Culture Shock, Stress, Fatigue 1 of 9 (Al Stewart)

You’re an expat, you’ve lived in this new country and culture for awhile now (the exact length of time doesn’t matter) and you’re here.  So let me ask you a question.  Have you lived in this place long enough that you have totally adapted to the way of life here?  you’ve totally adapted to the way things are done?  you can easily accept everything and anything, just about, that happens here?  nothing annoys you any more?

 

I suppose it’s possible, but I doubt it.  Not completely.  Not entirely.

 

I’ve just about lost track of the number of places where I have lived, or at least stayed for an extended period of time.  While there are things about every one of them that I truly like and truly enjoy, I’ve got to admit there are certain things - certain happenings - that could really rub me the wrong way.

 

Take this place where I live now. It’s a beautiful place and we’ve got some good friends here, BUT (you’ve heard that word before, haven’t you — BUT) there are certain events that happen that create a friction sensation.

 

For example, a friend had a piece of equipment that broke down and he needed a replacement part. He went to the appropriate business place and ordered the part.  No problem.  It should be there in about a week or 10 days.  The time frame was a little annoying, but he figured he could live with it.  Ten days later he went back and found out that they hadn’t actually ordered the part yet.  Two weeks later it was the same story.  Let me assure you this is a true story.

 

Or … there’s the day I went to a hardware - building supply store to buy a certain item that I needed to finish a project. They didn’t have it.  ‘Impossible,’ I’m told, ‘It doesn’t exist.’  When I tell them that I saw the exact item in another store in another city, the salesman shakes his head and tells me that it’s not possible. Nobody has that item.  So one day we take a trip to another town not too far away and we find the exact item on the shelf in a store there.

 

Annoying?  Uh-huh, a little.

 

So why do I tell you this?  It’s because these are examples of happenings that can cause something called Culture Stress.  It happens to all of us when we move to a new country, a new culture, and sometimes just to a new place within the same country.

 

When you first arrived in this place where you are now living you had a feeling of anticipation, didn’t you?  a sense of fun and excitement…a sense of adventure, right?  New people, new things, new sensations and new food. For most of us, it’s an exciting happening.  Oh sure you feel a little nervous, maybe a LOT nervous, maybe even scared - a little.  Fearful.  That’s normal, but there’s still a feeling of excited anticipation.  Of course those feelings are a little different for each one of us because we’re different.  We have a lot of different conditioning in our backgrounds.  We’re different personalities so things affect each of us differently, but in general there is that sense of anticipation and excitement.  If we do have any kind of sense of adventure then the move to the new location does carry a certain amount of excitement with it.  

 

That is, once you get past the fatigue of the trip, of course.

 

Then the differences start to hit you, especially the language.  How are you supposed to talk to these people or understand what they are saying to you?  How are you supposed to do some of the basic things you need to do to survive?  like shopping … and eating?

 

Oh yeah … speaking of eating, how about the food?  If your favourite food is the hamburger place down the street back home … or … well you know what I mean, how are you going to survive here?  They probably don’t have those places here.  How do you even know the food here is safe to eat?  How do you know if you’re going to like the taste of the local food specialties?  Are you a little fearful about the food?  Is it cooked properly?  Where does it come from?  What if you go to a restaurant or a person’s home and a certain dish of food is set before you as a gift of honor from the host?  It doesn’t look like something you would eat.  It doesn’t look like it has been cooked the way you are used to having something like that cooked.  What do you do?  Do you run screaming out of the place?  Do you refuse the special dish as graciously as you can? Do you realize that you may very well seriously offend the host if you refuse to accept the gift of this dish and you hold your breath and eat it anyway?

 

These are all things that form a part of culture stress.  They are part of what we all have to go through to adjust to the new culture where we’re living.  After all, this is the place where we believe God has called us so somehow we have to adjust, don’t we?

 

This is just a small sample of some of those culture stress triggers.  I could fill the time of a half dozen of these programs just listing and telling about some of these things, these events, these encounters and happenings.  After awhile, after we have more or less adjusted to this place, most of us can look back on them and chuckle over some of the things that annoyed us at first.  Maybe not all of them — that would be expecting too much — but some of those events and encounters can be humorous when we look at them in the rear-view mirror of life.

 

Of course some of us don’t adjust so well. Some of us find it harder to accept the new ways, the new foods, the new smells, the new everythings and the stress grows.

 

I’ve browsed through an assortment of resources that talk about this subject of culture stress, how it happens to us and how we can cope with it.  While I’ve lived in a number of different cultures, generally enjoyed most of them and can look back on them with pleasure, pleasant memories, some good chuckles and sometimes a real good laugh at certain memories, I don’t claim to have conquered all the points that might cause a little culture stress.  I don’t really think that’s totally possible, but we can learn to live alongside them and coexist, if you like, with the local customs while still maintaining some of ours that don’t offend the local population.  Some people, I do have to admit, have been able to adapt very well to the local cultures in which they live, and to pretty much blend in, and don’t stand out like foreigners.

 

Before we go any further, you’re probably wondering - What is the difference between culture stress and culture shock?  Good question.

 

Our friend Ron Koteskey writes about it this way:

 

As culture shock was originally defined, culture stress was considered to be a part of it. However, the word “shock” projects a mental picture of something sudden and short-lived.

 

Example — at your first meal you are served food that is totally different from anything you have ever eaten in your life.  Then you discover that the meat on your plate is from an animal you never considered to be something that should be eaten.  That is one form of shock - culture shock.

 

Or you discover that haven’t got a clue about this local money.  You certainly can’t understand a word of what the taxi driver at the airport is saying to you with a string of strange sounds being fired at you with the speed of a machine gun.

 

Some more culture shock.

 

So, back to what Ron was saying … many people today think of culture shock as the crisis stage, that is - the first encounter with the new culture which can bring on confusion, disorientation and the feeling of lack of control.  This begins when the new expat leaves the enthusiastic, exciting, optimistic tourist mode. This usually begins in a few weeks and gets worse for about six months. In most cases this stage of culture shock basically ends within about a year or two.

 

Culture STRESS, on the other hand, is the adjustment stage in which people begin to accept the new environment. They adopt, or try to adopt, new ways of thinking and doing things so that they feel like they belong to the new culture. This can take years.  Actually, some expats never complete it.  This Culture Stress thing may go on and on for them for a long time.

 

Okay.  There are also certain areas where culture shock and culture stress sort of overlap in what they do to you.

 

We’re all different and we all experience this in different ways.

 

While I was reading up on what others have to say about culture shock and culture stress I came across a list of symptoms of someone suffering the effects of culture shock and culture stress.  Next week we’ll examine those symptoms in a little more detail, but briefly here are some of those symptoms.

 

Unwarranted criticism of the culture and the people.  Heightened irritability.  Constant complaints about the climate in this place.  You tend to spend a lot of time telling others how wonderful, and perfect, is the culture of the place you come from.  Fear of touching any of the local people.  A constant fear and preoccupation with being robbed.  Counting the days until you can go home.

 

Those are some symptoms of culture stress and culture shock. Next week we’ll look at them in more detail. Plus, we’ll also be looking at some of the factors that cause culture stress.

 

Have you recognized yourself today and maybe smiled a little at some of the examples?  Good. Next week we’ll look some more at culture stress.

 

But maybe you’re wondering … how do you learn to cope with this?  Okay, here are a few solution hints.  Well, maybe one or two right now.  We’ll do this again next week.

 

One would be to learn about the culture and why they do things the way they do them.  That means to study it a bit.  They may be different from your own customs but they probably have a good reason for doing it.  Understanding the reason could help you to adapt.

 

Another is to focus on positive outcomes and results of experiences in this place.  Not everything is negative.  What benefits have you gained by living and working in this place?  What positive things can you think about of your relationships with the people here?