Culture Shock, Stress, Fatigue 2 of 9 (Al Stewart)

As an expat you knew you were going to be living in a country and a culture that is different from your own. But did you really expect it to be THIS different?

 

Maybe your first impressions were something like … this is not so bad … I can handle this.

 

I remember one young man who arrived at his first overseas assignment with a great deal of eagerness.  He looked around and saw buildings that looked similar in appearance to what he was used to seeing.  The people spoke a different language that he didn’t understand, but to him they were sort of normal-looking people  and their clothing didn’t seem to be so different. There were stores along the streets, and cars, and he looked around and smiled and said, “This doesn’t look so bad or so different. What’s all this about culture shock that I’ve heard about?”  Some of the rest of us smiled and waited.  Within a few days it began to hit him and actually he spent the next few years fighting culture shock and experiencing culture stress.  I’m not sure that he ever really did learn to adapt to the local situation to any great extent.

 

So what is culture shock and culture stress?  How are they different?

 

Well to put it as condensed as I can, culture shock is what hits you when you first realize that just about everything in this new place is different.  It is so different that some of them become very annoying.  Culture stress is the continuing effect that these differences have on you and your emotions.

 

I’ve been reading a lot about culture shock and stress these days and thinking about my own experiences in different cultures.  I hope we can pull some of this together in a way that can help you to understand and cope with your own feelings and stresses related to this new culture where you are now living.

 

Last week, we looked at these two terms as described by our good friend Ron Koteskey and here again is how he describes them…

 

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 these sensations in different ways.  The sounds of this place, the smells, the routines, the customs, the foods, the language, the traffic, the stores and market place, the local concept of time, the local pace of life, the local concept of honesty and integrity and people relationships.  I could make a very long list here of the things that are different from what you are used to experiencing.

 

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?

 

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.

 

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.  Let’s scan through that list and see if anything sounds familiar to you.

 

One of those symptoms, in this list, was an unwarranted criticism of the culture and the people.  You know that feeling.  You walk down the street muttering to yourself or you sit in your room shaking your head or you throw up your arms in frustration.  Thinking to yourself, hopefully not out loud where any of the locals can hear you, “Nobody here does anything right. They’re all stupid … dishonest … lazy …” or whatever other descriptive phrases pop into your frustrated mind.

 

Of course, when your emotional temperature cools down a little, you have to admit that the accusations are not really true.  Not everyone is like that, but when culture shock or stress is riding your back that kind of criticism can be part of your expressed feelings.

 

Another symptom is heightened irritability. You get angry more quickly, more easily, more often.

 

Maybe you complain constantly about the climate in this place.  Sometimes it takes a long time to adjust to the local climate.  Sometimes, I think, you have to have been born in this place and lived your entire life here to truly accept the local climate as right and normal and okay.  But, constantly complaining about the climate — comparing it to the ideal climate which of course is the way it is or was at home — is a sign of culture shock or stress.

 

Speaking of that, maybe you tend to spend a lot of time telling others how wonderful, and perfect is the culture of the place you come from and how much better it is than what happens in this place.  That’s another symptom of someone feeling the effects of culture shock and stress.

 

Maybe you feel afraid to touch any of the local people.  Maybe you’re continuously concerned about the purity and acceptability of the local food.  I remember one expat I worked with for a short time in a certain city.  He expressed to me how wonderfully he thought he had adjusted to the local culture of the city.  But you know something?  He virtually ate none of the local food. Instead he had most of his meals at a Western-type hamburger place that happened to have been opened in this city.

 

Maybe you have a constant fear and preoccupation about being robbed by someone or cheated by someone in a store or market. Yes, of course, it could happen and you need to be careful.  You need to take some common sense precautions, but do you need to constantly dwell on the subject or constantly be fearful of it happening to you?  It’s another symptom of culture shock or stress.

 

Here’s another interesting symptom from this list - A pressing desire to talk with people who really make sense.  I had to think about that one for a moment or two.  A pressing desire to talk with people who really make sense.  You want to talk to someone from your own background, maybe your own country, who speaks your language and has the same viewpoint about events or situations.  It’s an understandable feeling but it IS another sign of someone who is experiencing the effects of culture shock and culture stress.

 

Here’s another symptom on that list - maybe you are constantly thinking about returning home and going back to your home country.  I have known people who just about every day were counting the days and minutes until they could leave this place and go home, counting the days until furlough, or home assignment, or even leaving this place and these people … permanently.

 

Those are some symptoms of culture stress and extended culture shock, if you like. Maybe you recognize some of them in yourself.  That sounds like you’re pretty normal.

 

Can culture stress be prevented?  Can we totally avoid it?

 

The answer in short form, according to Ron Koteskey, is NO.  Stress is part of my life.  It’s part of your life.  It’s something we all experience and no matter what you study or how well you prepare or how well you think you adapt, the act of trying to become at home in another culture is always very challenging.

 

However, like other types of stress that come into our lives, culture stress can be managed.  It can be brought down to a level which can live with, which you can tolerate, which won’t drive you onto the first plane heading in the direction of home.

 

We’ll learn more about this in the next few programs in this series.  One thing to remember - don’t expect to adapt instantly.  You may spend the rest of your life, or how ever long you stay in this situation, adapting.  Believe me, certain aspects of it can prove to fun and enjoyable.  I know, not all of them, but some of them.

 

Okay … more about culture stress and culture shock next week.

 

By the way, there are some ways of learning to deal with it.

 

One … is to find ways to relax.  Take your mind off this place and the things that frustrate you — for awhile.  Read a good book, maybe. Go for a long walk or get some physical exercise.  

 

Don’t just sit in your apartment and feel sorry for yourself.  Get out.  Observe.  Get into casual conversation with local people as much as you can.  They probably want to learn about you and you can talk to them about their place.