How to Understand and Cope with the 4 Stages of Culture Shock
Understand the stages of culture shock and learn how to manage getting through each stage.
It’s the reason you know how to verbally and non-verbally communicate with family, friends, colleagues and others. It’s what helps you navigate and interact in your country. It’s what makes you, you. Culture.
Culture shapes and influences our behavior, perception and decisions like a mental blueprint. However, if we ever leave our culture and immerse ourselves in another culture without sufficient preparation, we might experience a state of bewilderment, distress and uncertainty. This normal reaction to an unfamiliar way of life is known as culture shock.
In 1954, Canadian anthropologist, Kalervo Oberg (1901–1973), coined the term culture shock and identified 4 stages that individuals experience when interacting with a new culture — a process that could last a month, a year or longer.
In this post, I’m going to share how to understand and cope with the 4 stages of culture shock.
Stage 1: The Honeymoon Stage
I love it here! Everyone’s so nice.
Imagine you’ve just arrived in the United States. You can’t believe you’re browsing the grocery store aisles, driving along the highways or sharing your first impressions with friends back home. You’ve read about the US in books and magazines. You’ve watched American TV and Hollywood movies. You’ve practiced English. Now, you’re here!
You’re intoxicated by new sights, sounds, smells and events. You’re fascinated by similarities and differences between the United States and your home.
You feel like you’re consciously discovering the world again for the first time — people, places, language, money, customs, food, etc. It’s exhilarating. It’s unforgettable. It’s a euphoric experience!
Stage 1 Tips
- Set realistic expectations before arriving in the host culture.
- Understand that culture shock is a normal, yet temporary reaction.
- Immediately start creating familiarity. Make new friends, find new favorite spots, develop new routines, use the new language as much as possible and begin to study predictable patterns of interaction.
Stage 2: The Crisis Stage
Why aren’t there numbers on the coins?
As you communicate and navigate through an unfamiliar host culture, the reality of the situation gradually becomes apparent. Frustrating experiences begin to accumulate, baffling encounters and interactions amass and simple tasks become major challenges.
You begin to focus on the differences between the host culture and your home — not the similarities. Stereotypes, prejudices and recurrent negativity emerges. You feel disoriented, confused and powerless. The culture seems rude, illogical and unadaptable.
Perhaps you’ve been unable to adequately express yourself or unable to understand, interpret or translate verbal and non-verbal communication. Perhaps you’ve struggled to differentiate between appropriate and inappropriate behavior or have been unable to grasp the customs, values and etiquette. Perhaps you’ve had to frequently solicit others for help with simple errands and common tasks. Perhaps you have few or no friends.
It hurts. Nobody hears your sense of humor. Nobody hears your intelligence. Nobody knows that you’re a patient, positive and gentle soul. Nobody knows the real you.
Slowly, you begin to reject the host culture and consider returning home.
Stage 2 Tips
- When we face life-changing circumstances, we’re going to face fear. Find the courage to move forward during this difficult stage. You don’t need award-winning courage, you just need enough courage to continue integrating into the host culture.
- You may not have many opportunities to create new habits and routines. Use this time to improve yourself and your lifestyle.
- Create as many interactions as possible. Enroll in language classes, join meetups, clubs, attend local events, etc. Talk to others. Speak the language.
- Read books, watch TV and movies and make dishes from the host culture to learn more about daily life, pop culture, the national psyche and to study predictable patterns of interaction.
- Eat well, get enough exercise and sleep.
Stage 3: The Recovery Stage
As long as I’m here, I’ll make the most of my situation.
You’ve reevaluated your expectations, found minor solutions and developed strategies for handling potential problems. You’re able to read cultural cues and grasp the host culture’s logic and values.
Your cultural perception has begun to shift. You have more friends, increased social skills and you’ve even become an explorer of the culture. You’ve regained your confidence, become more independent, competent and culturally sensitive.
You still have episodic highs and lows, but they don’t overwhelm and consume you like before. You now have a balanced perspective of the host culture and your home culture as well as the advantages and disadvantages of both. You may even prefer some aspects of the host culture and that revelation might even expand your ideology about yourself, your home or the world.
You feel like yourself again, but stronger and wiser.
Stage 3 Tips
- Continue exploring and absorbing the host culture.
- Use the opportunity to search inward and broaden your ideology about yourself, your home and the world.
Stage 4: The Adjustment Stage
I’m comfortable here! I feel at home.
Congratulations! You’ve adjusted to the host culture. You’ve taken an inward and outward journey that has led to immeasurable personal growth. You’re now able to live and work to your maximum potential.
You’re no longer distressed by cultural differences. You can confidently speak and understand most colloquial language. You’ve developed meaningful friendships. You’ve settled. You belong.
Now that you’ve adjusted to the host culture, returning home will be difficult.
Stage 4 Tips
- Continue to improve your cultural abilities.
- To reduce the effects of reverse culture shock when you return home at some point in the future, keep in touch with your home culture. Occasionally visit or call family and friends. Eat the food. Use the language. Stay informed about news and pop culture.
- Don’t drift away from your culture. I did this and it became very difficult to reintegrate when I returned to the U.S. after a 12-year absence.
Final Thoughts
You just learned how to understand and cope with the 4 stages of culture shock. While it can be an arduous journey and the period can vary from person-to-person, try to face the these 4 stages as a life-changing, transcendental opportunity.
Challenge yourself to integrate into the host culture by searching inward, outward and expanding your ideology. You might be surprised with the outcome.
