Understanding Understanding Intercultural Intercultural Communication Communication Second Second EditionEdition

Chapter 5

What is Culture Shock?

Stella Ting-Toomey & Leeva C. Chung

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

PowerPoint Slides Designed by Alex Flecky and Noorie Baig

TODAY’S MENUTODAY’S MENU

I. Unpacking Culture Shock

II. Intercultural Adjustment: Developmental Patterns

III. Reentry Culture Shock

IV. Intercultural Reality Check: Do-Ables

Considering Culture Shock …

• Have you ever experienced culture shock? Share a story…

• What were you experiencing emotionally?• What caused your anxious feelings? • How did you handle the culture shock

situation?• In retrospect, would you like to have

handled the situation differently? • What does culture shock mean to YOU???

I. Unpacking Culture I. Unpacking Culture ShockShock

A. Characteristics of Culture Shock

Culture Shock: a stressful transitional period when individuals move from a familiar cultural environment to an unfamiliar one.

Watch a group of Sudanese men as they experience culture shock, arriving in the United States for the first time. Click here.

I. Unpacking Culture I. Unpacking Culture ShockShock

I. Unpacking Culture I. Unpacking Culture ShockShockABCs of culture shock:• Affectively,

sojourners often feel anxiety, bewilderment, confusion, disorientation, and intense desire to be elsewhere.

• Behaviorally, they are confused as to norms and rules that guide communication appropriateness and effectiveness.

• Cognitively, they lack competence to interpret

or explain “bizarre” behaviors.

B. Pros and Cons of Culture Shock

C. Approaching Culture Shock: Underlying

Factors • Motivation Orientation• Personal Expectations• Cultural Distance• Psychological Adjustment • Sociocultural Adjustment • Communication Competence • Personality Attributes

I. Unpacking Culture I. Unpacking Culture ShockShock

“Writing with My Non-Dominant Hand…”

2 Writing Rules:1) Write with your non-dominant hand. 2) Write from right to left.

Reflection: • What did you experience? What did you

feel?• What did you learn?

A Mini-Experiential A Mini-Experiential Exercise Exercise

I. Unpacking Culture I. Unpacking Culture ShockShock

D. Initial Tips to Manage Culture Shock

1. Increase motivation to learn about the new culture.

2. Keep expectations realistic and increase familiarity with diverse facets of new culture.

3. Increase linguistic fluency and appropriateness and understand core values linked to specific behaviors.

4. Work on tolerating ambiguity and other flexibility attributes. 5. Develop close friends and acquaintanceships to manage identity stress and loneliness. 6. Be mindful of suspending ethnocentric evaluations of interpersonal behaviors of host culture.

II. Intercultural Adjustment: II. Intercultural Adjustment: Developmental PatternsDevelopmental Patterns

A. The U-Curve Adjustment Model

1. Initial adjustment: optimistic or elation phase.

2. Crisis: stressful phase when sojourners are overwhelmed by own incompetence.

3. Regained adjustment: settling-in phase, involving

effective coping.

10

 

 

II. Intercultural Adjustment: II. Intercultural Adjustment: Developmental PatternsDevelopmental Patterns

B. The Revised W-Shape Adjustment Model

II. Intercultural Adjustment: Developmental II. Intercultural Adjustment: Developmental PatternsPatternsThe Revised W-Shape Adjustment ModelThe Revised W-Shape Adjustment Model

STAGES: A. Honeymoon

“Everything is Beautiful”

B. Hostility “Everything is Ugly” Three types of reaction: Early Returnees, Time Servers, or Participators

C. Humorous “Everything is Quite Funny” Rebounding stage

D. In-Sync “Everything is OK”

II. Intercultural Adjustment: Developmental II. Intercultural Adjustment: Developmental PatternsPatternsThe Revised W-Shape Adjustment ModelThe Revised W-Shape Adjustment Model

E. Ambivalence “Everything is Sweet & Sour” Departure stage

F. Re-Entry Culture Shock “Everything is Off Center”

G. Re-Socialization “Everything is Home Again… Maybe?!”

Resocializers, Alienators,

Transformers

II. Intercultural Adjustment: Developmental II. Intercultural Adjustment: Developmental PatternsPatternsThe Revised W-Shape Adjustment ModelThe Revised W-Shape Adjustment Model

Media Activity: The Namesake film clip

Discussion Questions:• What is your reaction to this clip?• Where is Ashima in the W- shape model? Can

you describe her feelings?• How do you think her husband, Ashok, could

better prepare his wife for the American cultural experience?

• What can Ashima do (how might she reach out to seek help) to reach the in-sync stage?

III. Re-entry Culture ShockIII. Re-entry Culture Shock

If you have experienced re-entry culture shock:

Did you experience any re-entry culture shock stress? How so?

Any tips to make the re-entry culture shock less stressful?

IV. Intercultural Reality Check: Do-IV. Intercultural Reality Check: Do-AblesAbles• Realize that culture shock is inevitable.• Maintain an ethnorelative attitude.• Acknowledge your roller-coaster

emotions.• Reach out and seek help when needed.• There are many caring individuals and

resources out there awaiting to help you.• Take care of your physical & mental

health daily.• Do something creative every day – write

your travel blogs, express yourself in a journal, snap fun photos.

• Stay in touch with supportive others.

When you leave one home for another,

there’ll always lessons to be learned.

~ Kofi Annan

Parting Thoughts…Parting Thoughts…