Culture Shock
What an interesting topic. Today in class we discussed the different ways we can experience culture shock and how to deal with it. When I think of shock, I instantly think of someone going into shock due to a traumatic injury or loss of blood. Those both practically paralyze the individual and happens generally pretty quickly. The shock will wear off after proper medical treatment unlike CULTURE shock. Culture shock is more of like a roller coaster ride. Some days I will be able to accept everything around me and love life, other days I know that I am going to crave familiarity. At times I may feel like I am paralyzed and not able to do anything that day and I have learned that that's ok. I did a little bit of research and found an awesome article on the four phases of culture shock
1. Honeymoon Phase. Occurring within the first couple weeks of travel. Everything is perfect and so interesting. Curiosity is found in the new food, local's habits, and pace of life. However this stage eventually ends…
2. Negotiation Phase. Differences between the old and new culture create anxiety. Feelings of anger and frustration start to arise. Differences in language, hygiene, and food are the main reasons for this phase. Feelings of home-sickness and loneliness will occur.
3. Adjustment Phase. I may not ever experience this phase as it usually occurs after 6 months of the new life. However, this phase one knows what to expect in different situations and many things are becoming habit and familiar. The culture begins to make sense and once again things become easier to manage.
4. Mastery Phase. Although this does not mean full conversion, but they individual has a bi-culturism way of living.
I kind of felt like I was writing down symptoms for a disease! By understanding what is absolutely going to happen to me while I am in Ghana will allow me to sort of chill out and go with the flow. I want to wake up every morning with the thought that this is a brand new day, I am in Ghana Africa, I won't be here for too long (even when it feels like an eternity), and I am experiencing this right now and there aren't any re-dos.
Only 27 more days!
I think everyone should do a post on culture shock. To be honest, it's the most influential factor in a field study, in my opinion. It's good that you're getting an idea of what it might be like, just know that you can never really expect how you'll feel, so be careful to not overestimate your ability to overcome the challenges of culture shock. I certainly did, and it caused a lot more frustration than I probably would have if I had just accepted that culture shock WOULD affect me. Another thing you should think about doing is researching methods to relieve some of the culture shock you may feel. I'm sure that there are tons of journals and blogs out there where people have talked about what worked best for them to overcome the emotional, physical, and even spiritual effects that culture shock can have. Whether it's getting out into the community, journaling, napping, whatever it is, being prepared with solutions will make you that much better off.
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