Contrastive Analysis.

REACTIONS TO CULTURE SHOCK

The reactions associated with culture shock may vary widely among individuals and can appear at different times.
According to Ferraro and Andreatta, “When culture shock sets in, everything seems to go wrong. You often become
irritated over minor inconveniences. The food is strange, people don’t keep their appointments, no one seems to like you,
everything seems so unhygienic, people don’t look you in the eye, and on and on.” When confronting some of the effects
associated with culture shock, it is not uncommon for people to experience a sense of disorientation, feelings of rejection,
homesickness, withdrawal, irritation, and physical and mental fatigue. This cataloging of tensions connected to culture
shock is not intended to overwhelm you or make you apprehensive about venturing into another culture, but rather to
help you be prepared should you experience some of these reactions.

THE PHASES OF CULTURE SHOCK

Although there are variations in both how people respond and the amount of time they need to adjust, most of the early
literature addressing culture shock suggested that people normally experience four phases and a U-model was used to
illustrate the progression of those phases. A few introductory remarks will be helpful before we explain the overall concept
of the U-curve. First, the lines separating the phases a person goes through are not at all distinct—that is to say, the
transition from one stage to another is not as clear-cut as our description might imply. From a broad perspective, the U-
curve seeks to demonstrate an initial decline in the level of cultural adaptation, followed by a steady period of recovery
and adjustment to the host culture. This can be visualized as beginning at the top left side and moving downward before
climbing back up the right side toward the top of the “U.” A bit more detail will give you a better understanding of the
culture shock process.
The first phase, which we call the exhilaration stage, is usually filled with excitement, hopefulness, and even a feeling of
euphoria as the individual anticipates being exposed to a different culture. People see their cultural experience as a time to
explore everything from new foods to a different pace of life. The second phase (disenchantment stage) begins when they
recognize the reality of the new setting, start to encounter some difficulties, and adaptation and communication problems
begin to emerge. As Triandis notes, “The second phase is a period when difficulties of language, inadequate schools for the
children, poor housing, crowded transportation, chaotic shopping, and the like begin taking their
toll.” This is the crisis period of culture shock. Confused and baffled by their new surroundings, people can easily become
irritated, hostile, impatient, angry, and even lonely. The adjustment stage, the third phase, is when the sojourner gains
some cultural insight and gradually begins to make some adjustments and modifications in coping with the new
surroundings. Events and people now seem much more predictable and less stressful, and adaptation begins to occur. In
the final phase, the effective functioning stage, people understand the key elements of the new culture (special customs,
behaviors, communication patterns, and such) and feel comfortable in the surroundings. Early research also postulated
that sojourners returning to their home country after extended periods abroad experienced reentry shock and went
through another U-shaped experience, and a Wmodel was used to illustrate the process.
Although they continue to enjoy popularity, perhaps because of their ease of understanding and illustration, subsequent
research has failed to confirm the U- and W-models of culture shock and adaptation. The early models lacked
methodological rigor and tended to oversimplify the complex processes of cultural integration. More recent studies have
disclosed that culture shock can affect sojourners very differently based on personal and situational factors. For instance,
one later investigation found that difficulties commenced immediately upon arrival in a new culture. Similar findings have
shown that reentry shock can take a variety of forms.35 Newer models, such as those offered by Adler and by Kim suggest
that the adaptation process is cyclic with intermittent periods of adaptation and stress, with the latter attenuating the
longer the sojourner remains in the new culture.

BEYOND CULTURE SHOCK

As we noted earlier, people are moving from place to place throughout the world in larger numbers and with greater
regularity. These people, and you might well be one of them, are faced with the monumental task of adapting to a new
culture. Their new “ homes” are often for an extended period of time, perhaps permanent. The impact and the
importance of having to adapt to a new culture are clearly articulated by Kosic and Phalet: International migration creates
culturally and ethnically diverse societies. As people from different cultures interact with each other, they face not only
different belief systems, values, customs, and behaviors, but unfortunately also prejudice towards each other. It seems that
social relationships between immigrants and local populations often lack cohesion and sometimes show strong antagonism
or even racism underneath an outward appearance of tolerance.
In political and public debates, immigrants are often depicted as trouble-makers. Many of these newcomers experience
difficulty while adapting to the host culture. Some of these difficulties are in fact much like the ones associated with
culture shock. As Mak, Westwood, Ishiyama, and Barker point out, “ Newcomers may not be ready to learn and practice
social behaviors appropriate to the new culture in the initial period of settlement. It is not unusual for recent arrivals to be
overwhelmed by the immediate demands and challenges in orienting to living in a new place.” The name given to the
process of learning to live in a new culture is acculturation. Berry defines acculturation as “ the dual process of cultural
and psychological change that takes place as a result of contact between two or more cultural groups and their individual
members… . At the individual level it involves changes in a person’ s behavioral repertoire.” This process of adjustment is a
lengthy ordeal that requires gaining a large body of useful knowledge about the new culture. As Ward, Bouchner, and
Furnham note, “ A necessary condition of functioning effectively in a second-culture environment is to acquire relevant
social skills through behavioural culture training, mentoring, and learning about the historical, philosophical and
sociopolitical foundations of the host culture.”

References.
Samovar, Larry A; Porter Richard E.; McDaniel Edwin; R. Roy Carolyn S. (2007).Communication Between Cultures. Eighth
Edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.