What You Need to Know about Culture Shock When Traveling

It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of travel.

You might want to hop on a plane and see a new country. You might want to check out museums or natural wonders or try authentic international cuisine the way it’s supposed to be prepared.

However, like many who travel abroad, you could be unprepared for one thing—culture shock. You could research every single detail about your dream destination, its culture, language, and people. And yet all that research doesn’t prepare you for the confusion and anxiety of being in a new country.

Culture shock happens to a person who goes into an environment with a culture that is different from what they’re used to. Sometimes, this can mean a blue-collar worker transitioning to a white-collar job.

But this often happens to people who travel to different countries and are taken aback by how things are done there as opposed to how they’re done back home. Students who go on study abroad programs are also a common target for culture shock.

Signs you are experiencing culture shock

Culture shock can be especially prevalent when the move is permanent and the person experiencing it isn’t going back home anytime soon. There are a few symptoms of culture shock to look out for:

• Fatigue - This can be a subtle symptom since some people can write it off as jetlag. But eventually, someone gets past jet lag, eats enough, sleeps enough, and maybe even gets a workout in, but is still constantly tired.

  But lethargy is just one way in which fatigue manifests itself. It can be sleeping more than normal, binge eating, or being overwhelmed by relatively small problems.

• Hyperirritability - Another symptom of culture shock can be letting every little thing ghetto you.

  This can manifest as venting anger in inappropriate ways or jumping to the worst conclusions.

• Depression - Feeling constantly low or in a funk is often a sign of depression and depression can be a sign of culture shock.

  Common signs of depression can include loneliness, feeling lost, lacking motivation to do fun things, and being unable to complete tasks. Now, depression should be diagnosed by a clinical professional and treated appropriately.

• Anxiety - Anxiety is another sign of culture shock. This can manifest in ways such as being overly concerned about how safe the food being served to you is, a nagging sense of dread, a nagging sense of dread, being preoccupied with cleanliness, and doubting your ability to thrive in the new environment.

• Feeling ill - The emotional stress of dealing with a new culture can sometimes translate to physical symptoms.

  These physical symptoms can include feeling off for no reason, aches and pains, poor sleep, and previous health issues flaring up or getting worse.

• Resenting the new culture - One way in which culture shock can manifest itself is in negative feelings towards the new culture. Maybe aspects of it will seem illogical or unsophisticated to you.

  Other ways that this can manifest is by wanting to withdraw from the culture, being critical of it, fantasizing about being somewhere else, buying into stereotypes, romanticizing your home culture, and focusing your energy and a desire to go back home.

The Stages of Culture Shock

Culture shock doesn’t come all at once. There are stages to it, much like there are five stages of grief. Except that in this case, there are only four. The four stages of cultural adjustment are:

• Honeymoon - This is the period where the differences between the old culture and the new are looked at positively. This can be seen when a person goes to a new country and falls for the new food, the new pace of life, and the habits of the locals.

  Basically, this stage is full of fascination. However, this face is temporary and will eventually end.

• Negotiation - After a while, usually around three months, the honeymoon period fades and the differences between the old culture and the new become starker than they were previously. The language barrier may start affecting you.

  Depending on time zones, the circadian rhythm may take some time to adjust and a person can develop insomnia.

  But the most important change that happens at this stage is communication. Adjusting to a new culture means adjusting to a new language, its cadences, its tones, its other nuances and all the other, unspoken ways in which people communicate like gestures.

  Because of the communication issue, people can start to develop loneliness and people won’t often have their normal support structures or social circles.

• Adjustment - After 6 to 12 months, a person becomes acclimated to their new culture and routines begin to develop. A person who moves to a new culture can start knowing what to expect and starts caring about day-to-day life as opposed to adjusting.

  The culture in the country, once alien, starts to make sense and the negativity starts to recede.

• Adaptation - It’s at this point that people become comfortable in their new culture. This does not mean a total conversion. Most people still retain traits from their previous culture.

Coming Home: Reverse Culture Shock

That said, there’s also reverse culture shock. That’s when someone returns home to their country or culture and experiences and is discombobulated by their own reentry. The adjustment that comes with reentry can sometimes be more difficult than the original adjustment.

A common phrase that applies is absence makes the heart grow fonder. In the case of reentry, the heart grows fonder because people idealize home. Their minds play down the bad parts and play up the good parts. So when they go back, reality falls short of their own nostalgia when you are back home.

If you want to know how to deal with culture shock, or its reverse, there are a few ways to do so:

• Acceptance - One of the first things that you have to do to adjust is to accept that things are different.

  You’re in a new place and you can either wallow in homesickness or make the best of it. Writing a journal about your feelings can help you with this.

• Learn - The sooner you learn about your new culture, the last you can adjust. Don’t just stop at knowing why things are the way they are, immerse yourself in an aspect of it. Try to learn the language as well.

• Develop a social circle - One of the hardest things about living in a new country is being away from your social connections. Seek out a new social circle because not only will this help you immerse in the local culture, it’ll also help you emotionally and psychologically.

• Maintain contact with home - Make sure to stay in contact with your friends and family back home. Talk to them about your feelings. The journal mentioned above should help you make enough sense of them to talk.

• Don’t idealize home - Above all else, do not idealize life back home. That’s only going to make your new surroundings look worse and lead to disappointment if and when you go back.

Culture shock is nothing new and it’s not necessarily a shock. But it can be quite unnerving and difficult to deal with, especially if you plan on staying in a new country for some time.

The best thing to do is anticipate it, and know that there are many more great things to look forward to on your trip.