Culture in simplicity is a body of learned behavior, a collection of beliefs, habits and traditions, shared by a group of people and successively learned by people who enter the society. Furthermore, culture is learned, not inherited. If this is correct, then it can be assumed that it is not impossible to learn new cultural traits and to unlearn old ones. Therefore, it must be feasible to integrate cultural differences. Cultural adaptation would involve many essentials 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 set of emotional reactions to the loss of perceptual reinforcements from one's own culture to new cultural stimuli, which have little or no meaning. In layman's terms, culture shock is the anxiety resulting from losing one's sense of when to do what and how. There are many different ways to experience culture shock.
Universal Culture Shock/Undiscovered Numbers & Col...
Culture Shock (TV series)
English: Flag of LagosIt can be experienced across the world or as near as one's backyard. Some aspects of culture shock include strain caused by the effort to adapt, sense of loss and feeling of deprivation, status, profession, possessions, feelings of rejection and rejecting members of the new culture, confusion in role, values, self-identity crisis, anxiety, disgust, anger on foreign practices 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 always a negative thing. Often it is just the shock of being in a place that is completely different in every way from anything one has ever known.
The first Push factor is that operating...
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The term, culture shock, was introduced for the first time in 1958 to describe the anxiety produced when a person moves to a completely new environment. This term expresses the lack of direction, the feeling of not knowing what to do or how to do things in a new environment, and not knowing what is appropriate or inappropriate. The feeling of culture shock generally sets in after the first few weeks of coming to a new place
The article is well written explaining the cultural shocks that the author faced giving suitable examples. But today it is much easier to cope with such shocks as several universities offer counselling to international students to overcome it.
The symptoms of cultural shock can appear at different times. Although, one can experience real pain from culture shock; the positive aspect is that it gives an opportunity for redefining one's life objectives. It is a great opportunity for leaning and acquiring new perspectives. Culture shock can make one develop a better understanding of oneself and stimulate personal creativity.
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