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Dealing with Culture Shock |
What is it?
"Culture shock" is the name given to a feeling of disorientation or confusion that often occurs when a person leaves a familiar place and moves to an unfamiliar one. Coming to the Gold Coast from another country you will encounter many new things. The buildings look different and so do the trees and landscape. The food is not the same as it is at home, and the people look, speak, and act differently than the people at home. Even the smells are different. Your English may not serve you as well as you expected it would. You might not be able to convey your full personality in English, with the result that you think other people are seeing you as a child. And your family and friends are far away. As a result of all this you may feel confused, unsure of yourself, and you may have some doubts about the wisdom of your decision to come here.
Symptoms
Initially you will be excited by the challenge of living in a new culture. It will seem like you are on vacation. As time goes by however, you will slowly realize you are not on vacation; you live here now. You may become depressed, you may have trouble sleeping (or you may want to sleep too much). You may have trouble concentrating. You may eat poorly. You think that no one understands how you feel. And you will want very badly to go home.
These symptoms reinforce each other. Poor eating habits will make you feel drained and your depression will deepen. You may do poorly in classes, which will lower your self esteem. All of these will contribute to your sense of loneliness.
Coping with Culture Shock
To cope effectively with culture shock, you must first realize that you are not alone; it happens to everyone. Many international students experience the same feelings upon their arrival in Australia. Talk to them about your feelings. Here are some ideas that might be helpful:
Maintain your perspective.
Try to remember that thousands of people have come to the Gold Coast from other countries and
have survived (even when they arrived in the cold of winter).
Evaluate your expectations.
Your reactions to Australia and to the Gold Coast are products both of the way things are here and of the way you expected them to be. If you find yourself feeling confused or disappointed about something, ask yourself, "What did I expect?" "Why?" "Was my expectation reasonable?" If you determine that your expectations were unreasonable, you can do much to reduce the amount of dissatisfaction you feel.
Keep an open mind.
People in The Gold Coast might do or say things that people at home would not do or say. But the people in The Gold Coast are acting according to their own set of values, not yours. Try to find out how they perceive what they are saying and doing, and try to avoid evaluating their behaviour using the standards you would use in your own country.
Learn from the experience.
Moving into a new culture can be the most fascinating and educational experience of your life. It gives you the opportunity to explore an entirely new way of living and compare it to your own. There is no better way to become aware of your own values and attitudes and to broaden your point of view. Here are some questions that you might try to answer as you encounter the local people:
- How do they make friends?
- How do friends treat each other?
- Who respects whom?
- How is respect shown?
- What attitudes do they have about their families?
- What is the relationship between males and females?
- Why do people spend their time the way they do?
- How do they deal with conflicts or disagreements?
- What do they talk about?
- When and with whom?
- How often do they "take turns" during a conversation?
- How loud do they talk?
- What do they do with their hands and arms while talking, and where do they direct their eyes?
- What kind of evidence do they seek or use when evaluating an idea or trying to win an argument?
There are countless other questions you can ask. You can compare the answers you get to the answers you would get to the same questions in your country, and you can thereby help yourself develop a better understanding of your own society and of the one where you are living now.
Phases of Adjustment
Social scientists who have studied the phenomenon of adjusting to a new culture have identified four phases of adjustment through which newcomers to a culture commonly pass:
- Spectator phase: The new person is excited and optimistic.
- Stress and adaptation: Problems, disappointments, and internal conflicts emerge. Feelings of sadness, depression, anger, hostility, or rebellion might result.
- Coming-to-terms: Increasing involvement with the host society reduces the foreigner's generalized hostility and disappointment, and helps him or her find a relatively comfortable or at least acceptable position in the society.
- Decision to return home: This is a period of excitement and self-examination. If the foreigner has become detached from his or her own society, this phase brings about tension and feelings of ambivalence; if the foreigner still identifies strongly with his or her home country, this phase brings a feeling of release and pleasant anxiety.
This is only one way of looking at the question of "phases of adjustment." Not everyone goes through all these phases, and different people spend different amounts of time in those through which they do pass.
Keys to Successful Adjustment
Here are some practical suggestions intended to help you adjust to your new situation:
- Learn local English. The better you can express yourself and understand Australian English, the easier everything will be.
- Realize that you will often be treated as a stereotype. Foreigners anywhere are treated (at least at first) not as individuals but as representatives of groups to which they are perceived to belong. On many occasions, foreign students will be responded to as "a foreign student" or "a student from country X." The nature of the response will depend on each local person's previous experience with ideas about "foreign students" or "students from country X," not on anything about you personally. Try not to let this discourage you. Avoid becoming angry with people who are, after all, just acting like people. You may be able to start some interesting conversations about the subject of stereotypes - what people's stereotypes are, where they come from, and so on. And remember that you have your ownstereotypes about foreigners at home or here.
- Learn the local criteria for success. Find out what is considered a good performance in studies, research, social relations, and other aspects of your life here. You can get information about this from teachers, Australian students, secretaries, neighbours, and many other people.
- Learn how to get things done in organizations. Many of the things you want to accomplish will be accomplished through organizations -- academic departments, other units of the Institute, businesses, government agencies, and so on. Learn how those organizations work. Knowing which units or particular people in those organizations do the work you are interested in; who makes decisions; and how you can best approach the people who work in those organizations. Secretaries are often very good sources of information on this topic. Experienced students can sometimes help too, but not all of them can be assumed to have learned how to accomplish things in an organizational setting.
- Realize how the status of your role here compares to the status to which you are accustomed. Different societies attach different importance to different roles or positions in the society. In many countries, the role of "university student" or "professor" is accorded more respect or "status" than it is in Australia. A "foreign visitor" might get more attention and courteous treatment elsewhere than here. It can be difficult to adjust to having a lower social status than
you are accustomed to; it helps to recognize that you personally are not being downgraded, but that you happen to be in a society where less value is attached to people in your situation than is the case at home.
- Avoid being excessively influenced by particular dramatic events. It has been pointed out that newcomers to a society may have a particular, very noticeable
experience from which they generalize about the new society and the people who live in it. In fact, the experience might be very unusual, not a safe basis for generalization. (For example, one male foreign student new to the Institute found that his residence hall roommate removed all of his clothes when he was in the room studying or relaxing. The new foreign student at first supposed this was what Australian students customarily did, and wondered if he should do the
same. He wisely asked around, though, and found that his roommate's behavior was not typical.) This suggests that, if you have a dramatic experience which you find influencing your opinions or feelings about the local people, you should discuss the experience with other people and get an idea whether it is typical or unusual.
Try to understand other people's situations. People behave differently because of their individual characteristics or interests, and because of the situations they are in. If you do not know anything about other people's situations, you tend to assume too much. For example, if a person treats you in an apparently unfriendly way by not taking time to talk with you on the street or in an office, you may assume the person is unfriendly. If you knew more about the person's situation, you might
realize the person was late for an appointment, had an exam, or had some personal preoccupation not related to you.
In the same way, the local people may understand little about your situation as a newcomer from abroad, and they may therefore misunderstand the reasons for some of your behavior. For example, they may assume that your limited English proficiency or unfamiliar accent is a product of lack of intelligence, rather than a product of inadequate opportunities to practice the language with native speakers. Experienced foreign students have found it more helpful to think positively in these situations, rather than to assume the local people are deliberately being inconsiderate or unkind.
Adjustment for Spouses and Children
Spouses and children of foreign students go through the same phases of cultural adjustment as the students themselves, and they can benefit from many of the suggestions above. But their initial attitudes and feelings may be different. The spouse may have left a job in the home country, may not have wanted to come to Australia, may have a lower level of English proficiency, and will have lost the support of family members who may have had an active role in childcare and household matters. A change the family's economic status can lead to greater frustration for the spouse, especially if the spouse is a female who has been accustomed to having help with the cooking, cleaning, and childcare. She needs to adjust to a new country and new roles.
During the initial period, the spouse may feel a loss of self-confidence and independence. He/she may feel very isolated and lonely. These feelings may be more severe if the spouse who is a student is deeply involved in studies and is often gone from home.
Spouses who have been in this position advise that the best way to overcome these difficulties is to go out and meet other people. This may seem very frightening, but the new spouse will meet others who feel the same unhappiness and frustration, and talking with them can be quite helpful.
Another common suggestion is to take as many English classes as soon as possible, because the spouse's feelings of insecurity will decrease as he/she is able to communicate with people. On the Gold Coast there are many groups and volunteer opportunities to join, depending on one's interests. The foreign student advisers and new friends are good sources of information on these activities.
Children also need time to adjust to being in a new place. In general they learn English very quickly, but school, daycare, or babysitters may be frightening for them at first. Younger children may want their mothers to be with them all the time, and older children may want their parents to stay with them for a short time at daycare or school. You should talk with their teachers to see if this is possible.
The teacher will be a good source of information about other activities, such as sports, music, or art, in which your child can participate. We also have an excellent children’s martial arts program right here at the College.
Probably the key issue facing parents who are raising children in another culture is the degree to which they feel comfortable in seeing their children adopt the local ways. Some parents of foreign students do not mind if their children seem "Australia," but others prefer for their children to behave according to the standards of the culture back home. Such parents want their children to do well in school here and to make friends, but may fear that the children are losing their native identity and are adopting behaviour that people at home will not appreciate.
Children observe well and learn very quickly. They may want an Australia first name and may learn attitudes about independence and choice (from school, friends, and television programs) which you believe are not appropriate for your culture. Each family needs to decide how important it is to them to help their children retain their home language and culture. The importance of this will probably vary with the child's age and the length of the parents' planned stay in Australia. It may be helpful for you to talk with other parents to see how they deal with this perplexing issue.
Thinking About Going Home
When you first arrive in a new country, it is nature to spend much of your time thinking about the new country and your reactions. Try to keep in mind, even though you are preoccupied with thoughts about your new setting, that you will probably be going back to your own country after a certain period of time. Remember that you change while you are in the new country. You will learn new ideas, adopt new attitudes, and begin to behave in new ways. This may happen so gradually that you are not aware of it. And while you are changing, things will be changing at home also. Your family members, friends, and professional colleagues will have experiences that you do not know about, and they too will develop new ideas, attitudes, and ways of behaving. Social, political, and economic
situations may change too. This means that when you go back home, things will not be as you remember them. You will have to adjust again, this time to your own culture. This readjustment is easier if you realize it is going to be necessary. Prepare yourself. Keep your expectations realistic, and do not judge people harshly when you return home.
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