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Debunking the myth of culture shock; it comes in four stages
Saturday, February 16, 2008 8:00 AM PST
[Editor’s note: Jeff Bailey, a 23-year-old Coos Bay native, is in Azerbaijan, where he is serving in the Peace Corps as an English education volunteer. This is the fourth in a series of columns Bailey plans to write for The World about his experiences there.]
I think the term culture shock is a bit misleading. There is definitely a process one goes through when he spends even a small amount of time in a different culture, but to say it’s a shock isn’t quite describing the feeling. I’d like to think it’s more of an adjustment to culture than it is a shock from it. It’s more of a process of ups and downs that would be the normal course for any person’s life, but they are simply exacerbated by the issues that come with being a stranger. To explain what it is, I must first explain what it isn’t.
 Jeff Bailey
Culture shock is not being awestruck to the point of incapacitation because of a cultural difference. When I think of the term culture shock, I imagine a guy walking down the street in a foreign country and stopping in his tracks with his jaw dropped to the floor. “Oh my god! Look at the way they have sidewalks here!” he would shout. Or “Look, those guys kiss each other on the cheek when they greet each other! Wow guys, this is really shocking!” After remaining on the street, stupefied, he would continue on his way thinking, “Man, I was shocked by that cultural difference.”
In reality, this isn’t very accurate. If anything, I find it surprising how tame I find these differences to be. Sure, they’re noticed on my daily walks around town, but the significance of the cultural difference usually doesn’t get noticed until some time passes and I’ve had a chance to reflect on what these differences are all about.
In the pre-service training sessions, Peace Corps warned us about the culture shock we would be facing in our two years here. It’s a pretty well-documented process that happens to everyone, but some more than others, and everyone reacts differently. I’ve come to think of cultural adaptation, or culture shock, as a four-step process.
The first stage of culture shock is the reaction that someone has when they enter the new culture. Everything, and I mean everything, is new and foreign. The language, the food, the way you have to cross the street, the way you buy a newspaper, how to get a fair price for a taxi, bathroom etiquette and everything else that one must do in his daily life is different, and often more difficult than it used to be. Sometimes, a person has a certain knowledge that he or she has brought into the situation, like maybe a guidebook tip, or advice from a friend on how to do something, but everything is still being experienced for the first time. This stage can continue on for some time. In my trip here to Azerbaijan, I would say that I was mostly in this stage for about two months, and in some ways, I’m still here.
But the more time one spends within another culture, the more he or she gets used to it, and can play along with the differences. This is the second stage of culture shock and it comes around the time one starts to feel comfortable in his or her new surroundings. I remember around the time I started getting comfortable in the settlement where I first lived here, and thinking that things weren’t going to be so hard. I had seen how the locals lived, and I hadn’t received any complaints about my behavior, so I felt like I was good to go. This was personified by me saying ‘Salam’ to everyone and anyone I came across. It seemed to be the way people greeted each other, and they seemed to be pretty generous with who they said hello to, so I thought I would try to fit right in and do the same. It worked, for the most part.
The third, and in my opinion, the most shocking stage of culture shock is when one realizes that things aren’t quite what they seem. This stage can be a bit heartbreaking, especially for Peace Corps volunteers, because we work really hard at trying to fit in to the different cultures that we live in, so when we realize that we don’t, it can be trying and upsetting. This was the point when I realized that I shouldn’t be saying hello to everyone I saw on the street, even though it seemed like the right thing to do. The kids hanging on the corner would just taunt me when I said anything to them because I was a foreigner. It would bring up more trouble than being friendly was really worth. This was a really hard thing to realize because as I saw it, I was just doing the same thing everyone else was. My cultural adaptation was working like I thought it should. This is the part of culture shock that is really frustrating, because try as you might, you realize that you’ll never fit in, no matter how much assimilating you do.
However, it all works out in the end, because fortunately, the fourth stage of culture shock is becoming okay with the fact that you’ll never have it down. No matter how much I act like an Azerbaijani, I’ll never be one, and that’s fine by me. This stage of the cultural adjustment period is about finding comfort in being different, as opposed to the second stage of the process, which is about trying to fit in as much as possible. This stage is nice because it also allows for one’s individuality to be expressed. It might appear to be rude to refuse tea in Azerbaijan, and a local might just drink it to be polite, but if I don’t want tea, then I’m not having tea. Only now that I’ve gone through the stages of culture adaptation, I know I better drink tea the next time it’s offered, or my host mom is going to think I’ve gone crazy.
Jeff Bailey graduated from Marshfield High School in 2002. He writes further about teaching, cultural experiences and his beloved Portland Trail Blazers on his Web log, www.northwestjeff.wordpress.com. |
