How to survive the 5 stages of culture shock and thrive

Culture shock is common, but you don’t have to let it overwhelm you

Arriving in a new country to study a language can produce both positive and negative reactions. This is common to most people who will be living in a new culture and country for the first time. You might have watched movies from the new country, listened to music, started learning the language and even met people online. However, it feels quite different once you step out of the airport and feel the air of a new country. 

The reactions you have when you start to live in another country and need to adapt to the culture is called ‘culture shock’. There are five common stages that most people experience when they are in a new country for a while.

The first stage of culture shock is usually a very positive stage. Everything feels new and interesting; you look at the world around you with interest. You look at the new places, different people and the new food with curiosity. You might not understand everything, but you are mostly enjoying the differences. When you taste a new food, you might think it is strange, but you are happy you tried something new. If you don’t completely understand the people who are speaking English, you feel motivated to listen and try to learn some new words. 

How to succeed in the excitement stage:

• Enjoy this positive stage that makes you feel excited to be in a new place.
• Meet new classmates and share your experiences.
• Laugh kindly at your own mistakes with the language or things you don’t understand.
• You might want to start keeping a journal of your experiences or write about them in your messages to friends and family back home. This could become a best-selling novel someday!

After the first positive stage of living in a new culture, people often enter into a less favorable phase. You might start to feel frustrated or angry about the difficulties of adapting to the new language and the behavior of the local people, which might include your teachers or the people you live with. Life begins to feel difficult. You notice that you don’t understand what many people say. Everyday activities start to feel stressful. For example, you can’t understand the differences in how public transportation works. The food tastes strange. You don’t know which stores to go to for things you need.

You may feel homesick, tired and irritated at this stage.. You miss your friends and family and don’t feel close to the people you meet in the new country. Your frustration might affect your sleep and your eating habits. You might not want to do things that feel difficult, such as going to class and making new friends. 

How to succeed in the frustration stage:

• Understand that you are not the only person who feels frustrated about the difficulties of living in a new culture. 
• Share your experiences with classmates and ask them to share what they have been experiencing. Usually, it is very easy to laugh together about the strangeness of this new country–and laughter is medicine!
• If you have a lot of stress affecting your sleep, class attendance and self-care, please ask to speak to a support person at Global Launch. We have Success Coaches, language tutors and counselors who can help you. 
• If your stress is affecting your classwork, talk with your teacher. 
• Don’t spend all your time alone. When we are stressed, we need to be around people to feel more connected.

After going through the excitement and frustration of the first two stages, we move into the next stage of adjusting. You will have many experiences from the positive first stage and the negative second stage and you will start to feel more knowledgeable about the country, the language, and your classes. You will know the city better and you might even be able to give directions to a student who just arrived. In this stage, you are beginning to feel more at home. 

How to succeed in the adjustment stage:

• Since you feel more comfortable, select some activities you haven’t tried yet. Maybe you want to go to a football game or a local museum. Find some friends and make a plan! 
• If you don’t have any close friends yet, organize some activities to make new friends and get to know each other better. Try doing a new activity every week. When you share time and experiences, you are building stronger friendships.

This is a stage in which you better understand the culture, the language and the people around you. You will enjoy some of the traits of the culture while you don’t like others. However, you can accept that it is okay to have likes and dislikes. Furthermore, you probably feel more capable of doing everyday tasks in English.This is a stage in which you feel more at home.

How to succeed in the acceptance stage:

• Enjoy your new sense of understanding and comfort. 
• Challenge yourself to deepen your understanding of the culture and the people.
• Continue to deepen your friendships. 
• Share what you are learning with friends and family back home.
• Help a friend who is still in the frustration stage.

You feel comfortable in your new culture and now it is time to go home. However, you will go home as a different person; you have lived in a foreign culture and learned a new language. You have new friends from other countries around the world. You have passed through the stages of excitement, frustration, adaptation and acceptance. Now, you will face a new kind of culture shock: seeing your home from a new perspective. 

Living in a new culture has given you new ideas. Your home and your loved ones might seem very different because you have grown so much. Your city might look very odd when you return and you might start comparing your home to the new culture you lived in. However, you will eventually accept that you now know two cultures and hopefully you will think this makes your life richer. 

How to succeed in the reverse culture stage:

• Don’t expect your friends and family to know about your new perspectives. Try to share your ideas to help them understand your experience. If you notice that you are judging one culture as better than the other culture, remind yourself that every culture has traits that you will like or dislike, even your home culture.  
• Give yourself time to integrate both cultures. 
• Stay connected to your new friends while you reconnect with your friends from home.