1. Culture Shock

2. Best advice for intercultural
communication?
• Study English
• Study English hard
• Study English like crazy

3. English is the “global” language
• It’s your best chance
• So study like crazy!
• Even if you eventually live in a country where
they people don’t speak English …
• …learning English now will help you learn
another language later
• Language is probably the most difficult part of
any foreign culture

4. Language is the best tool in
intercultural communication
• But it’s not the only consideration
• What other things do you need to think
about?

5. Culture shock

6. Culture shock is a form of stress

7. Response to a challenge

8. A kind of overload

9. Language skills will help you deal with
it!

10. English speaking foreigners in Japan
often REALLY struggle

11. They often crash hard

12. So study hard

13. Culture shock pattern

14. Culture shock pattern

15. Culture shock

16. Honeymoon phase

17. Exotic!!

18. And magical!!

19. Colorful!

20. Nothing but good

21. Everything is romantic

22. Everything is wonderful

23. Everything is so exciting …

24. And it IS really exciting

25. My experience in Japan
• So many new things
• Nice, polite hosts
• People speak English
• Hosts genuinely enjoy visitors who find
everything exciting
• So new visitors are popular
• So people are even nicer …

26. So there are certain dangers

27. Be aware that this happens

28. Like with a real marriage …
• … maybe you shouldn’t start a family too early
• … your feelings may change later
• … even so, you SHOULD enjoy it
• Why not?

29. Probably only lasts a few weeks

30. Probably easier if you have language
skills

31. English speaking foreigners in Japan
struggel

32. Difficult to exit

33. Next stage: anxiety

34. Novelty wears off

35. Negotiation with reality

36. • Compare the old and the new (maybe the new
doesn’t seem so good)
• The rhythms of the new culture may not suit
you
• You start to realize that you are not
communicating so well

37. Just about everyone experiences this
phase

38. Comedown to anxiety

39. You may feel real negativity

40. Real anxiety

41. Real miscommunication

42. Real dislike

43. But it’s all pretty normal

44. From too high to too low

45. Everything is fantastic!!

46. No, everything is awful!!

47. Before …
• The locals are so nice
• They are so polite
• Everyone speaks English!
• Great!!

48. After
• They are insincere
• They only want to practice English
• They are stopping me learning

49. Paranoia
• They are insincere
• They only want to practice English
• They are stopping me learning

50. Before
• Everyone likes you because you’re excited
• Everything is new, magical, and exciting

51. After
• No one likes you because you’re cynical
• And boring
• And everything seems like it DOESN’T FIT
• And you feel like YOU DON’T FIT

52. So you need to keep an open mind

53. Realize that everyone has these
feelings

54. Don’t lose opportunities by being too
negative

55. People aren’t wasting your time

56. You’re wasting your time

57. Do something useful!

58. Study, for example!

59. It’s just another phase

60. Don’t worry

61. Be happy

62. But it IS difficult

63. Everyone becomes a LITTLE negative

64. It’s just normal

65. It’s frustrating

66. You feel powerless

67. And after a while …

68. … you start to come back

69. … and feel better

70. You stop feeling so hostile …

71. … and feel a bit more at home

72. Maybe your language skills aren’t
perfect

73. Maybe you’ll never have native
speaker pronunciation

74. But you can accept it

75. Maybe there are some things you
STILL don’t like …

76. But it’s OK

77. You can accept it

78. • Some people change completely
• 100% adaptation to the new culture!

79. • Some people don’t change completely
• Keep some parts of the old culture
• Try to keep the positive parts

80. • Some people don’t really change at all
• Surrounded by foreigners
• Remain in the old culture

81. Gulliver realizes the horses are better

82. He starts to dislike his old culture

83. Last stage

84. REVERSE culture shock

85. Mandalay

86. Rudyard Kipling

87. Home culture seems boring

88. British soldiers coming home from
southeast Asia

89. The British in Burma

90. 1834 - 1948

91. Soldiers go home to Britain

92. Longing to return to Asia

93. Feel bored

94. Wasting their time at home

95. Want to go back

96. But can you really go back?

97. A Buddhist culture

98. Completely different from Britain

99. Is it possible to REALLY adapt?

100. My experience after living in Sudan for
a year

101. Living on the river Nile

102. I went home to South Wales

103. Went into a supermarket

104. Surrounded by all the goods

105. All the chocolate bars!

106. I felt panic!!

107. I mean REAL panic!!

108. Very confusing

109. I wanted to run away!!!

110. Anyway … REVERSE culture shock

111. Can’t get used to your old culture!

112. Everything is dull and boring

113. Everything feels wrong

114. I suppose everybody overcomes
REVERSE culture shock, too

115. But I don’t know

116. Because I never did!!

117. I still find the UK a bit boring

118. Mandalay: Rudyard Kipling
• I am sick of wasting leather on these gritty
pavin’ -stones