Monday, February 14, 2011

Culture Shock

Culture shock is best understood and felt when you experience anxiety and disorientation. Also the difficulty of adjusting to a new and different costume other then what you are use to. Fore example: being in a foreign country, living with someone with different customs, new work environmentlanguage barrier, types of food. According to the book in chapter 12, "Studies show that from 30% to 60% of expatriates suffer serious culture shock, whereas about 20% have no difficulty and enjoy the challenge"(pg. 292). There is also Reverse Culture Shock, which occurs when one comes back home and then has to re-adjust to ones original country.


This video shows how different cultures and communication barriers can confuse someone with different customs. Although it is very humors the message of culture shock definitely gets across. 









This picture shows how aliens can even be shocked by something that is out-side of the norm. 


  Another type is Third-Culture Kids, which refers to children in expatriate families who reside outside of their home culture for years at a time. Other terms used are global nomads, transnationals, and internationally mobile children.(Gerner, Perry, Moselle, & Archbold), (pg.294). 

1 comment:

  1. Culture Shock is a very interesting topic to me and I was close to choosing it for one of my topics as well. I feel like going into a different culture, trying to understand a new language, eating new foods, and just adapting to the new culture all together would be hard for me. I found the video really funny and I feel like I can relate to the men who were new to the culture because they didnt know what the hand gesture meant that the other man was doing. I think I would react the same way unless I researched information about the new culture I was visiting and knew what the hand gesture actually meant. Overall I enjoyed this blog and really enjoyed the video!

    ReplyDelete