How to Cope With Culture Shock While Traveling

Culture shock is a normal response to immersion in an unfamiliar culture. You can overcome culture shock by taking a few positive steps and being patient with yourself as you acclimate to your changed environment.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Foreign Language Phrase Books
• Local Guidebooks
• E-mail Accounts
• Cameras

1. Learn to identify the symptoms of culture shock: difficulty sleeping; sleeping for extended periods; headaches; nausea or diarrhea; anger; apathy, irritability; feeling highly critical towards everything in a new locality.
2. Recognize that your feelings are a normal response to the disorientation and discomfort that comes from living in an unfamiliar environment and culture.
3. Create or locate a comfortable haven for yourself where you can enjoy some of the aspects of your own culture that you miss. Use this space when you need to reduce the stress of culture shock.
4. Learn a few phrases spoken in the local dialect and use these as frequently as possible to interact and connect with locals. Try to cultivate relationships with locals rather than isolating yourself with people from your home country.
5. Observe the behaviors of locals when you find yourself in a situation that feels confusing or uncomfortable. Try to figure out why an entire culture of people may have learned this way of doing things, and the possible values and assumptions behind their behaviors.
6. Try to imagine bringing a local into a similar situation in your own country, and showing the person how to behave in your own culturally appropriate ways. How would you explain the reasons people in your own culture behave this way? Are there both positive and negative ramifications for this behavior? What underlying values or assumptions govern these behaviors?
7. Write down things that seem odd or confusing to you in the new culture. Look back at your observations every few days or few weeks and see what the you-of-the-past was surprised by that the you-of-today is already acclimated to.
8. Remember that you'll return home with a wealth of new perspectives and understandings because you've been exposed to another culture. Think about how you might share what you have experienced with friends and family in ways that may help people understand both cultures better.

Tips & Warnings

• Before you leave for a foreign country, read accounts of others who have visited the country. Pay special attention to the kinds of discomforts and challenges others were faced with so that you have some idea what to anticipate.