THE STAGES OF CULTURAL ADJUSTMENT

Welcome to the exciting experience of living in another culture! The following observations may help make the most of your stay abroad:

1) Look forward to personal change - one result of living in another culture will be that you will change; you will be on your way to becoming a bilingual, bicultural person.
2) Ask yourself - What can I bring to the new culture? Not just what will I get from it.
3) While you do have some control over your expectations, your self-awareness, and your personality, you will not have control over the new culture.

Many students bring unrealistic expectations to a foreign culture:

1) PEOPLE ARE BASICALLY THE SAME, SO WE SHOULDN'T HAVE ANY PROBLEMS. Yes, but in the details of how they organize their society people are not the same.
2) MY WAY OF DOING THINGS IS OBVIOUSLY THE BEST. This is an ethnocentric, arrogant attitude.
3) I'M JUST GOING TO BE MYSELF - THAT'S THE BEST WAY TO GET ALONG WITH OTHERS. Students should make visible signs that they want to learn about the new culture.
4) THE BEST WAY TO DEAL WITH A SITUATION IS TO BE WELL-ORGANIZED. Being well-organized is necessary, but a false crutch to integrating into a new society.
5) I MAY ENCOUNTER PROBLEMS, BUT I'LL DEAL WITH THEM AS THEY ARISE. People who don't try to prepare themselves don't know how to deal with problems when they encounter them.
6) I'LL BASICALLY BE A NICE PERSON AND THEY'LL SEE THAT. That's probably true, but it's not enough in the long run.
7) I'LL JUST BE ONE OF THE GANG. Students should not act against their own values. All cultures have ways of saying yes or no and the way to better integrate is to learn how to say yes or no in a new culture.

A set of cross-cultural effectiveness guidelines would include:

1) Don't assume away the problems.
2) Don't exclude yourself from being part of the problem.
3) Don't expect cross-cultural differences and problems to be obvious.
4) Don't try to understand everything immediately.
5) Expect people to think, behave and feel differently about things.
6) Prepare for the cross-cultural experience.
7) Try to find cultural informants who can help you to learn.
8) Expect the unexpected.

 

Certain personality characteristics which are useful to development would include:

1) Flexibility.
2) Tolerance of ambiguity or living with uncertainty.
3) Tolerance of difference.
4) Non-judgmental attitudes - Can you withhold making judgments?
5) Patience.
6) Ability to mask feelings.
7) Ability to fail.
8) Realistic task orientation.
9) Sense of humor - don't take everything seriously.
10) Risk taking behavior.

Coping Strategy Chart

The following coping strategies may help you accommodate to the culture:

Coping Strategy	Effective Form	Ineffective Form
Avoidance	Temporary, occasional withdrawal to overcome "cultural fatigue."	Frequent or complete withdrawal; no interaction with the culture.
Participation	Working to learn the ways of the culture (assertive behavior).	Fighting against the culture (aggressive behavior).
Utilizing Resources	Using resources to promote learning and self-reliance.	Becoming totally dependent on resources.
Utilizing Stereotypes	Using only as tentative guide to the culture; constantly challenging them.	Using as a complete guide to the culture; never testing them.
Studying the Culture	Striving to acquire cultural insights; learning new perspectives.	Fitting new culture into own framework; rejecting new insights, perspectives.
Utilizing the Culture	Developing effective coping strategies; enlarging skills; maintaining own identity.	"Going native" - totally adopting the culture as one's own; losing own identity. Most cultures don't want you to "go native" - they want you to learn and respect their culture.

Process of Cultural Adjustment

The process of cultural adjustment goes through various stages and at different rates for people. Becoming completely bilingual and bicultural does not happen overnight; it is a long, on-going process.

Stage	Situation	Approaches	Reactions
Honeymoon	First contact with the new culture	Observe, use preconceptions, stereotypes to understand the new culture.	Excitement; curiosity; slight anxiety.
Initial Confrontation	First intensive interaction with the culture, must solve some basic survival problems.	Respond behaviorally as one would in own culture, solve problems in familiar ways.	Surprise and confusion; concern that we don't have an answer for new problems; can't understand why our own behavior doesn't produce the desired results; puzzled about others behavior.
Adjustment Crisis	Ongoing confrontation with the new culture; problems intensify.	Respond now with a mix of old and new ways of doing things; some tentative experimentation with new behaviors.	Becoming judgmental about new culture; feelings of anxiety, embarrassment, frustration, anger; confusion about own identity.
Recovery	Accommodation with the new culture replaces confrontation; sense of belonging to culture emerges.	Creative use of a variety coping strategies (see above) to help one function effectively.	Regain confidence; feeling that the culture is understandable; very positive sense of personal accomplishment; enjoy many aspects of this culture.

Last but not least is a recommendation that has always seemed useful to keep in mind: One does not have to accept all the values or behaviors of a different culture, but one should try to understand why a culture is what it is.

        - Professor Nancy Westfall de Gurrola