DIFFERENT CULTURAL CUES AND HOW WE CAN ADOPT THEM

We are all familiar with our home town, unique home culture and values. We go through a day-to-day life easily because we are fluent in our culture’s social cues such as when to hold the door or to offer a cup of tea to a friend. When we immerse ourselves in a new culture, we have to learn many things how to get around what eat how speak and how to act inappropriately as a global society that we call the process of learning these things, the cultural adaptation cycle.
Upon arriving in a new environment, we often feel excited optimistic and/or we’re intrigued by new spots, sounds and smell. This is the honeymoon phase. We see the differences between our host culture and our own culture. We tend to focus on the positive aspects of in this environment at some point after entering a new environment or of the culture. We’re aware of differences that once seemed quite banal and hurdles or annoyances. Small challenges become devastations. We may begin to resent our host culture and attribute negative feelings towards our overseas experience. We call this a slump phase or more commonly known as culture shock.
The slump can happen at different times and in different ways for each of us and it’s symptoms can affect us physically and mentally. Common symptoms include recurrent illness, changes in your homesickness and persistent negativity towards the first culture, bouts of frustration and irritability, feelings of sadness and depression, self-doubt and withdrawing from friends and other people and activities.
While the Sun may affect us differently, it’s important to remember that we all feel culture shock in some way. Our feelings for struggles are normal and likely being experienced by others too. We should be patient and give ourselves time to work through the slump. Some tips that will assist us in overcoming this challenging phase includes recognizing that this unpleasant stage of cultural adaptation is only temporary. Get out into the host culture and explore your new surroundings and join in activities and organizations that the host provides. Take time to reflect and put your feelings and observations down. You can talk to someone about your experiences and don’t be afraid to laugh at your mistakes. Having a routine that includes eating well, exercising and getting enough places is helpful too and if you’re in a second language environment, work on those language skills.
With time and patience, we begin to realize the positive outcomes of cultural adaptations. We begin to recover from culture shock and inflammatory host culture. We develop an understanding for not only how things are done but why. This is the realization phase, through this we accept differences more willingly. We navigate the world around us more easily and we have conflicts. Eventually, our new place no longer feels new and instead feels like a second home. We will have regained emotional stability and are able to move and study to our full potential. We will have built meaningful connections with our second home. We recognize that we’ve changed as a result of our experiences and begin to melt this without identity.
This is the adaptation phase. The most wrenching adaptation is not the end of the cultural adaptation cycle. We may encounter relapses of culture shock and enter into feelings of frustration or sadness once again. However, having recognized and coped with culture shock once before we can move forward more confidently using successful strategies, likely we will continue to achieve successes and milestones. We will also develop a deeper understanding of our second home, then we’ll return from.
When returning from our overseas experience, you’ll be reminded once again that our perception of the world and our home has changed. That we have changed relearning the routines of our home or unique may be frustrating at first. We may struggle to find ways to include our new perspectives in our day-to-day life.

However, never doubt as we have already learned that these feelings are normal and common we simply need to adapt to.