Hi all,
These are just some things I’ve been thinking about in regards to my “culture shock topic”.
Recently I went on a two week holiday to Thailand, previous to starting this assignment if I was asked if I suffered from culture shock I would have immediately answered no! I see myself as a fairly open person and accepting of other lifestyles. However after starting my research I may have suffered more of a culture shock than I realised. After doing some reading the following list of ‘symptoms’ seems to re-occur throughout.
Symptoms of culture shock:
· Unwarranted criticism of the culture and people
· Heightened irritability
· Constant complaints about the climate
· Continual offering of excuses for staying indoors
· Utopian ideas concerning one's previous culture
· Continuous concern about the purity of water and food
· Fear of touching local people
· Refusal to learn the language
· Preoccupation about being robbed or cheated
· Preoccupation with returning home
Unfortunately I have to admit that I am guilty of doing several of these things, although these things didn’t start until the end of the holiday. Communication difficulties were probably the most frustrating, although thinking about it now I should have made more of an effort to understand them rather than just expecting them to understand English (although majority of hotel staff had a pretty good understanding of English). I also have to admit that I did complain about the place being ‘dirty’ and not being able to drink tap water. Towards the end I was looking forward to going home because of all the little things I missed, like tap water and pizza shapes (don’t ask why, I don’t usually even like them that much). Despite this there were still other things I loved about Thailand, all the local people I met were very friendly and extremely polite, in fact they were so polite it was hard for me to know how to respond because I wasn’t used to it.
I am wondering if travelling to another country that isn’t as different to Australia would still produce the same sort of reactions but just focussing on other aspects for example the weather?
Because my holiday was so short I only really experienced the first stages of culture shock before I came home, I am curious whether or not I would have been able to fully adjust if I was to live there permanently. It just makes you think how hard it would be for those migrating to Australia to fully adapt our lifestyle where in some cases it would be completely different from what their used to. I also had the safety shield of being a tourist with people willing to help me with things. Whereas those moving to another country would have other things like looking for housing, work, schools, banks and other everyday living type things to adjust to on top of everything else.
Well that’s just a few things that got me thinking, now all I have to do is find some journal articles that discuss these issues!
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6 comments:
The Cross-cultural Training I tutorial might provide a starting point for some possible references.
Hi Ellen,
I thought your blog was pretty interesting. When I was 17 I lived in Costa Rica for a year on exchange, lived with a family, went to school etc.
At the time I didn't think I really suffered from culture shock, I see myself the same way, open, not racist etc etc but afterwards looking back I'd say I was a lot more culture shocked than I realised.
At the time I put a lot of the problems down to the family I and the school being much more strict than mine back in Oz. I think honestly though it was me not having an understanding or appreciation of the culture differences.
It took me a lot longer than it should've to pick up the language because there were so many people who could speak english I almost felt like I didn't need to, I never thought about learning it out of respect for the culture and people.
Just some thoughts from having lived there for a while!
Hi Ellen,
I agree with a lot of the ideas covered in your blog entry. As i am sure you already know, i suffered really really really badly from culture shock when i went o/s... so much so that i never want to leave Australia again. So if you need a case study for your essay you are welcome to study me and my freaky behaviour :)
By the way, regarding the comment you left on my blog... i never hated you!!! Maybe you fall into the first category????
Talk soon xx
Hi Ellen,
I think the communication barrier would be one of the biggest contributors to culture shock. I can't remember where I heard this but apparently Australians are really lazy listeners when talking to people with accents. The theory is that when we hear an accent we subconsciously think we will not be able to understand what they are saying and so don't really try to either. This certainly wouldn't help reduce culture shock in new Australians , I wouldn't think.
Hi Ellen,
I have done some travelling in the last few years as a tourist with my family and with friends but also with 'natives' (in want of a better term) of the countries i have visited and in some cases i have experienced some aspects of culture shock. When in both Indonesia and Fiji I didn't really experience culture shock and it was more exciting and interesting to me however when i travelled throughout America I experienced some of the symptoms despite the language and culture being the same in many aspects as Australia. I think however that my negative experiences (and they were minimal) were more symptoms of frustration and a little bit of home sickness as I was gone for a few months and encountered some very interesting situations. Most recently when visiting my partners family in Malaysia however i think that I was affected in a different way altogether. Whilst I had an amazing time and desperately want to go back I think the culture shock here was me trying to understand that my bf was part of this totally different culture and whatching him partake in practices different to how i normally saw him were what took some getting used to.
I think that most people in a minor way experience some of these symptoms whilst travelling however they may at times be due to other circumstances such as mood, expereince, destination and time spend away.
Just some ideas
Beck =)
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