The term ‘culture shock’ has often being used nowadays. Most of us are already familiar with this term. When people have to live in a different and unknown environment or culture, they become anxious, surprises, disorientated, uncertain and even confused. This is what we defined as culture shock. People always tend to give negative opinion to this term. Why is that so? It is because they did not have much education of culture shock, thus they will always find themselves reacting negatively to this term. Believe me, if one is being asked about the effects of culture shock, one tends to give only bad or negative effects. What they have to know is culture shock need not be unpleasant. There are many times when people get to feel the rewarding effects of culture shock. We have to change our perception regarding this matter. To change this, we have to actually understand about the causes and effects of culture shock.
The most importance cause of culture shock is the different language being used. As we know, there are more than 60 different languages in this world and each language has different dialect in difference place. To live in a new environment comfortably, one needs to have the ability of communicating easily with people around him. Language made it quite difficult to communicate. We may think that they can always use English to communicate around, but what will happen if one move to a country where the people there does not understand English. For example, countries like Japan, South Korea and China did not educate their people to use English as their second language. Even though the countries stated are developing countries, but they tend to use one and only language which is their mother tongue. This situation always happens to foreign students in university. In case they move to these kinds of countries, they will find it hard to communicate unless they use those countries’ own language. In class, for example, they will tend to be confused and do not understand what their lecturers are teaching. Sometimes they have to use their body language to communicate with other students. To be able to understand the language, they need at least more than three months. In the beginning usually foreign students will always carry local dictionary with them around, but because the period of learning is too long, most of the times they give up and just return to their own country without trying to adjust to the new language and culture.
Other cause of culture shock is the differences in culture and tradition. All countries in this world have their own culture. In our country as well, we can see a lot of cultures and tradition. In Malaysia, even different states have different cultures. Let’s say a foreign student move from any West Country to East country; he or she will definitely feel the difference in these two countries’ traditions and cultures. For example, in greetings, for Westerns, it is alright to touch even if you are meeting the other person for the first time. However, in Asia, there is no touching in greetings. Asians usually greet with only words and body movement, especially if the other person they are greeting is the opposite gender. For example, when Thai people greet, they will only hold their own hands in prayer position and for Japanese, they bow when they greet. It is totally different, thus Western student will feel surprised and become unfamiliar with this new culture. Another example of difference is the way people eat. We can say that almost all Western countries use utensils such as spoons, forks and knives to eat. In countries like Japan, China and South Korea, they use chopsticks. In our countries like India, Thailand and even Malaysia, we use our bare hands to eat. Usually when foreign students see this, they will feel even confused and their unfamiliarity becomes larger and larger.
The causes of culture shock usually affect the outcome. Because of these unfamiliarity and unknown cultures, traditions and languages, people start to think negatively to the term ‘culture shock’. It is true that in the beginning, most people will feel a great shock when they are in this situation. When they are unfamiliar with the new host-culture, they will not be able to communicate easily, they cannot make friends and thus they will feel lonely. When they are alone in foreign country, they will start to miss their own countries. They will miss the language, the environment, the foods, the landscapes and the original lifestyles. This situation will lead to a bad stress. This kind of stress will force them to give up and therefore, they will return to their own countries. As I told you before, culture shock can also gives pleasant and rewarding effect. When they face these challenges being in foreign country, they will be taken out of their comfort zone, they will find more good chances and they will be extended to achieve so many extraordinary things. Being in this culture shock situation can be a good way to improve their discipline, their perception of life and to strengthen their willpower.
Culture shock often consists of different stages or phases. People will not be in the same phases for the rest of their life. All they need to do is to adjust, to be familiar with the foreign countries by reading and exposing themselves with the foreign cultures and languages and to consult helps from peers by communicating well. They have to at least try to adjust and adapt to the new culture, instead of just leaving as soon as they arrive. Once they passed this culture shock phases, they will become more matured, open-minded and they will make nice memories being in the foreign countries.