- Culture Shock - disease, felt in many different ways
- Own symptoms, cause & cure
- Confronted with: other cultural, social, political, legal & economic circumstances
- Foreign language = smallest hurdle
- Cultural understanding, lifestyle issues, customs & traditions, values, basic assumptions & norms
- Serious cross-cultural misunderstanding
2.) Kalervo Oberg
"Culture shock is precipitated by the anxiety that results from losing all our familiar signs and symbols of social intercourse. These signs or cues include the thousand and one ways in which we orient ourselves to the situations of daily life."
- 1901 - 1973
- World-renowned anthropologist
- Civil servant & teacher
- Traveled the world
- 1960: Publishing his theory - "Cultural Shock: Adjustment to New Cultural Environment"
- Basis for this intercultural phenomenon
Culture Shock - Host country and Home
The four stages of Culture Shock
- E.g.: when to shake hands, what to say when meeting people, how to give orders, when to take statements seriously or not
- Gestures, facial expressions, customs & norms, language
- Abroad: first learn all these daily manners
- Leading to frustration, anxiety & frustration
3.) Culture Shock
- Shock-like state
- Fear of losing all familiar signs & symbols of social intercourse
- Distribution in "visible / conscious" and "invisible / unconscious" culture.
- Visible / conscious culture: language, customs, traditions, dress code, food etc.
- Invisible / unconscious culture: norms, values, basic assumptions
- Feelings & symptoms: frustration, anxiety but also physical problems like stomach problems, infections, diseases
5.) School exchange to Bolivia
Conclusion
6.) Recovery & Tips
- Not environment changes but attitude towards things
- Learn the language
- Oberg: concept of "participating audience"
- 2010 - school exchange to La Paz / Bolivia
- nervous, excited, meeting new people
- Integrated well
- Do not compare Germany and Bolivia
- Two weeks of loneliness - crisis
- Participate in the activites of locals
- Figure out what and how they do things
- and what they are interested in
- Try to share reactions
"Is Culture Shock a disease or absolutely necessary for cultural adjustment in a foreign country?"
- First: you are an outsider and treated like on
- "Role-playing-game" - try to adapt to other country, but do not give up your own lifestyle
- This is part of personality
- Help others who are feeling worse than yourself - that gives self-confidence & strength
- Ask people around you for help
Structure
4.) Symptoms
- Symptoms of emotions: fear, frustration, helplessness, loneliness, excessive concern for their own health
- This leads to: excessive hand washing, avoidance of physical contact, phsical stress reactions - sweating
- Strong desire to go home, refusing to learn foreign language
1.) Introduction
2.) Kalervo Oberg
3.) Culture Shock
a. Honeymoon phase
b. Crisis
c. Recovery
d. Adjustment
4.) Symptoms
5.) School exchange to Bolivia
6.) Recovery & tips
1.) Introduction
Sources
- Kalervo Oberg, Cultural Shock: Adjustment to New Cultural Environments
- http://www.phil-fak.uni-duesseldorf.de/fileadmin/Redaktion/Institute/Sozialwissenschaften/BF/Lehre/WiSe0910/Transkulturelles%20Portal-Kulturschock%20nach%20Oberg.pdf
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_shock
- http://muisss.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/culture_shock-2.jpg
- http://blog.internations.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Fotolia_9227685_S.jpg
- http://www.harzing.com/cultshock.htm
- http://www.cie.uci.edu/prepare/shock.shtml
Culture Shock - Disease or Cultural Adjustment?