host country,
in order to comprehend the host
but you appreciate the differences as
culture.
well.
The Distress Stage

Once the honeymoon stage wears off, you may suddenly start getting frustrated or
annoyed by your new country, specifically the customs and values. The things you're
experiencing no longer feel new; in fact, it's starting to feel like the strangeness of a
new culture is preventing you from experiencing things. You may feel hostility toward
the way things are done here, and you may think that they should be done in a
different way. You start to idealize life “back home,” and may feel that your current
culture, language, and food are inferior to what you're used to. You feel confused and
alone, and may realize that the familiar support systems of home are no longer easily
accessible to you. Don't worry; this is perfectly normal.
The Distress Stage

The Orientation Stage is the first stage in acceptance. During this stage, you begin to understand
why things are done in a certain way. You start to respect the culture and traditions, whether you
consider them to be good or bad. You begin to feel more comfortable in your new environment, and
you begin to have a more positive outlook. You feel more confident and better prepared to cope with
any problems that might arise. Remember that culture shock is not a perfectly linear experience; you
may return to the Distress Stage multiple times until you hit…
The Adaptation Stage

During this stage, your attitude changes and you are able to function
in both cultures. You have embraced the new culture and are able to
see it in a new, yet realistic, light. In this stage you are typically well-
oriented to your new life, and have developed your own habits and
routines. You feel comfortable, confident, and capable of making
decisions. You no longer feel alone and isolated; instead, you start to
feel at home.
 The 13 elements of culture shock that international students were asked to consider as causes of
culture shock were analyzed by assigning a score ranging from 1 for “Strongly Disagree”, to 5 for
“Strongly Agree”. The higher the score, the greater was the student’s agreement that the element
was a cause of their culture shock. As shown in Table 6, the percentage (50% or greater) of the
respondents who indicated “Slightly Agree” and “Strongly Agree” to the causes of culture shock are
as follows:

(1) Language – 64%

(2) Immigration Policies – 61%
(3) Mentality (Mental attitude) – 60%
(4) Education System – 58%
(5) Interpersonal Communication (Body
Language, Facial Expressions) – 58%
(6) Food – 57%
All but 8 of the respondents indicated that they believed that
culture shock was caused by at least one of the 13 causes.
Twenty-seven respondents believed culture shock is caused by
over 9 causes, 40 believed it is caused by 8-9 causes, 43
believed it is caused by 6-7 causes, 32 believed it is caused by
4-5 causes, 23 believed it is caused by 2-3 causes, and only
7 believed that it is caused by only one cause. Thus the concept
“Culture Shock” is multi-determined, making it more
challenging to overcome since numerous factors constitute its
cause.
 Examples
"Before my visit to the USA, I'd never understood
the concept of small talk," Waszkielewicz wrote
in a Quora thread. "I'd heard of it on numerous
occasions, especially during my English lessons,
but I never really got it. What's the point of
talking if there's nothing to talk about?
"Then I came to America to work and travel, and
everyone started talking to me.
"People asking me 'How are you?' (or 'How ya
doin'?' in Virginia) didn't shock me — I knew that
it was just a way of saying 'hi.' What did shock
was that everyone was doing that — even some
random people I didn't know passing me on the
street."
"At my previous job, I had 25 days of vacation, eight paid bank
holidays, a day off for my birthday, and the opportunity to buy an
additional five days off," Reid wrote for Business Insider. "We worked
hard. But we were given adequate time away from the office to rest,
reset, and rejuvenate."
"So you can imagine my horror when I was offered my first job here in
the States and found out my paid time off was an accrued total of 10
days — a measly two weeks, including vacation and sick days.
"And the worst part was that the employer seemed to think that was
generous, prefacing the section about PTO with: 'We know how hard
you work and recognize the importance of providing you with time for
rest and relaxation.'"
Conclusion

Culture Shock is certainly a disturbing impression, but it is not that sudden as the
term shock implies. In most cases it is the gradual decrease from positive to
negative mood after the initial euphoria stage and the actual crisis, resulting from
that. As it is also used to describe the whole adaptation process, the word shock
does not appear to fit too well. The disturbing impression does not always affect
the own cultural concept. In some cases the experience of Culture Shock might
even strengthen cultural identity, which is not the best approach either. As to the
factors that cause Culture Shock, they are not really unwelcome, but they are
foreign and different, and thus irritating. It is this irritation that is actually
unwelcome.
 References
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Unternehmen", Herne/ Berlin, 2002
2. Bochner, Stephen: "The social psychology of cross-cultural relations" in Bochner, Stephen (Editor): "Cultures in contact", Oxford, 1982
3. Bock, Philip: "Culture Shock - A Reader in Modern Cultural Anthropology", Washington, D.C., 1970
4. Dowling, Peter J./ Schuler, Randall/ Welch, Denice E.: "International dimensions of human resource management", 2nd edition, Belmont,
1994
5. Dülfer, Eberhard: "Internationales Management in unterschiedlichen Kulturbereichen: mit Tabellen", [Transl. by Albert Jennings and David
Smith], München /Wien/ Oldenburg, 1999
6. Furnham, Adrian/ Bochner, Stephen: "Social difficulty in a foreign culture: an empirical analysis of culture shock" in Bochner, Stephen:
"Cultures in contact", Oxford, 1982
7. Gibson, Robert: "Intercultural Business Communication - Fachsprache Englisch", Berlin, 2000
8. Glaser, W.: "Vorbereitung auf den Auslandseinsatz: Theorie, Konzept und Evaluation eines Seminars zur Entwicklung interkultureller
Kompetenz", Neuried, 1999
9. Guirdham, Maureen: "Communicating across cultures", London, 1999
10. Hofstede, Geert H.: "Culture's consequences: Comparing values, behaviors, institutions, and organizations across nations", Thousand Oaks,
2001