7 ms·

I wouldn't dismiss this article as simply culture shock. A university surveyed foreign students and tracked their progress as they adjusted to the new culture,

I wouldn't dismiss this article as simply culture shock. A university surveyed foreign students and tracked their progress as they adjusted to the new culture, they found that most people get over the culture shock after 2 semesters. [1] This guy is writing this after living 5 years in Japan. I would therefore not dismiss this as simple culture shock, it's a genuine critique of a culture after he's become accustomed to it. [1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPfB6GIjM9Q http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPfB6GIjM9Q

Vivtek 17y ago
They get over the shallow culture shock. The real culture shock is knowing you're never going to fit in where you live -but because you've been there so long, you're never going to fit in anywhere else, either. You've become an ethnic group of one. Puerto Rico did this to me over the course of about five years. I can't stay on-island for more than about a year or I flip out. Up here in the States proper has done this to my (Hungarian) wife over the course of about fifteen years. Her limit is about two years. It doesn't go away.
- pw0ncakes 17y ago
  They get over the shallow culture shock. The real culture shock is knowing you're never going to fit in where you live -but because you've been there so long, you're never going to fit in anywhere else, either. You've become an ethnic group of one. This has been my story ever since I was born. One nice thing about not fitting in is that you become friends with others who don't fit in, who tend to be the most interesting people.
  - Vivtek 17y ago
    Point. I've read about this, too - especially people who've grown up multicultural tend to glom together as a "international ethnicity". One of the real attractions of living somewhere other than "your country" is being one of the expat crowd and love/hate dissing the local culture.
    - jacquesm 17y ago
      You're in for a double helping of culture shock as long as you still consider yourself a 'national' of some country. I try - with partial success - to live as though being born in some place was pure chance and to try to lose the myopic view of life that you get when you keep seeing things through the lens of home. It's a mixed success, and I haven't even lived in places that were very different from the one that I was born in. For me the 'security blanket' seems to be cheese. As long as I can find a good chunk of cheese somewhere I can deal with the rest. Selling cheese at exorbitant prices to immigrants must be a great way to make money.
  - elblanco 17y ago
    You have no idea how perfectly that describes my life.
iamelgringo 17y ago
I grew up as an expat in Central America for the first 14 years of my life. My parents worked for a religious NGO and part of their job was to help other incoming expats acclimate and adjust to the new culture. There's an entire branch of psychology devoted to culture shock, enculturation and acculturation. It's a pretty complex process. Becoming bicultural is a long, long process. A lot of monocultural people, by definition have little frame of reference, and it's hard to understand unless they've gone through it themselves. Having been through it, and having watched hundreds of other people go through it during. I have no doubt that part of this rant is due to culture shock/enculturation difficulties. As a rough generalization, there are several stages of enculturation (adapting to living in a different culture). The first stage is the actual culture shock. It generally takes 1-12 months to get over the initial, "OMG they eat Foo!" or figure out what end of the chopsticks to pick food out of the serving bowl with or how to buy groceries, or what side of the cheek to kiss as a greeting, or how low to bow to what people. After the initial culture shock, there's generally a honey moon phase where everything is seen as wonderful an exciting and so much better than in the old country. That phase can last anywhere from 6 months to 3 years. Frequently from year 2-6, post move, the honeymoon fades. The "flaws" in the new culture become increasingly apparent, and people get critical and frustrated at their adopted country. Cultural differences are seen as stupid, or backwards. Slowly, after 4-6 years, people tend to get more accustomed to the new country. They start to adapt, and adopt the new culture as their own, and they feel a lot more at home. Some families I grew up with never made that transition. I spent the first 14 years of my life living in Cost Rica and Honduras. I've been in the US for over 20 years. And, now, after being, "home" for 20 years, I'm finally starting to feel like I might belong in the US. Moving to the Bay Area, where there's a much bigger multi-cultural vibe helps. Had I stayed in the rural Midwest where my parents live, I would have gone apeshit. Still, after 20 years, some things about the US drive me crazy. I could have written a similar rant at many points the last 20 years. I'm a lot of geek immigrants/expats could write a similar rant about their host country. Just ask your coworker engineer friends about the US immigration process. :) I know my parents ranted from time to time about life in Costa Rica or Honduras from time to time. They lived down there for 20 years. And, even though they got really pissed off from time to time, it didn't change their love of either country.
- 17y ago

Vivtek 17y ago

They get over the shallow culture shock. The real culture shock is knowing you're never going to fit in where you live -but because you've been there so long, you're never going to fit in anywhere else, either. You've become an ethnic group of one. Puerto Rico did this to me over the course of about five years. I can't stay on-island for more than about a year or I flip out. Up here in the States proper has done this to my (Hungarian) wife over the course of about fifteen years. Her limit is about two years. It doesn't go away.

pw0ncakes 17y ago
They get over the shallow culture shock. The real culture shock is knowing you're never going to fit in where you live -but because you've been there so long, you're never going to fit in anywhere else, either. You've become an ethnic group of one. This has been my story ever since I was born. One nice thing about not fitting in is that you become friends with others who don't fit in, who tend to be the most interesting people.
- Vivtek 17y ago
  Point. I've read about this, too - especially people who've grown up multicultural tend to glom together as a "international ethnicity". One of the real attractions of living somewhere other than "your country" is being one of the expat crowd and love/hate dissing the local culture.
  - jacquesm 17y ago
    You're in for a double helping of culture shock as long as you still consider yourself a 'national' of some country. I try - with partial success - to live as though being born in some place was pure chance and to try to lose the myopic view of life that you get when you keep seeing things through the lens of home. It's a mixed success, and I haven't even lived in places that were very different from the one that I was born in. For me the 'security blanket' seems to be cheese. As long as I can find a good chunk of cheese somewhere I can deal with the rest. Selling cheese at exorbitant prices to immigrants must be a great way to make money.
- elblanco 17y ago
  You have no idea how perfectly that describes my life.

iamelgringo 17y ago

I grew up as an expat in Central America for the first 14 years of my life. My parents worked for a religious NGO and part of their job was to help other incoming expats acclimate and adjust to the new culture. There's an entire branch of psychology devoted to culture shock, enculturation and acculturation. It's a pretty complex process. Becoming bicultural is a long, long process. A lot of monocultural people, by definition have little frame of reference, and it's hard to understand unless they've gone through it themselves. Having been through it, and having watched hundreds of other people go through it during. I have no doubt that part of this rant is due to culture shock/enculturation difficulties. As a rough generalization, there are several stages of enculturation (adapting to living in a different culture). The first stage is the actual culture shock. It generally takes 1-12 months to get over the initial, "OMG they eat Foo!" or figure out what end of the chopsticks to pick food out of the serving bowl with or how to buy groceries, or what side of the cheek to kiss as a greeting, or how low to bow to what people. After the initial culture shock, there's generally a honey moon phase where everything is seen as wonderful an exciting and so much better than in the old country. That phase can last anywhere from 6 months to 3 years. Frequently from year 2-6, post move, the honeymoon fades. The "flaws" in the new culture become increasingly apparent, and people get critical and frustrated at their adopted country. Cultural differences are seen as stupid, or backwards. Slowly, after 4-6 years, people tend to get more accustomed to the new country. They start to adapt, and adopt the new culture as their own, and they feel a lot more at home. Some families I grew up with never made that transition. I spent the first 14 years of my life living in Cost Rica and Honduras. I've been in the US for over 20 years. And, now, after being, "home" for 20 years, I'm finally starting to feel like I might belong in the US. Moving to the Bay Area, where there's a much bigger multi-cultural vibe helps. Had I stayed in the rural Midwest where my parents live, I would have gone apeshit. Still, after 20 years, some things about the US drive me crazy. I could have written a similar rant at many points the last 20 years. I'm a lot of geek immigrants/expats could write a similar rant about their host country. Just ask your coworker engineer friends about the US immigration process. :) I know my parents ranted from time to time about life in Costa Rica or Honduras from time to time. They lived down there for 20 years. And, even though they got really pissed off from time to time, it didn't change their love of either country.

17y ago