Cross-Cultural Training

Lesson 8: Adapting to Your New Culture

Strategies that will help newcomers adjust to a new culture

Avoid the Use of the Self-Reference Criterion

The tendency to use one's own values and beliefs to judge a situation is so common that the cultural anthropologist J.A. Lee created a term to descibe it. It's called using a self-reference criterion (SRC) and it can impede the process of cultural adaptation.

The book, "Global Marketing Management," describes a four-step process created by Lee that helps global marketers see cultural differences that can cause potential problems, analyze them, and take the actions that will allow them to cope with them. I think these same steps can be used to handle situations individuals may face as well. The steps are as follows:

1) Define the situation in terms of your own cultural traits, customs, or values.

2) Define the situation in terms of the host culture's traits, customs, or values.

3) Isolate the self-reference criterion influence in the situation and examine it carfully to see how it is influencing your view of the situation.

4. Redefine the situation, but this time without the self-reference criterion influence and act in a way that benefits all.

Follow Suggestions From the Peace Corps

The Peace Corps has a list of coping strategies that it created with the help of its volunteers. You'll find it below. You can take the headings and make your own list as well.

Things I can do with other people:

Invite people over

Go and visit someone

Telephone someone

Go to a movie, cafe, etc. with someone

Play a game with someone

Participate in a team sport

Volunteer my services to a needy cause

Things I can do on my own:

Read

Play cards

Listen to music

Cook a meal

Take a walk

Meditate

Go to a movie

Write in my journal

Go to a restaurant or cafe

Go shopping

Exercise

Listen to the radio

Garden

Take some pictures

Call home

Look at photos

Write letters

Make a tape to send home

Play an instrument

Take a ride

Solve puzzles

Watch birds

Practice a craft

Take a trip

Watch television

Watch people

Study language

Things I can remind myself of:

This will pass.

It's not the end of the world.

I came here to experience a challenge.

I've been through worse than this.

It's natural to feel down from time to time.

No pain; no gain.

It's not just me.

Things didn't always go well back home either.

I have taken on a lot; I should expect to feel overwhelmed from time to time.

Ways I can improve my language skills:

Talk to children

Talk to older people (who have more time and patience!)

Go to a cafe and eavesdrop

Listen to the radio or TV

Join a club or sports team

Participate in some other kind of group activity

Study a language textbook

Do exercises in a language textbook

Listen to language tapes

Ask a native to tape record key languages phrases that I can practice.

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