| CULTURE
SHOCK & CULTURAL ADJUSTMENT REPORTS SINCE
SUMMER 2002 |
| Report • Incidents: Overcoming
New Country/Culture/School/Language • Basic
Culture Shock & Homesickness • Gender
Attitudes • Anti-Americanism • Witnessing
Poverty • Living
with Host Families • Political
Climate • Perceived
Safety Threats |
| WORLDWIDE & COUNTRY
STATISTICAL REPORT As of 10-23-2007 |
Among
868 NMSU
students who have studied abroad, 127-14.6% felt
they had experienced
serious culture shock or cultural adjustment. The
data show that
while culture shock theory states that
all students may go through some culture shock
while abroad, about 1 out of
7 NMSU students experience serious culture shock
or cultural adjustment sometime during their
stay abroad. Obviously,
countries in which many NMSU students have studied
(Mexico,
Costa Rica, Spain) are going to have more reported
incidents than those in which fewer students
study abroad. The data show that cultural
adjustment problems can occur in both developed
and developing countries and that students
have to be aware, but not apprehensive, about
their ability to adjust to studying and living
abroad. These events occurred in 24-66.7%
of the 36 countries in which they had studied.
All countries
are listed below by # of incidents, # of participants,
and percentage of reported culture shock or cultural
adjustment incidents:
|
| |
Country
|
Culture
Shock Incidents
|
Argentina
|
013
|
0
00
|
000.0%
|
Australia
|
023
|
0
02
|
008.7%
|
Austria
|
0
06
|
0
00
|
000.0%
|
Belize
|
0
07
|
0
03
|
042.9%
|
| Bolivia |
0
01
|
0
01
|
100.0%
|
| Brazil |
028
|
0
05
|
017.9%
|
| Canada |
0
07
|
0
00
|
000.0%
|
| Chile |
0
08
|
0
01
|
012.5%
|
| China |
0
09
|
0
04
|
044.4%
|
| Costa
Rica |
183
|
0 26
|
014.2%
|
| Ecuador |
012
|
0
01
|
008.3%
|
| Finland |
0
04
|
0
01
|
025.0%
|
|
Country
|
Culture
Shock Incidents
|
| France |
028
|
0
05
|
017.9%
|
| Germany |
026
|
0
04
|
015.4%
|
| Ghana |
0
01
|
0
01
|
100.0%
|
| Guatemala |
022
|
0
01
|
004.5%
|
| India |
0
02
|
0
01
|
0 50.0%
|
| Ireland |
0
01
|
0
00
|
000.0%
|
| Japan |
019
|
0
04
|
0 21.1%
|
| Korea |
0
03
|
0
00
|
000.0%
|
| Malta |
0
04
|
0
01
|
0 25.0%
|
| Mexico |
248
|
030
|
0 12.1%
|
| Morocco |
0
02
|
0
01
|
0 50.0%
|
|
Country
|
Culture
Shock Incidents
|
| Netherlands |
0
08
|
0
01
|
0 12.5%
|
| New
Zealand |
0
03
|
0
01
|
033.3%
|
| Nicaragua |
0
01
|
0
00
|
000.0%
|
| Panama |
0
01
|
0
00
|
000.0%
|
| Peru |
0
04
|
0
00
|
000.0%
|
| Russia |
0
02
|
0
00
|
000.0%
|
| South
Africa |
0
01
|
0
00
|
000.0%
|
| Spain |
138
|
0 25
|
018.1%
|
| Sweden |
0
06
|
0
00
|
000.0%
|
| Switzerland |
0
03
|
0
01
|
033.3%
|
| Thailand |
0
01
|
0
01
|
100.0%
|
| UK |
041
|
0
06
|
014.6%
|
|
| Description
of Serious Incidents Reported (BACK
TO TOP) |
The
cultural adjustment incidents experienced by
NMSU students studying abroad are summarized
by type of category below, with abbreviated quotes
from the students' descriptions ( numbers in
parenthesis indicate number of same type of description):
|
| Overcoming
Country, Language, Religion, & School System
Differences |
| Australia: • Hard
to adjust to country that is surrounded
by U.S. influence (TV, music, products), but
nothing
functions the same as the U.S. • Aussies
use a lot of slang.
Belize: • Very
culturally diverse • Creole-takes
some getting used to.
Brazil: • Brazilians
are more "touch, feely," than
Americans-get used to being hugged and
kissed a lot. • Death
in host family and hard to deal with seeing
a dead body at the church. • Hard
to adjust to learning Portuguese, but managed.
Canada: • I
was shocked to discover that Canada has
sharp class distinctions. You find few
students
over 22. Some classes are racially segregated. Chile: culture
different, food bland, sun lacking in Winter.
China: • Difficult
understanding Chinese culture, status of
teachers, and way people are treated in
society. I would
recommend learning as much about the culture
as possible. College students in China
are treated like children and decisions
are often made by
elders. The concept of privacy and group
harmony are not so different than in the
U.S. • You
are going to a semi-rural setting. The
city is accessible but inconvenient as
it is about 45
minutes away. • You will be stared
at constantly, and they eat foods we are
not used too, such
as dog meat.
Costa Rica: • Hard time communicating
with family because nobody spoke English--took
more than a week to adjust. • Not
having running water or hot water all the
time. • Because
I didn't know much Spanish, hard to communicate
at first, but got better. • In Monteverde
it is very rural. I missed pavement and
the rain was so annoying I really missed
my family and
the simple things of America • The
houses in Monteverde are different from
Heredia. The
wind and the mud were difficult to deal
with. • I
hated not being able to communicate--language
barriers are rough. • Missed having
cell phone, not used to public transportation,
and
water heated by electricity, no carpet
on floors, and beans and rice every day. • Adjustment
may be harder for younger students who
attend school with a parent.
Ecuador: • Hard
to adjust to very religious and conservative
people.
Finland: • ...
difficulty of not knowing Finnish and the
locals don't know much English and are
closed off and
quiet in winter. They also drink every
night.
France: • People
are unfriendly, they have a long face,
and the food is different. • Being
away from everything familiar is difficult.
French cultural mentality
and system are completely opposite of the
U.S., so it can be difficult to adjust. • French
culture more reserved so difficult to meet
and develop relationships. • French
are hard to approach and they have different
attitudes
on many social issues. • No hot water,
limited use of electricity, felt some French
people unfriendly, whole local service
and university system different and limited.
Guatemala: • Culture
is beautiful, but the biggest shock is
the violence of the past and present and
sometimes
lack of
hope for the future.
Germany: • So
many people who love to smoke. People seem
ruder, it's different getting around without
a car for
a whole year. Everyone rides bikes and
smokes • When you arrvie and all
is in German it is disorienting and you
feel
alone.
Malta: • Student
felt locals were prejudiced to all foreigners.
Mexico: • Had a religious
shock because not familiar with prevalence
of catholicism. • Student
felt uncomfortable being asked by host
family if he was "Catholic." •
I was shocked at first when they kissed
me on my cheeks (but came to realize it
was a friendly gesture). •
Had to get used to life without telephones,
internet, tv, long showers, unlimited
food at meals and bright lights in rooms. • ...
more from the fact that almost all of the
other students were European rather than
from Mexican
culture. • Getting ill the second
night really affected me physically and
emotionally.
I was homesick and lost 5 pounds. • I
had problems with getting laundry done
because everyone
gave a different answer--the inconsistency.
It is also hard to adjust to hearing, speaking,
etc. in Spanish at first. The lack of modern
communication devices was also a little
difficult.• First
two months were life changing. Doing errands
and making appointments takes a lot of
time going through a lot of people. Not
having a car made
it difficult to get things done. It was
difficult fitting in, too. • The
amount of people everywhere in the city
took some getting used
to. • It took me a week to get used
to the currency • I didn't realize
the freedom of benefits we have here in
the U.S. until I
went to Mexico. The people, the food, and
housing were all extremely different and
caused shock
to me. • Language was hard to understand
and transportation was difficult. • Spanish
people yell a lot when they talk and are
narrow minded toward Americans. • TEC
has a very privileged student population
and I found the social stratification difficult
to
accept. • Mexicans will always be
extremely late, they will always tell you
yes and then
cancel on you at the last minute. Always
make plans and never keep them. • Student
had difficulty with general issues, "using
the phone, level of politeness. • The
night life will get you. • Time we
ate lunch and dinner were very different
but I got
used to it. • Because I am Mexican
and my culture is different from them we
are used
to be more friendly; they are friendly
too but different. We use more words like
thank you for
everything, please, Mr. and Mrs. • Life
there is much more laid-back. I had cultural
shock because I was expecting the same
service as NMSU, also the people seem that
they don't
care about you. At the beginning I didn't
understand why I was getting such bad service
compared to
what I get at NMSU. • People
weren't very friendly if you did not speak
the language. Netherlands: The way their
university
system works was frustrating.
Morocco: Morocco
has a limited concept of religious tolerance
and limited understanding of Western culture.
Spain: • Did
not expect Spain to be so different from
New Mexico and hard to adjust to the food. • ...did
not expect dramatic change in the general
lifestyle, from lack of food, technological
advances, utilities,
and language compared to U.S. • People
were arrogant and disliked Americans. Food
and fashion was hard to get used to. • I
lived in an apartment building right over
a hardware
store and a supermarket and that took some
time to get used to. • American
TV is not even a notion there. Hard to
communicate with home. • The different
schedule for eating, sleeping, going out
was hard to adjust to. • Hard to
adjust when I couldn't communicate well
in Spanish, and many in Sevilla didn't
speak English. Also thought Sevilla
would be modern, but it's a very old city.
Switzerland: Swiss
German was hard to understand.
UK: • Felt
uncomfortable walking in ethnically mixed
Mile End, London, but never felt unsafe. • The
weather!In 9 months saw sun for a total
of about 3 weeks. • Found some people
to be rude and city dirty.
New
Zealand: • Took
time to learn about and be around the Maori
and Pacific Islanders. • It is hard
to be an American and answer a lot of questions. |
| Basic
Culture Shock & Homesickness |
Brazil: • Suffered
severe depression because felt isolated from
group.
Costa
Rica: •
Felt alone, stressed, unable to adapt to host
family environment. • First night difficult because
no one speaks English and you feel disconnected
from
the world. • First
week was hard, then it got better. • It
was harder to adjust than I had expected. • I
experienced culture shock my first week there
in Heredia. I’m from Las Cruces and in
Heredia there were lots of traffic and people
everywhere. Plus everyone was speaking in a foreign
language • scared and reluctant to interact
outside of school, but I got over it.
France: • Arriving
alone was very hard .... • For the first
two weeks I just wanted to hop back on a plane
and come home. • In culture shock first
month, due to different food and people being
cold at times.
Japan: • Having
never been to a place where I didn't understand
the language prior to the program contributed
to my culture shock experience. I was frustrated
that I couldn't communicate with people the way
I was used to communicating.
Mexico: • I
felt very isolated. • I was by myself and
could not really talk to the people to find what
I needed when I first arrived. • Had
feeling of being lost at first, but got over
it in a week. • Homesickness (two weeks
missing food, driving, family) • I missed
my girlfriend and not being with my family during
Christmas. • The first month I was homesick,
but then my class was cool and I started to meet
great people. • Missed family and friends. • My
unfulfilled expectation of Christmas music in
Mexico.
Netherlands: • Tired
and weepy after I got over the initial exhilaration.
In addition, I grew depressed from the combination
of being so far away from family and friends
and grieving for my grandpa who died less that
a week before I left. • Yes, you can't
help it when you leave the U.S. for the first
time and live in another country.
Spain: • Early
on depressed (but overcame it) • The first
3 weeks were extremely difficult to get used
to everything. The counter-culture was just as
bad. • A little culture shock the first
week just because of the language barrier and
I didn't know any of the students that already
knew each other. • It is hard adjusting
at first to any other culture other than your
own. You must adjust to food, norms, values and
every other aspect of that culture.
Thailand: • I
was a tall white girl so I was usually being
stared at, but you get used to it.
UK: I
didn't realize I wouldn't be able to talk to
any of my friends, or family, for an entire month
except by e-mail. • It took some time to
get integrated, but it is easily overcome by
going places with your flatmates or people from
school and start enjoying local and school activities
|
| Differences
in Gender Attitudes |
Belize: • Men
are very blunt and vocal towards women. It can
be intimidating. • Women are constantly
addressed by men on the street; it can be unsettling.
France: • Men
approach women directly if they are foreigners. • Men
are aggressive with women and touch, kiss and
grab them. Ghana: • Females
could not walk alone on campus day or night (or
at least that is what we were told). • Men
approach women very directly if they are foreigners.
Some come across as rude or blunt without meaning
to.
Mexico: • Uncomfortable
with way men objectified women, especially as
a blond. • I found machismo hard to handle
as a girl. • Felt uncomfortable with men
who make rude comments and cat calls. • 'Machismo.'
As a feminist, I found this extremely offensive.
• Mexican culture is very machismo.
|
| Discomfort
with Witnessing Poverty |
Costa
Rica: • poverty
was a bit shocking at first as was the very
simple way of life there • Not prepared
for the amount of poverty I saw. Coming from
Las Cruces where as a college student we
don't see much poverty, to living in it,
was hard. • amazed at how many people
lived such simple lives. • Host family
lived in poverty, with animals under foot
when eating dinner, very hard to get used
to. • I come from the upper-middle
class, so the living conditions were difficult
at first.
India: • Hard
to witness children living in trash and no
one caring about them.
Mexico: • The
many eyesores in the city, such as run down
buildings and excessive graffiti. |
| Perceived
Anti-Americanism |
Canada: • There
is a lot of prejudice against Americans.
France: •...
anti-americanism.
|
| Perceptions
of Threat to Safety |
| Brazil: • hard
to adjust to fear people everywhere have of
being mugged in Rio. Mexico: • Student
felt others were
always after her money. |
| Adjusting
to Living with Host Families |
Costa
Rica: • Didn't
like home stay. The first couple of days with
my family were pretty intense. I didn't talk
much to anyone at first.
|
| Political
Climate |
Bolivia: • Hard
to deal with the highly politicized atmosphere.
|
| Weather |
| Spain: • Rained
first two months which was depressing. |
| (BACK TO TOP) |
|
|
