Every class period is a medley of a student presentation on one of our texts, her lectures, and some sort of hands-on activity. I look forward to class, but tonight was especially enlightening as we discussed the relationship between culture and language. We talked about the definition of culture, patterns of culture, the pitfalls of ethnocentrism and relativism, the damaging qualities of stereotypes, and culture shock.
Culture shock is defined as "the process of emotional responses and physiological reactions that a person experiences upon arrival or placement in a new cultural setting." Culture shock usually follows a pattern of 7 main stages including elation, anxiety, rejection, regresssion, re-entry, acceptance, and appreciation.
Elation is characterized by exitement, hope, anticipation, and opportunities are assessed wtih unrealistic optimism. This is where you love everything about the culture and think it is so enthralling and exciting. Generally, 2-week short term missionaries and tourists stay in this stage.
Anxiety follows elation as you realize that the culture is not as idealistic as you first made it out to be. If elation is overly optimistic, then anxiety is characterized by ultra-pessimism. As you realize the challenges before you, you may begin to think, "Wow! Not only am I not going to save every single soul (which is why I came), I may not even make a friend."
Continuing in the negative spiral, rejection enters the picture and the person begins to alienate themselves and exhibit some anti-social behavior. A very negative attitude towards the host culture pervades. As Mrs. Young described, "You look for and gravitate towards the McDonald's."
It gets worse before it gets better as regression hits. People that are forced into a culture often get stuck on this stage. The regression stage is the lowest emotional point during the transition as the newcomer realizes the permanence of the situation and becomes submissive on some level and bypasses opportunities for interaction and has a very hopeless attitude.
Re-entry happens when you rediscover the positive aspects of the host culture. Re-entry is apparent when you can look back and laugh at a deep faux pas, you begin to be more involved with others in the culture, and hopefulness begins to return.
Acceptance and appreciation soon follow with the development of friendships and becoming emotionally settled as well as building a support system in your new culture and you begin to take pride in the host culture and its accomplishments.
I really enjoyed be re-exposed to the idea of culture shock with our trip to India coming up. We will definitely experience culture shock at some levels, so it is good to think through the stages and realize where you are. On the other hand, we are also going to another culture for a short, definite period of time so the stages (especially regression) may not be as strong because (like it or not) we know in the back of our minds we are not staying forever.
Then came the best part of the class: the hands-on activity. We divided up into groups of four and were given a list of rules and a deck of cards. After we read the rules, they were taken up. As the game began, we were not allowed to talk or communicate with each other at all (we broke this rule numerous times). So, we played a round of the game and then two people moved on and we played a new round. Each time new people came, it seemed as though they did not understand the rules well. Amidst a rising level of frustration and confusion, the game continued. After four rounds, Mrs. Young stopped us and asked for feedback. After sharing our frustration, she revealed that each table had received a different set of rules.
She showed us the connection between our furstration and how we each were convinced we were abiding by the "right" rules and how we often enter into cultures in this way. We take our cultural assumptions into other cultures and assume that everyone there are operating on the same "rules." In entering other cultures, we have to be aware that others are operating on a different set of rules. We need to decide whose rules are going to set the tone, who is going to concede, and where compromise is possible.
I really appreciated the practical way of seeing how our cultural assumptions effect our perceptions.
(to enlarge, click on the slide)
(all credit given to Mrs. Becky Young of Bryan College and slides Culture and TESOL and to Dr. Patricia Davis-Wiley of UTK and her material Coping with Culture Shock)
