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Institute for International Medicine
Online International Medicine Course |
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Module Three: Cross-Cultural Skills
Culture Shock
"What's wrong with these people? Don't they know there is a better way?"
"Hasn't this country heard of progress?"
"Why do I feel so irritable? It's just not like me!"
"They bug me so much! I promise I'll scream if they do that again!"
"I must have been crazy to ever think of leaving home!"
Culture shock describes the psychological disorientation people may experience when moving into a significantly different culture. Nearly everyone immersed into another society experiences some degree of culture shock. Culture shock can occur:
- Even during brief trips,
- Even when entering cultures that are not entirely different, and
- Repeatedly each time you enter the same foreign culture.
| Being a foreigner is a new and, at least for a time, uncomfortable, even threatening experience. It can produce a persistent sense of insecurity vibrating just below the threshold of consciousness- something like a long-term, low-grade infection, not seriously disruptive but annoyingly debilitating (1984, p. 38). |
In a sense, culture shock is an occupational hazard of international service. Even within our home country we experience a degree of shock when we move to a new town, start a new job, or enter a new school. The unique feature experienced by expatriates is that the number of differences and required adjustments frequently overwhelms them. Understanding culture shock is essential for any expatriate, for this will help to:
- Identify and manage their personal feelings,
- Recognize and assist colleagues who are experiencing culture shock, and
- Get along better with individuals in their new culture.
- Being detached from familiar cultural cues and known patterns of behavior o Entering a social environment in which ways of believing, valuing, performing, or organizing things are both foreign and intimidating
- Being expected to perform well in the midst of ambiguous expectations
- Numerous cumulative experiences
| Ordinary everyday situations such as attending parties, making contact with the opposite sex, ordering meals, shopping, even using the bathroom, all activities which hitherto presented no problems, suddenly become major obstacles. … Individuals in this predicament include foreign students, visiting academics, businessmen and diplomats who tend to be highly skilled … in their own society, and now find their inadequacy in the new culture particularly frustrating and embarrassing (1982, p. 116). |
In short, almost everything in newly arrived expatriates' lives is altered. It is no wonder that they may feel cornered and overwhelmed by the volume of that with which they must contend. One of the most frequent sources of frustration stems from their sense of mission. People do not simply move to a new nation for little reason, but rather because they want to accomplish something grand. Yet expatriates soon realize that they may be doing well just to survive in the new environment, let alone fulfill their dreams.
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