Culture Shock
 

Hi! As anyone ever suffered culture shock on their travels. If so, what's the story?

I've lived in several plaes in the US, in Germany, and traveled over much of Europe, reaching as far as central Turkey. The worst culture shock I've experienced was in moving to Wilkes-Barre, PA from the Midwestern US.

Hi, Dave! How was Wilkes-Barre so very different from the mid-west? Just curious, I've never been to Wilkes-Barre. <BR> <BR>I lived with "culture shock" much of my early life. I was born in the deep south. My mother moved to NYC when I was quite young. I used to go back and forth between the two. I can't think of two places more culturally different from each other than Manhattan and rural Mississippi, especially in those days. But I always enjoyed the contrast! :-) <BR>

NJ to Charlotte NC. I think because of expectations -- I expected to get the same things I had in NJ (same country, same coast, etc.), but I couldn't get the same bottled water, my deoderant (no need to send me to that other thread -- mom mailed it to me), etc. <BR> <BR>France wasn't that much of a shock, probably because I expected EVERYTHING to be different. And some things are really nice -- once you get used to them!

I did not suffer, but still had sort of a culture shock in India and China (mainland) , because it is SO different from Europe and the US. <BR>But I would (and will) go back anytime.

My greatest culture shock was in visiting the usa. As a brit I think that i felt I aready "knew" about america, after all we get a lot of american tv and literature as well as pop culture, and of course this is a two way traffic. And of course there is the (mostly) shared language. <BR> <BR>Thus, i felt that america wouldn't feel "foreign". I was wrong. If anything the ease of communication and access made it feel even more foreign and alien. Almost every daily activity is in some way different to a greater or lesser degree. <BR> <BR>France for instance is a great deal less "foreign", once you get over the language. <BR> <BR>I won't even begin to explain how odd I felt walking in los angeles! <BR>

I would have expected culture shock when I moved (as a very young man) from northern Main to Boston and again when I went to Germany. I never have felt it, I guess because I always have had no expectations where I've been and have adopted the new areas readily. Yes things were different, but I expected them to be. <BR>Regards, <BR>Art <BR>

Well david west -- there ya go -- no one ever WALKS in LA:) <BR> <BR>I remmeber the first time I flew into Skopje, Macedonia -- not just the language and the crowds, but just a different attitude and pace for living. In our Macedonian family when someone says "let's go!", we ask whether we're on "american" or "balkan" time and respond accordingly:) And we still specify that distinction sometimes:) <BR>have become rather acclimated so that now my friends call me "pola makendonka" :)[as well as "luda amerikanka"] <BR> <BR>I also got to watch our students [last summer] be "culture shocked" first in Budapest [it seemed very "eastern" to them], then even more so in Macedonia [and they DIF fall in love with the country and people]-- but when they returned to Budapest, Budapest all of a sudden seemed very "western" -- to be honest, that was an effect that we had more or less planned.

Three different "shocks": <BR> <BR>1. Coming home to the US from 3 months in Europe when I was 23 in 1968. I returned with entirely new eyes, and things that had previously either escaped me or only bothered me a little now disturbed me greatly or at least startled me: the excesses of supermarkets, the shrill emptiness of television, the dominance of youth culture. <BR> <BR>2. The stunningly impersonal and open hostility in the eyes of many in Europe that year who didn't hesitate to confront me with gratuitous criticism, sometimes about Viet Nam -- which was understandable, though they made no effort to distinguish between an individual American who didn't support the war and the America that did -- but just as often they had something derogatory and hostile to say about being an American woman. A Brit opened and closed one conversation on a train thus: "You're an American, aren't you. I hate American women." An Italian told me all American women were sluts, while another said that American women were just too cold to be human. A Croat hissed something similar. A French man told me American women were too "mannish" to understand good sex. I came home to a song "American Woman, stay away from me...." <BR> <BR>3. Moving from Washington DC to a suburban midwestern town. I never seemed to dress down when I was supposed to dress down, dress up when I was supposed to dress up; never knew when some topic of conversation was taboo or when what I thought was just analysis of a film or book would be taken as antisocial negativity; never knew when women were supposed to be invisibly behind-the-scenes or when they were supposed to be front-and-center. And there were plenty of surprises re:language, cuisine, manners, etc.-- for example, the evening meal began at 5 not 7:30. All of that, however, was good practice for moving to a small Southern college town with no big city in sight. <BR> <BR>

I will never forget arriving in Haiti with the intense heat searing my lungs and seeing the militia with the automatic rifles at the ready....could not leave the airport until met by my host who was an hour late....longest hour of my life, after that istanbul seemed like home

It's right, I felt more European in the USA than I have ever felt before. Another thing was taking a trip to Canada. If I'd gone straight from the UK, no doubt it would have felt foreign. As it was, Toronto in particular was so English. The houses looked English and so did the gardens. The spelling was English and the petrol came in English type gallons. There was even a radio programme with requests from families in the UK to their relations in Canada. You can even see the contrast at Niagera Falls. The American side is all honky tonk and the Canadian side has gardens.

Big culture shock moving back to the US from the UK. Landed in Washington in the middle of July, so the heat was the first thing. And life just suddenly seemed so complicated again. It took both my husband (he's from the UK, but had lived previously in the US for several years) a few weeks to get acclimated.

Re: David West <BR> <BR>Having been to your country several times (and loving it), I find your remarks very interesting. (I, too, was very surprised at how foreign ENGLAND felt to ME). I would really appreciate it if you would tell us specific ways you felt that America was so "foreign and alien". How DID it feel, walking down the streets of Los Angelos? And, would you visit the States again?

Big culture shock the first time I went to Paris and heard only other American's at the Cafe in St. Germain.

Coming out of the Place de Republique metro in Paris in 1995, my first visit to this great city, with the cars zooming around the oval and the look of the architecture. Then realizing after the end of my first day that I hadn't yet heard one word of english...I felt very homesick, yet excited, that night. <BR>

Moving from a smallish city in Australia to Tokyo at the age of 20. Everything (houses, streets, etc) seemed so small, I felt rather like Gulliver in Lilliput (and I am not that tall myself). I guess it was just the different scale of things. One thing that did seem to symbolize the cultural difference for me was the horizontal traffic lights - having only ever seen the vertical variety before, it had never occurred to me that such a seemingly standard thing could be completely different in another country. <BR>Everyone was very accepting and welcoming, and eventually I adjusted. But as my year there wore on, I found I did miss the familiar things of home. I then experienced reverse culture shock upon returning and readjusting to my home town. <BR>Travelling to a different culture certainly does broaden our experiences, and I believe makes us more aware of our own culture as we experience those unfamiliar to us.

To Laura: <BR> <BR>In many ways it was the little things that suprised me. Things like road signs (in europe they're alll stqandardised). The size of fizzy drinks and portions in general (no wonder there are so many large people there. I am a fair old size myself 5'10" and 200lbs and felt quite the sylph!). <BR> <BR>Not being able to work a payphone, the pervasiveness of air conditioning and so on. Tipping left me completely baffled, who? how much? when? THe level of affluence and poverty. THe incredibly insular news, at the same time the quality of some of the press. Taxi drivers who didn't know where they're going. THis sort of thing. <BR> <BR>Really it was my own fault. I had made the assumption that because I had seen a lot of america on tv, films etc that I was familiar with it. Not so. I would have expected, say, germany to be "foreign" as they have a differnt culture, language history etc. I just didn't expect the usa to be so different although with the exception of language all these things are also true. In fact germany is less "foreign" in many ways than america. <BR> <BR>As to walking in LA, I soon realised why no one does it. TOO HOT!

I like this thread, but Sylvia, you carry the Canada-good, US-bad thing too far -- where, after all, is the Wax Museum, etc. at Niagara Falls? <BR> <BR>David West: I'd love to see an entire article on your response. In particular, what did the America you had seen in the media look like? What were the differences, points of "disconnection? What had it led you to expect? (And what shows, besides the news, colored your view?)

To David West: Thank you for your response......I second Joyce's desire..I, too, would love to hear more about your opinions on the U.S.A., both the 'before your visit' and 'after your visit' reactions. It is hard to imagine what it feels like to experience this country for the first time as an adult, and your responses are wonderful and have made me even more curious. For example, re the air conditioning...you find it everywhere, but, do you find that a good thing or a bad thing? By the way, the tipping thing makes us all crazy here, especially the "who"! Please, tell us more!!

This might be a bad idea, but would anyone be interested in putting together a sort of Fodorites Newsletter? We could distribute it electronically and invite longer submissions from posters who bring up interesting points of view/experiences/etc. (like David West on his experiencing the shift between UK and US culture). We could even include longer trip reports.