Common perception suggests that culture shock is a brief period of disorientation that one experiences while traveling to a place with unfamiliar surroundings, but few people are likely to experience culture shock from a short vacation abroad. Researchers describe it as a strong sense of frustration and anxiety brought on over time, by losing touch with all normal signs and symbols of social intercourse: the cues, norms and customs that we have all learned, mostly unconsciously, from birth. These can be basic social cues, such as when to shake hands, or when and how much to tip, or understanding the nuances and subtleties of certain words, gestures, or expressions. In Japan, with an unrelated language, and complicated system of alphabets, many newcomers are eventually reduced to toddlers, as they are stripped of their capacity for language, literacy, and rules of social conduct. Surprisingly, useful information about Japan is unusually lacking in English, Japanese news and information is often badly translated, and sometimes there seems to be as much misinformation as there is information. Though most places are far more similar than not, it is of no help if one is uncertain what is the same. Perpetually uncertain, newcomers are forced to assume otherwise. Only after the confusion and frustration of independently verifying each cue, belief, or custom as they are encountered, can they safely assume they are generally the same. As for the minor everyday differences, added together, the myriad of tiny differences that seem insignificant on any individual basis, can make the new society feel so alien in total, that it challenge ones overall sense of reality. Though victims of culture shock often minimize its lingering impacts, and generally keep it to themselves, culture shock can be quite trying to the individual and is marked by sometimes severe anxiety and depression.
After working with immigrant children in the US, and from first hand experience in Japan, I would suggest that culture shock, though it gets easier over time, can potentially last a life time, depending upon how easily the country integrates outsiders, how easy it is to communicate, and how dissimilar the new society is. Immigrants to any particular nation find themselves becoming less "national" and more and more "international" over time, and seeing a variety of good and bad qualities in both the new country and their country of origin, immigrants invariably feel a little out of place in both societies, making them perpetually vulnerable to some degree of regression into various stages of culture shock. In the beginning, the instant cure is to return to one's original country, but curiously, the longer and longer one endures the hardship of adapting to another society, the harder it is to give it all up and return to one's country of origin.
Surprisingly similar to Kubler-Ross's more traumatic 5 "stages of dying", researchers have identified 4 (sometimes 5) major stages of culture shock:
The Honeymoon Phase:
this a romantic period, where individuals see all of the new observations and discoveries in a positive light, and minimize the negative. Though it can seem like a period of "ignorant bliss" it is probably a quite healthy state for vacationers. Usually short term visitors and sometimes long-term residents, feel like "guests in a new society", and thinking or saying anything negative about their "hosts" feels rather disrespectful.
The Negotiation Phase:
this period is marked by sometimes severe uncertainty, frustration, anxiety and even anger toward the new culture. This period is marked by some form of avoidance. Though world travelers eventually realize that people are generally the same everywhere you go, what one sees as cultural differences are actually a myriad of small differences that added together appear enormous to the newcomer. The more dissimilar a culture, and the less inclusionary, the longer this stage can last. For people native to the new country, most of the differences all seem a matter of "common sense", and it is difficult to see why tiny cultural differences or norms can be so frustrating. Individuals might attempt to avoid the general society as much as possible, but this only perpetuates the inevitable frustration and anger. Sometimes avoidance takes the form of "denial". Rather than confronting their negative experiences, immigrants attempt to deny their negative experiences by shrugging them off as instances of "being in the wrong place at the wrong time", and/or to convincing themselves that their country of origin is "worse" or that their new country is generally "better" in all other respects. While vulnerability makes immigrants easy targets, denial can be so powerful that immigrants often give tremendous benefit of the doubt, and can seemingly ignore, or dismiss unfair treatment or injustices that seem obvious to the native population.
The Adjustment Phase:
the seemingly never-ending confusion about the new culture declines, and most things start to make sense. Negative reactions and responses to the culture decline, and it becomes possible to generally see the new culture in a positive light. Unfortunately, any new and difficult situation can cause the individual to relapse into any one of the earlier stages.
The Mastery Phase:
Individuals are able to participate fully and comfortably in the host culture. People are not totally converted but capable of preserving and maintaining traits and perspectives from their earlier culture, such as accents, languages or values, and can be fully bi-cultural. Research shows that most people are never fully able to reach this phase (many return to their country of origin), and once they reach this stage, nothing keeps them from relapsing into earlier stages. Yet, the children of immigrants, the second generation, are almost always in this stage, and themselves become a source for translation or an explanation of cultural differences. At four years old, my daughter is already translating for me. While their parents seem to ignore injustices, their children have little trouble recognizing inequities and become far more active in asserting their own civil rights.
How can culture shock be so lingering, difficult, and seemingly maddening at times? Let me start with an example, which is actually quite trivial in a sense, but not so trivial in another sense. Though I am a permanent resident of Japan, some might still think I should be more polite toward my "host" country, so I will begin by criticizing my country of origin. When my wife and I were in Berkeley, California on Telegraph Ave we both wanted to take a break, and have a coffee at a nearby Starbucks, primarily because we assumed it would have an easily accessible restroom. But, after drinking a couple of coffees, which further necessitated our need for a restroom, we discovered that there weren't any. After walking around to different businesses, we didn't encounter the familiar "Restrooms for Patrons Only", but instead, signs that said "No Restrooms Available". Eventually, after what seemed like 45 minutes or so, we found a bar with public restrooms: every bar owner knows that when "nature calls" intensely drunk people will find creative ways of doing things that come naturally. Our long quest for a restroom was annoyance to me, but was outright shocking for my wife, and she couldn't stop talking about it for the rest of the day. How can people be denied their "inalienable right" to use a restroom? Are people lacking "common sense"? Are American's that selfish? How can people be so apathetic? Why aren't people addressing such a horrendous human indignity? Most Americans are familiar with the "restroom Nazi" attitude of some places in the US, but it is nowhere to be found in Japan. Restrooms are readily available all over Japan for patrons and non-patrons alike. I understand my wife's sentiment now, but I didn't understand it nearly as well at the time.
Simply walking down the street can be a chaotic experience in some busy parts of Japan, particularly if bicycles are involved, for pedestrians and bicyclists generally don't follow the standard "rules of the road" that people take for granted in other countries. On our street, we have a bike lane and very little traffic, but most people don't use the bike lane, and rather ride their bicycles on the sidewalk. The sidewalk is actually extremely wide, as wide as some streets in Japan, but there are still near bike/pedestrian collisions. Bicycle helmets are still quite rare. For many native Japanese, bicycles are not seen as a more efficient means of transportation, but as a way of getting from point A to B with minimal effort, or as a way of carrying extra things with minimal effort. Bicycles are typically "mama-charis"; old-style bicycles with only one to three gears and generally don't move much faster than pedestrian traffic, though they can complicate the flow of pedestrian traffic considerably.
One could assume that this has something to do with profound cultural differences, or different value systems, or differences in etiquette, apathy, or a lack of "common sense". But, a look at Japan's convoluted bike and pedestrian laws (rules) reveals most of the problem. Technically, bikes aren't allowed on sidewalks in Japan except for the case of elderly riders (though the law doesn't mention any specific age) and a list of other vague exceptions. Actually, since bikes technically aren't allowed on the sidewalk, most people are unaware that crowding or forcing pedestrians to step aside, by ringing a bike bell, is technically illegal and can carry a substantial fine, but it happens all of the time and pedestrians naturally step aside when they hear a bike bell. At some time in the past (but many people can't remember) bikes were required to ride on the sidewalk, yet most people don't know the law has changed. Pedestrians are supposed to walk on the right side, against the natural flow of traffic (since motorists drive on the left here), but surveys show that many people aren't aware of the rule, and about 60% walk on the left. Some people still follow the rule and walk on the right, and some apparently confused people walk in the center (where bikes could be overtaking slower pedestrians). If a bike is technically allowed on the sidewalk--and nobody knows for sure--the latest law states that bikes should ride on the side of the sidewalk closest to traffic, but most people are unaware, or can't find any sense in the new law. Are people in Japan lacking "common sense"? Are they apathetic? No, most people are aware of problems with pedestrian and bicycle traffic, but have grown up in Japan and are used to them. That doesn't mean people in Japan are indifferent, apathetic, or used to crowded chaos, but they have grown accustomed to it along with a myriad of other minor social problems, and haven't really considered what might appear to be "obvious" solutions for outsiders.
If given enough time, people have an amazing capacity to tolerate even the most miserable conditions, but ironically it is only an outsider who fully recognizes just how miserable they are. Early missionaries traveling to remote villages in Africa saw the villagers living in deplorable conditions. Probably, the villagers thought they experienced difficulties now and then, but life might have appeared perfectly normal to them. If it takes someone else to inform somebody of their misery are they truly miserable? In our native cultures, we go about our days, confronted with predictable patterns and expectations that we have grown accustomed to and fit into our realm understanding or "common sense". Some of these daily patterns are rational and some are not, but regardless they are all normal and predictable to us. Culture shock is not a gradual transition to nonsensical conditions, but an abrupt slap upside the head, a rude confrontation that challenges our own sense of reality and challenges the fine line between between sanity and psychosis. Coping with culture shock is a matter of making sense of things that possibly don't make any sense, but others have grown accustomed to. Like any person's ability to tune out background noise, though a society might have an aversion to a particular problem it can still grow accustomed to it, but for the outsider it is still blaring, irrational and noisy and difficult to ignore.
After working with immigrant children in the US, and from first hand experience in Japan, I would suggest that culture shock, though it gets easier over time, can potentially last a life time, depending upon how easily the country integrates outsiders, how easy it is to communicate, and how dissimilar the new society is. Immigrants to any particular nation find themselves becoming less "national" and more and more "international" over time, and seeing a variety of good and bad qualities in both the new country and their country of origin, immigrants invariably feel a little out of place in both societies, making them perpetually vulnerable to some degree of regression into various stages of culture shock. In the beginning, the instant cure is to return to one's original country, but curiously, the longer and longer one endures the hardship of adapting to another society, the harder it is to give it all up and return to one's country of origin.
Surprisingly similar to Kubler-Ross's more traumatic 5 "stages of dying", researchers have identified 4 (sometimes 5) major stages of culture shock:
The Honeymoon Phase:
this a romantic period, where individuals see all of the new observations and discoveries in a positive light, and minimize the negative. Though it can seem like a period of "ignorant bliss" it is probably a quite healthy state for vacationers. Usually short term visitors and sometimes long-term residents, feel like "guests in a new society", and thinking or saying anything negative about their "hosts" feels rather disrespectful.
The Negotiation Phase:
this period is marked by sometimes severe uncertainty, frustration, anxiety and even anger toward the new culture. This period is marked by some form of avoidance. Though world travelers eventually realize that people are generally the same everywhere you go, what one sees as cultural differences are actually a myriad of small differences that added together appear enormous to the newcomer. The more dissimilar a culture, and the less inclusionary, the longer this stage can last. For people native to the new country, most of the differences all seem a matter of "common sense", and it is difficult to see why tiny cultural differences or norms can be so frustrating. Individuals might attempt to avoid the general society as much as possible, but this only perpetuates the inevitable frustration and anger. Sometimes avoidance takes the form of "denial". Rather than confronting their negative experiences, immigrants attempt to deny their negative experiences by shrugging them off as instances of "being in the wrong place at the wrong time", and/or to convincing themselves that their country of origin is "worse" or that their new country is generally "better" in all other respects. While vulnerability makes immigrants easy targets, denial can be so powerful that immigrants often give tremendous benefit of the doubt, and can seemingly ignore, or dismiss unfair treatment or injustices that seem obvious to the native population.
The Adjustment Phase:
the seemingly never-ending confusion about the new culture declines, and most things start to make sense. Negative reactions and responses to the culture decline, and it becomes possible to generally see the new culture in a positive light. Unfortunately, any new and difficult situation can cause the individual to relapse into any one of the earlier stages.
The Mastery Phase:
Individuals are able to participate fully and comfortably in the host culture. People are not totally converted but capable of preserving and maintaining traits and perspectives from their earlier culture, such as accents, languages or values, and can be fully bi-cultural. Research shows that most people are never fully able to reach this phase (many return to their country of origin), and once they reach this stage, nothing keeps them from relapsing into earlier stages. Yet, the children of immigrants, the second generation, are almost always in this stage, and themselves become a source for translation or an explanation of cultural differences. At four years old, my daughter is already translating for me. While their parents seem to ignore injustices, their children have little trouble recognizing inequities and become far more active in asserting their own civil rights.
How can culture shock be so lingering, difficult, and seemingly maddening at times? Let me start with an example, which is actually quite trivial in a sense, but not so trivial in another sense. Though I am a permanent resident of Japan, some might still think I should be more polite toward my "host" country, so I will begin by criticizing my country of origin. When my wife and I were in Berkeley, California on Telegraph Ave we both wanted to take a break, and have a coffee at a nearby Starbucks, primarily because we assumed it would have an easily accessible restroom. But, after drinking a couple of coffees, which further necessitated our need for a restroom, we discovered that there weren't any. After walking around to different businesses, we didn't encounter the familiar "Restrooms for Patrons Only", but instead, signs that said "No Restrooms Available". Eventually, after what seemed like 45 minutes or so, we found a bar with public restrooms: every bar owner knows that when "nature calls" intensely drunk people will find creative ways of doing things that come naturally. Our long quest for a restroom was annoyance to me, but was outright shocking for my wife, and she couldn't stop talking about it for the rest of the day. How can people be denied their "inalienable right" to use a restroom? Are people lacking "common sense"? Are American's that selfish? How can people be so apathetic? Why aren't people addressing such a horrendous human indignity? Most Americans are familiar with the "restroom Nazi" attitude of some places in the US, but it is nowhere to be found in Japan. Restrooms are readily available all over Japan for patrons and non-patrons alike. I understand my wife's sentiment now, but I didn't understand it nearly as well at the time.
Simply walking down the street can be a chaotic experience in some busy parts of Japan, particularly if bicycles are involved, for pedestrians and bicyclists generally don't follow the standard "rules of the road" that people take for granted in other countries. On our street, we have a bike lane and very little traffic, but most people don't use the bike lane, and rather ride their bicycles on the sidewalk. The sidewalk is actually extremely wide, as wide as some streets in Japan, but there are still near bike/pedestrian collisions. Bicycle helmets are still quite rare. For many native Japanese, bicycles are not seen as a more efficient means of transportation, but as a way of getting from point A to B with minimal effort, or as a way of carrying extra things with minimal effort. Bicycles are typically "mama-charis"; old-style bicycles with only one to three gears and generally don't move much faster than pedestrian traffic, though they can complicate the flow of pedestrian traffic considerably.
One could assume that this has something to do with profound cultural differences, or different value systems, or differences in etiquette, apathy, or a lack of "common sense". But, a look at Japan's convoluted bike and pedestrian laws (rules) reveals most of the problem. Technically, bikes aren't allowed on sidewalks in Japan except for the case of elderly riders (though the law doesn't mention any specific age) and a list of other vague exceptions. Actually, since bikes technically aren't allowed on the sidewalk, most people are unaware that crowding or forcing pedestrians to step aside, by ringing a bike bell, is technically illegal and can carry a substantial fine, but it happens all of the time and pedestrians naturally step aside when they hear a bike bell. At some time in the past (but many people can't remember) bikes were required to ride on the sidewalk, yet most people don't know the law has changed. Pedestrians are supposed to walk on the right side, against the natural flow of traffic (since motorists drive on the left here), but surveys show that many people aren't aware of the rule, and about 60% walk on the left. Some people still follow the rule and walk on the right, and some apparently confused people walk in the center (where bikes could be overtaking slower pedestrians). If a bike is technically allowed on the sidewalk--and nobody knows for sure--the latest law states that bikes should ride on the side of the sidewalk closest to traffic, but most people are unaware, or can't find any sense in the new law. Are people in Japan lacking "common sense"? Are they apathetic? No, most people are aware of problems with pedestrian and bicycle traffic, but have grown up in Japan and are used to them. That doesn't mean people in Japan are indifferent, apathetic, or used to crowded chaos, but they have grown accustomed to it along with a myriad of other minor social problems, and haven't really considered what might appear to be "obvious" solutions for outsiders.
If given enough time, people have an amazing capacity to tolerate even the most miserable conditions, but ironically it is only an outsider who fully recognizes just how miserable they are. Early missionaries traveling to remote villages in Africa saw the villagers living in deplorable conditions. Probably, the villagers thought they experienced difficulties now and then, but life might have appeared perfectly normal to them. If it takes someone else to inform somebody of their misery are they truly miserable? In our native cultures, we go about our days, confronted with predictable patterns and expectations that we have grown accustomed to and fit into our realm understanding or "common sense". Some of these daily patterns are rational and some are not, but regardless they are all normal and predictable to us. Culture shock is not a gradual transition to nonsensical conditions, but an abrupt slap upside the head, a rude confrontation that challenges our own sense of reality and challenges the fine line between between sanity and psychosis. Coping with culture shock is a matter of making sense of things that possibly don't make any sense, but others have grown accustomed to. Like any person's ability to tune out background noise, though a society might have an aversion to a particular problem it can still grow accustomed to it, but for the outsider it is still blaring, irrational and noisy and difficult to ignore.