Cross-Cultural Training

Lesson 7: Culture Shock

Definition of culture shock

A recent article in the International Herald Tribune focused on the issue of culture shock. In it, the author quotes a psychotherapist who practices in Paris as saying that culture shock occurs “when all the cues and underlying assumptions that we have about how the world works suddenly don’t work anymore.” In “Cultures and Organizations” Geert Hofstede elaborates on this by saying that culture shock “returns us to the mental state of an infant.” And he's right.

Just think about it. Your culture defines who were are, what you believe in. In a way, being able to maneuver in it helps to validate you as a person. It contributes towards your self-esteem. Now you go to a place where you can’t talk, you may not eat “right” and you have to learn the “correct” way to do things all over again. The comparison to an infant is so accurate that I’ve even told people that I speak their native language like a baby.

So now you are an adult in a place where nothing that you know really counts. How would that make you feel? Both the symptoms and their intensity vary, but it can lead to depression, feelings of loneliness, anxiety, fear, withdrawal, helplessness, and hatred towards your new culture.

Culture shock can be extremely detrimental for those who “follow” others to a new culture. At least the person who goes with a purpose (i.e. a job) has something to focus on and an avenue through which he/she can begin to integrate into society. The “follower” however, has nothing. Oftentimes he/she may not be allowed to work in the new country. Once the excitement of moving and the newness of things wears off, they can be hit quite hard with the reality of their new situation.

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