Ok, I'll admit it. I'm experiencing culture shock. It's that crazy feeling when you've been outside the country and then you come back and you think is my home country really all that fantastic? A lot happened while I was away... and before I can really get adjusted, I've decided to run off again. Smart? To some people maybe not. For me, it's what I need to do.
Five Stages That People May Experience With Culture Shock
Stage 1: Excitement and fascination with the new culture. This is where they will overlook minor problems and look forward to learning new things.
Stage 2: Crisis period. This is where excitement turns to disappointment and there are more and more differences that occur. Problems start to be overwhelming and irritating and may use the "fight-back" technique by saying rude remarks or making jokes.
Stage 3: Adjustment phase. This is where they learn to accept the culture and to change their negative attitude to a positive one.
Stage 4: Acceptance and Adaptation phase. This is where they will feel at home and become involved in activities and may enjoy some of that countries customs.
Stage 5: Reentry shock. This is experienced upon returning to the home country and the return may follow with initial euphoria, crisis or disenchantment. It may be hard to readjust and may feel like they are not accepted.
LOL :)) i like your thoughts
ReplyDeleteYay, thanks for following my blog :)
ReplyDeleteMy steps 3,4, and 5 ended up being way different. I've lived in Japan for 2 years so it gave me a chance to deal with a lot of paperwork etc.. I decided, if a way of doing something is totally stupid, I can't "accept" it as being "different." Traveling 100+ miles just to take a driver's license test isn't a "different way" of doing anything, it's just a moronically inconvenient version of the American way. That's Tochigi-prefecture, Japan. And, assuming you would ONLY have 1 driving center per prefecture (state) you'd imagine a having more convenient way to travel there, right? Instead of 50 minutes on a bus, 45 on a train, then 30 more on a bus. (with 20-30 minute wait times in between). Oh oh oh, AND they're never open on weekends or holidays, so I can basically never go. I couldn't sit down and design a shittier system.
ReplyDeleteSame with my bank. Open 8-3 M-F, closed all other days and anything even resembling a national, state, local, or village holiday. If you have a job, you can basically never set foot into this bank. That's the real shock, that anyone would put up with this shit.
Hmm Step 5, I guess I was kind of shocked. More like reminded haha. I was like "oh yeah... lame"
Something tells me you're feeling a little homesick... :)
ReplyDeleteI felt homesick once, but then I went home haha. In addition to the stupidly shocking shit though, there are a lot of 'slightly more convenient' ways of doing things in Japan. Usually they aren't things as important or useful as getting a license, but I found living without them is also difficult. That's usually not part of culture shock though. I guess it's kind of the 'getting used to' phase, but for me it's just a matter of like "this thing is awesome" or "this thing is totally stupid what is wrong with you?" Japan's trains: awesome. They would never put up with train-lateness the way Americans do. So it's not really 'getting used' to the trains. They were already awesome haha. That convenient stuff isn't as shocking as Street Workers who don't realize the middle ages ended, still using some harry-potter type broom.
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