Reentry Shock Paper

Culture shock is the feelings of alienation, hostility, heightened ethnocentrism, sense of loss, depression and/or self doubt that may result from immersion in a new culture.

Pederson (7) explains that there are stages of culture shock, which he identifies as the honeymoon, negotiation, adjustment, and adaptation. In the honeymoon phase, a person is likely to get excited about being in a new place, meeting new people, tasting new foods, and acquiring new habits. However, as time passes by, they get into a phase of negotiation, where the differences between the culture one is used to and the one they find themselves in start to become apparent. Feelings of anxiety, anger, and frustrations start to take shape as unfavorable events perceived as strange come in the way of the person 's life, especially if a person does not feel accepted in the new culture (Mukherjee 273). Loneliness may set in, and the urge to go back to the familiar culture strongly comes into play. However, as time goes by, adjustment sets in, usually within six to twelve months, and one gets accustomed to the culture and also comes up with a routine. By this phase, one knows what is expected of them, and life once again becomes ‘normal.’

Cultural shock is a common feeling a person experiences when transitioning into a completely different environment and living situation. Throughout the world, immigrants experience many difficulties when assimilating into a new culture.

Patetic in his prompt suggests that the advantages of today’s modern, highly mobile society are exceeded by the disadvantages it provides. Patetic supports his position by first demonstrating how the present-day mobility of our society causes people to lose the close relationships that the past was full of. He continues by mentioning how families and friends often lose touch because of the distance between them and thus the connections are lost. The author’s purpose is to inform the public of how our rapidly advancing society can cause people to lose touch with where they came from. The author adopts a pleading tone in hopes that the audience will recognize what is happening and will try to change their ways. Patetic’s stance on this situation is extremely flawed for many reasons and simply is not a rational thought for the twenty-first century.

In “The Limits of Friendship” by Maria Konnikova, social media has significantly changed the way we interact with friends and family. Everybody thinks that using social media is the best way to talk to friends and family, however, in my opinion, they are wrong because it doesn’t give you the face-to-face connections we need as humans for social interaction. On the other hand, the great thing about using social media is you can connect with more people, but in a superficial kind of way. Therefore, we do not get the face-to-face interactions with our friends and family. We, the people that are addicted to social media, learn that without face-to-face conversations we wouldn’t have a normal “social” life outside of social media. The question

The relationships you leave behind are hard as well. Facebook and social media make you realize what you are leaving behind. You will see pictures of your friends and family doing all the things you used to love doing. You have to be prepared to deal with this, or it is another thing that can cause misery. As cliché as it sounds, it really does broaden your world view. You witness the inner workings of another group of people, another government, and another culture. Being a teacher, my grandfather was able to view life through the eyes of a Korean child and teen. It is different, but you realize how similar everyone really is. The same flaws, desires, interests, etc. His outlook on life has really grown a lot. You kind of realize your "nationhood" is really a constructed idea.

As an immigrant child that was brought here to the United States when I was a child, I definetly had culture shocks from both sides. Growing up, Ive had seen people telling Mexican immigrants “Go back go Mexico, where you belong”. As a child that was born in Mexico but that grew up in the United States, I felt like I did not know where I belong. At the moment, I experienced three cultures; Mexican, American, and Japanase Culture. When I was about fifeteen years old I had encounterd culture shocks from my mexican and american cultures. It allowed me to change my way of thinking, that has benefited me since. Also, the affects of culture shock has lead to a positive change in my culture attitude.

This semester I had the opportunity to interview a person who immigrated to the United States. I interviewed my friends mom, Betty, who is from Greece. I have known this family for over five years but before this interview I had no prior knowledge about the country Greece. After this conversation with her I have a better insight on what it is like growing up there.

The same students which laid out for us the stages of cultural shock also shared their experiences expressing how they felt about Americans. Tina Lang, one of the foreign students at Boston University referred Americans as “superficial.” As direct and straight forward as that description was I like to agree with her. As Americans we are so focused on looking our best on the outside that we never put aside any time to work on our

A sudden change in one’s surroundings can result in culture shock. Culture shock refers to the anxiety and surprise a person feels when he or she is discontented with an unfamiliar setting. The majority of practices or customs are different from what a person is used to. One may experience withdrawal, homesickness, or a desire for old friends. For example, when a person goes to live in a different place with unfamiliar surroundings, they may experience culture shock. Sometimes it is the result of losing their identity. In the article “The Phases of Culture Shock”, Pamela J. Brink and Judith Saunders describe four phases of culture shock. They are: Honeymoon Phase, Disenchantment Phase, Beginning Resolution Phase, and Effective

I think that immigrants nowadays face a greater degree of culture shock than people in the past. For example, “When I first came to the States I was shocked by the gargantuan proportions of those around

Culture Shock has played a tremendous role in the growth of cultural ecology because it is an issue that is constantly growing all over the world. In the United States, it may not seem like things are changing involving culture shock, but it is not any different then the changes in places like Africa and China for example. It is developing equally across the world because there are now more ways to travel. So, what exactly is culture shock anyways? Well, it is known as going to a foreign or unfamiliar territory that one is not used to, so they may feel symptoms of anxiety such as nervousness or shock because the customs, actions, beliefs, etc of those people may not seem familiar to them, so one may feel ill-prepared for the changing environment. Also, for example, if one was to go to school in the U.S. but came from China, they would feel culture shock because the rules in China are not the same as rules in the U.S. and so it may make one feel uneasy about the situation because they are not use to change and maybe the move was to quick for them to adjust properly. The United States is very different from foreign areas because the culture is very different. Where have people of Africa seen movie productions, music, sports, universities, iPhones, computers, etc? The answer is not where they live but in the United States if they traveled there before. This is exactly the issue with culture shock in ecology. Culture is what people behave like, feel, and do. Shock is a symptom

In 2010, as my sisters-in-law and their families prepared to immigrate to the United States (U.S.), my husband and I did all we can to advise and assist them in getting ready for their long journey from Nigeria to the U.S. To our surprise, contrary to every advice we gave them, in preparation for life in the US, they started out with trying American fast foods of different kinds. Culture shock is expected for anyone who immigrates to the US, regardless of where they come from. The type(s) of help the person(s) gets on how to overcome it and their adherence, most often, determines the future outcome of life in their new country of residence.

Once there the fourth, and most unexpected, stage occurs and this is referred to as the reverse culture shock stage. Upon arriving back, the returning resident will be eager to share their experiences of another culture that have made them a different person. However, they have returned to a group of people, and indeed a country, that has changed in the interim. These changes can be subtle or far-reaching, but they will affect the way that the returnee is accepted by, or accepts, their own host country and its residents. Often the change required will be too great. The returnee will in many cases deal with this by returning to the host culture or exploring another culture and language.How can Culture Shock be Lessened?The most important factor in coping with culture shock is to accept that, however well you prepare, it will affect you to some extent. As Schumann found in the course of his research, the four stages outlined above can never be avoided, but the length of time spent in each of the stages can be greatly reduced by taking certain courses of action.Firstly, the would-be immigrant should study the culture and language of their intended destination. This may sound obvious, but in the maelstrom of moving and sorting out affairs it is often forgotten. Even having a few words of the target language can help smooth your path in the early days. Also the realisation that there

There are three reasons why I experienced culture shock when I came to the U.S. The first, It was new world to me. For example, my country is not developed as the U.S. maybe because we took our independence 25 years ago. Furthermore, nowadays our country is developing in each area because we produce a lot of raw materials that export to other countries. However, our country cannot extract products that the U.S. manufacture. Moreover, the differences between my country and the U.S. are a lot because they have different levels of development. The second, in our country we don’t have entertainments such as roller coasters. On the 3 st of July I went to Six Flags that is located near by the city of Chicago. It was excited because I had never been