Definition of culture shock essay
The above definition of culture shock is mention in part indicates the causes of culture shock. The first time they go to a foreign country, everything is quite brand new and exciting. They have a chance to see new sights and landscapes, enjoys new kinds of cuisines. They are probably appealed by experiencing fresh things. But it doesn’t last so long. After they settle down with their new life, they have to come back with their work or study, buying things, interact more with native people in foreign country, we can become very tired and they feel it hard to adjust.
It seems to be that culture shock originate from unfamiliar things, which include social interaction, values and belief, strange environment and climate, how people make decisions, spend their leisure time. When everything so different from their own cultural, they feel like “fish out of water”, “lose the comfort zone”, they find it very difficult to associate with and express their feeling and emotions, in initial time.
Unfamiliar social interaction
Culture shock firstly may be activated by different social interaction. Greeting, for example, if an individual has culture of bowing, such as Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese when he or she greets someone in a culture that does not involve bowing, he or she may feel embarrassed. Another example is that, American people frequently hug and kiss because they consider it as a way to express their affection and friendship, whereas in Asian countries, people often stay a distance by nodding or shaking hand for greeting.
Facial expressions, body language and verbal language are also elements cause culture shock. Verbal language is a typical example, many undergraduate high school students made up their mind to study in overseas country, when their first come to new country with new culture, their limitation of speaking foreign language make them cannot communicate with local people, so many problems will occur, and they may feel frustrated. Even they are quite fluent foreign language, sometimes people use slangs that they cannot understand.
