{"id":106419,"date":"2016-04-25T14:00:16","date_gmt":"2016-04-25T06:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/?p=106419"},"modified":"2016-04-22T11:38:41","modified_gmt":"2016-04-22T03:38:41","slug":"cultural-shock-and-how-to-deal-with-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/?p=106419","title":{"rendered":"Cultural shock and how to deal with it"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Nur Syazwani binti Darzi<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Culture shock usually happens when one person starts moving from one place to another place because of certain reasons. The reasons might be that their job needs them to move from one place to another place, or it is also because one needs to further study, travel from one country to another country and so on.<\/p>\n

Sojourners usually will start thinking that everything is unfamiliar; like weather, language, landscape, food, dress, social roles, values, customs, communication and many more.<\/p>\n

There are few symptoms that they might be experienced:
\n\u00a2 a feeling of sadness and loneliness
\n\u00a2 headaches, pains, and allergies
\n\u00a2 lack of appetite
\n\u00a2 insomnia or sleeping too much
\n\u00a2 feelings of anger, depression, vulnerability
\n\u00a2 feeling shy or insecure
\n\u00a2 feeling own culture is better
\n\u00a2 trying too hard to adapt by becoming obsessed with the new culture
\n\u00a2 the smallest problems seem overwhelming
\n\u00a2 feeling of homesickness
\n\u00a2 feeling lost or confused
\n\u00a2 questioning again and again about the decision to move<\/p>\n

There are few stages of culture shock that sojourners will face:<\/p>\n

Stage 1: The Honeymoon Stage<\/strong>
\nIn this stage, sojourners always have mixed-feeling which like any new experience, there’s a feeling of intense happiness when first arriving in a new country and feeling of fear of the differences see and experience. Sojourners usually feel excited, stimulated, enriched. During this stage, they still feel close to everything familiar with their back home.<\/p>\n

Step 2: The Crisis Stage<\/strong>
\nIn this stage happens when the sojourners started to notice a few difficulties in their daily life such as communication problem, the food do not feel good compared to their origin countys food, locals are strange and the list goes on. They feel confuse, alone and realize that the familiar support systems are not easily accessible to them.
\nBe angry, frustrated and even feel hostile to those around them. Then they start to idealize life “back home” and compare your current culture to what is familiar. They dislike the culture, the language, the food and reject it as inferior.<\/p>\n

Step 3: Recovery Stage<\/strong>
\nThe sojourners managed to stay until this stage which is recovery, they are basically can already cope with the situation and they can handle the difficulties they faced. They can negotiate daily life on their own. Difficulty still exists, but the sojourners are able to handle it. The sojourners even begin to help others who may be new to the situation. They try to adjust and accept themselves into it.<\/p>\n

Step 4: Adjustment Stage<\/strong>
\nBy this stage, the sojourners start embraces the new culture and see everything in a new, yet realistic light. They feel more comfortable, confident, and able to make decisions based on their own preferences better than previous. They also no longer feel alone and been isolated by people around them but, they feel they are being accepted by the society itself. Later on, they appreciate both the differences and similarities of their own culture with new culture, and start feel at home.<\/p>\n

How to cope with the culture shock happening?<\/strong><\/p>\n

To cope with culture shock, sojourners must know as much as possible about your host country. Secondly, sojourners must try to find logical reasons for cultural differences. So, they can easily adapt to the environment, situation and anything about the country. Furthermore, do not degrade the host country’s culture but spend time with the host people. For instance, Arabian people spent time together with Malaysians, so they will understand about Malaysia. Other than that, have a chit-chat with the host nations can bring more idea, information about the host country uniqueness.***<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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