Living in a new environment can be a real pain if we have no knowledge about it and its culture.

Culture shock happens when people become anxious because they do not speak the language, know
the custom or understand people‘s in daily life. People who cannot adjust themselves to the new
environment or new culture may reject everything that is new to them and exaggerate the positive
aspects of their own culture. Travelers who are afraid of trying new things are more likely to have a
negative experience or more profound culture shock.

The definition of culture shock is the trauma you experience when you move into a culture different
from your home culture.

A. Cause of shock culture

The areas of religion, moral behavior, justice and fair play, racial equality, work ethic and privacy are
areas where there may a great deal of cultural relativism, and people living and working overseas
need to learn to deal with these differences in a relaxed and nonjudgmental way.

Anyone who wants to live and work overseas should be prepared to make considerable changes in
their diet and get accustomed to the local foods and the sometimes limited selection of familiar
foods in the stores and restaurants. These can include work, home and leisure related activities that
they are either no longer able to do at all or no longer able to do like they are accustomed to.
Additional issues such as telecommunication system, things like grocery shopping, gas-station
system, getting to work, and other things can lead to frustration also. A person may find that some
of their own cherished and deeply held values and assumptions about life may not be equally
important to members of their new host culture.

B. The symptoms of shock culture

Although "culture shock" is generally understood as a temporary shock felt when confronted by
different cultural customs, ways of thinking and behavior patterns, it actually refers to a
psychological state of depression caused by the experience of successive failures in unfamiliar social
situations. Culture shock is temporary, and everybody goes through it to some extent in the process
of cultural adaptation. General symptoms of culture shock include:

 Irritation
 Homesickness
 loneliness
 nervousness
 loss of appetite
 sleeplessness
 feeling tired
 extreme pride in one's home culture
 hypersensitivity or excitability
 confusion
 incompetence etc.
 C. The Stages of Shock Culture

Culture shock can be described as consisting of at least one of four distinct phases: honeymoon,
negotiation, adjustment, and mastery. During the honeymoon phase, the differences between the
old and new culture are seen in a romantic light.

People adjusting to a new culture often feel lonely and homesick because they are not yet used to
the new environment and meet people with whom they are not familiar every day. After some time
(usually around three months, depending on the individual), differences between the old and new
culture become apparent and may create anxiety.

Excitement may eventually give way to unpleasant feelings of frustration and anger as one continues
to experience unfavorable events that may be perceived as strange and offensive to one's cultural
attitude. One starts to develop problem-solving skills for dealing with the culture and begins to
accept the culture's ways with a positive attitude.

Again, after some time, one grows accustomed to the new culture and develops routines, marking
the adjustment phase. In the mastery stage, assignees are able to participate fully and comfortably
in the host culture. People often keep many traits from their earlier culture, such as accents and
languages. One knows what to expect in mostsituations and the host country no longer feels all that
new. They associate with nationals who speak their language, and who are polite to the foreigners.

D. Coping shock culture

With the correct attitude, a few good cultural informants, a few cross-cultural communications
concepts and some time spent as a participant-observer, a person will quite naturally develop a
repertoire of intercultural interaction skills. Culture shock can be prevented by striving to become
more culturally relativistic and flexible in thinking and behavior, by developing a real enthusiasm for
learning about the host culture and by forming real intercultural relationships. And, when a person
begins to move further along the continuum of crosscultural understanding and interaction, they will
more quickly put down ego-identity roots in the new host culture and feel more at ease with
themselves and their surroundings. They will become happier and productive at work, at home or
while moving about within the society at large.