UGST-1002-001 Change, Challenge and Choice

Fall 2014

Assignment:

CHALLENGE PAPER

Surname, name Student ID: Signature

Morión Castilla, Carmen 201600730

INDEX

INTRODUCTION 1 pg

TOPIC DESCRIPTION 2-4 pg

STRATEGIES, TOOLS AND RESOURCES FOR COPING 4-7 pg

SUMMARY 7 pg

REFERENCES 8 pg

Cultural shock on international students Introduction

The number of international students is increasing worldwide. As time passes by

more and more students seem to muster the courage to pack their things and launch into

the unknown. Reasons are many and varied. Students want to have new personal

experiences, travel, get to know different people or just have fun; but probably the most

common motives are enriching their careers, learning a new language and opening

future possibilities. One way or another, the lives of these students face a dramatic

change for a certain period of time. When we think about exchange students, it seems

like travelling and partying is the first thing that pops into our heads. No doubt an

experience abroad is an amazing opportunity and can be absolutely wonderful and fun.

But how about taking a closer look? They get to a new country on their own, and they

are unaware of the social practices, customs, norms and rules of said country. Things are

not predictable anymore. These students are alone and have to face a huge amount of

new situations and feelings in a relatively short period of time. On top of that, does

anybody wonder what it is like for these people when they go back home? Readjusting

to one’s own home culture’s daily life can be even harder than it was adjusting to that of

a host country. What is the effect of this cultural and reverse cultural shock on

international students? Well, that is exactly what this paper aims to respond. In the first

place, I will give a deeper insight of these two concepts to later identify strategies, tools

and resources for coping with them, and finally give a summary of my main findings. I

have been a sojourner student in different countries and I have faced different types of

cultural and reverse cultural shocks in every of them. Therefore I can say I am much

familiarized with this theme. That is the reason why I believe writing about this topic is

a great chance for me to share the knowledge I have acquired with other people. I will

combine firsthand facts based on my own experience with different MRU empirical and

theoretical sources in order to make the content of this paper as accurate and complete

as possible.

Topic description

P. Alder’s (1975) defines Cultural shock as 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, and to the misunderstanding of new and diverse experiences.

It may encompass feelings of helplessness, irritability, and fears of being cheated,

contaminated, injured or disregarded. (p.13) Reverse cultural shock is similar in

definition to cultural shock but it focuses on the difficulties of re-adapting, re-adjusting

and re-assimilating into one’s own home culture after one has sojourned or lived in

another cultural environment (K.F Gaw, 2000, p. 85). Common difficulties returnees

face include: disorientation, stress, value confusion, anger, hostility, academic problems

and social withdrawal. In fact, Children and adolescents experience greater severity of

reverse culture shock than adults (p.84).There are different variables that affect an

individual’s ability to cope with the difficulties and stress of both cultural shocks,

including demographic factors, cultural-specific knowledge and skills, personality,

social support and cultural distance (C.A. Lombard, 2014, p.175).

So what do you do when you are alone in a country thousands of kilometers

away from home where you do not know anybody? Based on the alternatives presented

by Ward et al (2001) and Anderson (1994) and on my own experience abroad, I have

come up with four main behavioral patterns people tend to follow when facing cultural

shock: (1) Trying to make your life in the host country as similar as possible as your life

in your home country. It usually includes: socializing only with people from your same

country, a continual use of your mother tongue, spending great amount of time

connecting with friends and family from the home country on Skype and other social

networks, the overvalue of typical features of the home country and undervalue of

characteristics of the host country and a great feeling of happiness when it comes to

going back home for good. (2) Idealizing the host county and condemn your home

country. This trend is not as common as the last one but definitely happens as well. It

usually includes: socializing only with native people (not even with other exchange

students), condemning people from your country who keep socializing with people from

their same place, the almost exclusive use of the foreign language, and feelings of stress

and anxiety when it comes to going back home for good. (3) Trying to enjoy and

experience as much as possible the differences and peculiarities of the host country. It

usually includes: socializing with as many different people as possible both natives and

other exchange students, trying to learn the foreign language, being open minded about

the different ways of doing things, assessing and comparing the characteristics and

values of the host and the home country and a feeling of confusion when it comes to

going back home for good. (4) “Walk away behavior pattern”. It usually includes a high

feeling of anxiety and non belonging, social withdrawal and a feeling of relief when the

time to go back home arrives. It is a common pattern when the student decided to go

abroad for what I will call a non hefty reason, such as a boyfriend or girlfriend also

moving to the host country. This paper is not going to judge the different behaviors of

people. However, I think it is clear to everybody that a productive experience abroad is

the one in which sojourner students are able to effectively cope with the stresses of

cultural shock so that they can synthesize the best elements of both cultures.

Things happen to people in strange places that would not happen to them at

home (Nunez, 1996) and these new happenings, this bunch of different situations and

patterns force you to think and behave differently. If you are not tolerant enough, if you

are not able to reach the appropriate level of open mindedness, if you are scared to

change, If you stay stuck to your way of thinking and proceeding, if the reason number

one of going abroad is not yourself, you are extremely likely to face high difficulties to

adapt to the new environment. Besides, these people tend to obtain less personal and

academic benefits because they stuck to their thoughts and patterns and did not learn as

much as they could from the potential situation they were living. These people would

therefore face little reversal culture shock when going back to their home countries

(Huff, 2001). But is this what an international experience is supposed to be about?

Being out of the Comfort Zone requires opening your mind, speed in thinking,

accepting, adapting and acting if you want to success. If you are able to do this, your

experience abroad will have made you grow as a person. You will have been able to

discover new aspects of your personality and redefine others. Variety would have given

you the chance of comparing and assessing. Information is power, and now you are able

to realize that things you thought were right are not anymore, and things you thought

were wrong maybe had a reason for being. You will have a broader view, more

tolerance, more perspectives and more choices. You will become more aware of your

own values, believes and attitudes, which will allow you to synthesize the best elements

of both cultures. Basically you will experience a very high personal development.

However, it is precisely for the people who better adapt to a foreign culture and who felt

personally satisfied with their experience abroad for whom the re-adjusting process, i.e.

the reverse culture shock is more difficult (Huff, 2001). In fact, I would describe the

personal discordance I have felt back at home as the most difficult hurdle in the entire

circle of international life.

Strategies, tools and resources for coping

Based on the information below, it can be said that all sojourner students face

both cultural and reverse cultural shock. However, different factors such as the reason

for moving, tolerance, adaptability, personality and self concept will determine to which

extent students will be more or less affected. In this section I will examine the unique

challenges or stresses that cultural shock and reverse cultural shock present and the

coping strategies and resources that can help students deal with them. I will start by

analyzing cultural shock and later proceed with the assessment of reverse cultural

shock.

Cultural shock

As mentioned in the topic description, the main stresses that cultural shock

presents are feelings of helplessness, insecurity, irritability, frustration, confusion, fears

of being cheated, contaminated, injured or disregarded and even grief and bereavement

for significant others left behind (Ward et al., 2001). This is without including other

acculturative and lifestyle stressors such as language barrier, different educational

environment, socio cultural situations, discrimination and loneliness (Lin & Yi, 1997).

But at the same time, these young students also have a powerful opportunity for

transformation, a chance to glimpse and grasp their full potential and search for deeper

meaning in their lives (Anderson, 1994)

When I arrived to Canada I experienced feelings of confusion, grief for the left

behind, educational environment differences and loneliness. But as it happens every

time we choose to change, we have to accept that we both win and lose some things.

When I say loss I refer to the loss of the comfort zone -the loss of known norms and

patterns, the loss of proximity to friends and family and the loss of predictability in our

daily life among others. So how should we deal with the loss to make the most of our

experience?

Well, in the very first place you have to accept your new situation and the best

way to do so, especially if you are having a bad time, is to implement an Emotion

focused constructive coping strategy. An Emotion focused strategy consists on

recognizing and regulating emotions to tolerate or eliminate stress (Weiten et al.,

2012). You have to keep calm and accept that all the feelings you are experiencing are

normal. You are alone in a completely unknown world, it is normal to feel confused and

lonely at first, it is okay to feel down sometimes and it is okay to miss home. Do not

blame yourself for having those feelings; understand they are temporary and you will

feel comfortable once you have some time to get used to your new situation. You should

be aware that you are not the only one feeling this way. Expressing your emotions by

opening up to somebody, or even writing in a journal if you feel more comfortable can

be very helpful. In the second and more important place, you have to change your

mindset. The best way to do so is implementing an Appraisal-focused constructive

coping strategy. An Appraisal-focused strategy consists of controlling our belief

system when facing an activating event in order to achieve desirable consequences

(Weiten et al., 2012). Remember this sentence “You feel the way you think”. If you

approach your entire experience abroad as an amazing opportunity to get to know

interesting people, places, learn new values and norms and develop yourself as a person,

you will. The mind is powerful. Keeping a positive mindset is vital to enrich from an

experience abroad, as well as it is in all fields of life. Substituting catastrophic thinking

by humor will also be very helpful. Culture shock usually leads to embarrassing

situations but there is nothing wrong with that, especially if you have a foreign friend

with whom you can laugh about them.

Combining these two strategies is a key for you to make the most of your

experience abroad. Depending on your personality it will be easier or harder. For

example, Gullahorn and Gullahorn (1963) noted that sojourners with more firmly

established perception of themselves suffer less.

Reverse cultural shock

As mentioned in the topic description, the main stresses that cultural shock

presents are disorientation, stress, value confusion, anger, hostility, academic problems

and social withdrawal. Children and adolescents tend to experience greater severity of

reverse culture shock than adults (K.F Gaw, 2000, p. 85). In fact, I can corroborate these

statements with my own experience. At the age of 16 I went to Ireland to Study for one

year. Although I have also suffered some reverse culture shock after later experiences

abroad, they have never been as strong as it was on that first time as teenager. I had

great difficulties to keep up with school and suffered a huge cognitive dissonance or

value confusion that took me more than one year to overcome. However, it is also when

you get home that you realize how much you have developed. You become aware that

some of your current personal values are those from the different people who have

walked through your life and get the feeling that part of the person you are is actually

spread over different continents. The result is that when you are back at home, it does

not feel exactly the same anymore. You feel confused because you do not get the feeling

of full security and comfort that you expected. But in most cases, home is exactly the

same and it is you who has irremediably changed. While your friends and family

continued their routines you were bombed with a ton of new emotions, feelings,

perspectives and ideas that made you grow a lot in a short period of time. You start to

value more your family and realize that you got used to living surrounded by certain

behaviors, values, and attitudes that are now are missing.

An Emotional focus constructive coping strategy can be very helpful to face

these matters. In this situation it is very important to identify and separate feelings. For

example, you might not feel exactly the same way about your friends but it does not

mean you do not love them anymore. You still do, but you have discovered that there

are values your friends lack which are also important to you. You have to make an effort

to love the different things in your life for what they are and be thankful. You have been

very fortunate for you experience abroad and now it is the time to relax and enjoy the

little things of your daily life. Spend lots of time with your family, they deserve it and

whether you believe it or not, it will make you feel much better. Another suggestion is

keeping yourself busy. The fact that you are back does not imply that your life cannot

be exciting anymore. Joining interesting courses, practicing sports, making plans for the

weekend or going out in different places are some examples of activities that can

provide you with the feeling of excitement you are missing. Apply what you have

learnt. Whether by helping a friend with the foreign language you have learnt or by

talking friends and family about your interesting findings, continuing to apply your

knew knowledge will make you feel good. It will somehow remind you that that part of

you is still alive. Finally, it will also be helpful to speak with somebody who has gone

through a similar experience and with whom you can feel identified. It is always good

to speak with somebody who can really understand what you are talking about. It will

give you both a feeling of comfort and relief.

Summary

A sojourner experience is a wonderful chance of travelling, learning a language,

getting to know new people, new places and a new culture. But above all, it is a great

opportunity to learn from diversity and grow. How beneficial the experience is will

depend almost entirely on the personality and willingness of the student and his ability

to face the multiple challenges the situation presents: initial loneliness, cultural shock

and reverse cultural shock. Emotional Focused and Appraisal Focused constructive

coping strategies will be powerful tools to come out well from such challenges.

To conclude, I will quote a statement of Adler (1975), who said: “Although

culture shock is most often associated with negative consequences, it can be an

important aspect of cultural learning, self-development, and personal growth. The

problems and frustrations encountered in the culture shock process are important to an

understanding of change and movement experiences, and that such transitional

experiences can be the source of higher levels of personality development. Implicit in

the conflict and tension posed by the transitional experience lays the potential for

authentic growth and development” (p. 15)

References

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International Journal of Intercultural Relation, 18, 293-328. Constantinian, P. M., Guinyard, C. A., Hermosisima, E.C., Lehman, P.D & Webb, R. E.

(2008). Personal Transformation and Readjustment in “Homecoming”, Journal of

College Student Psychotherapy, 22:3,50-60, DOI: 10.080/87568220801960696 Gaw, K.F. (2000). Reverse cultural shock in students returning from overseas.

International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 24, 83-104. Gullahorn, J.T., & Gullahorn, J.E. (1963). An extension of the U-curve hypothesis.

Journal of Social Issues, 19,33-47 Huff, J.L. (2001). Parental attachment, reverse culture shock, perceived social

support, and college adjustment of missionary children. Journal of Psychology and

Theology, 29, 246-264. Lin, J.C.G., & Yi, J.K. (1997). Asian International student’s adjustment: Issues and

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