Culture Shock Causes and Effects

HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

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CROSS-CULTURAL
COMMUNICATION 1

Essay tittle: Culture shock: Causes and Effects
Essay questions: What causes culture shock? Does culture shock affect the
cross-cultural communication?

Word count
Student’s name
Date of birth
Instructor

: 1842 words
: Hoang Le Phuong Dung
: July 4th, 1998
: Ms. Truong Thi Ai Nhi

- HUE, 2019 -


CULTURE SHOCK: CAUSES AND EFFECTS
I. INTRODUCTION
Today, society is more and more modern and developed, along with the trend of
globalization, people start interacting with new cultures by studying abroad, traveling
abroad or even to settle in another country. They went abroad with great ambition and
dreamed of a brighter future in which they will enjoy a better education, health care and

social welfare as well as excellent living and working environments. However, when they
were there, exposed to a new culture, people began to realize that living in new country is
not simple and they have to face challenges not only in terms of material but also spiritual.
They experienced a variety of emotional “ups and down” lasting from weeks to years and
those people can be described by “a fish out of water”. This condition is often called
“culture shock”. What can the term “culture shock” be defined? “Cultural shock” was first
mentioned by Kalvero Oberg in 1954: “culture shock is precipitated by the anxiety that
results from losing all our familiar signs and symbols of social intercourse. These signs or
cues include the thousand and one ways in which we orient ourselves to the situations of
daily life.” For example, when a person is abroad, culture shock, which arises from
difficulties in integrating into a new culture, is the cause of the difficulty of realizing what
is appropriate and what is not. This situation often goes hand in hand with hatred (for moral
or aesthetic reasons) to certain aspects of that new and different culture. After Oberg,
Hofstede states that culture shock is a “state of distress following the transfer of a person
to an unfamiliar cultural environment”, which may also be accompanied by physical
symptoms (1969). These two definitions have something in common, that culture shock is
considered as an unpleasant reaction when people are faced with a foreign culture. In this
paper, the causes and effects of culture shock will be discussed, including why it happens;
the good and the bad will be also treated briefly.
II.

DISCUSSION

1. What causes culture shock?
a. Objective cause: “The difference”
The result of cultural shock seems to be a function of the difference between
themselves and foreign culture in many aspects, such as climate, food, language, costumes,
behavior, other values, and demographic-related differences, such as age, gender, socioeconomic class, education, etc. Firstly, climate is a distinctly recognizable factor and can
have a good or bad impact on some newcomers. Taking a Vietnamese manager coming to
Ottawa (Canada) for business in winter as an example, it certainly takes a quite long time

for him to adapt to the climate because in this place, the winter is very cold, even
sometimes the temperature drops below -37 oC. Secondly, some newcomers can see that
foreign foods are weird, tastes and cooking methods are different. It is possible that some
people cannot eat strange food, or poorly eating, affecting both health and spirit. Thirdly,
always listening and speaking in foreign languages makes newcomers stressful. They will
miss their mother language. Even when they are very fluent in the foreign language of their
host country, the intonation and the way of speaking of indigenous people also takes them a
quite long time to be familiar. Moreover, if people are accustomed to hot weather, they may
be uncomfortable when wearing heavy winter clothes, or sometimes, just because they have
a different style of dress from the host country, newcomers may find themselves different
and difficult to adapt. Not everyone hates how foreigners dress, but newcomers themselves
is easy to feel embarrassed when they dress differently. Besides things that can be seen
immediately impacted upon them when they set foot on an airport abroad, such as light,
sound, smell, taste and so on, every culture has its unwritten principles, like how people
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treat each other. These things may be hard to spot right away, but soon or late people will
have to go through and they will feel lost and disoriented. Behaviors in society can make
newcomers confused, surprised or offended. For example, Vietnamese students studying
abroad will feel that foreigners seem cold, aloof or always busy. If being in the center of big
cities like Paris, Sydney, London, they will feel this more strongly. For instance, a Japanese
manager will be uncomfortable with some Vietnamese employees when they always have a
habit of being late, lack of responsibility and no sense of environmental protection. Finally,
although newcomers may gradually become accustomed to cultural differences in the
physical world they can see such as food, clothing, behavior, but they will realize that
people from different cultures have the eyes to see the world is very different from them.
Culture forms from the set of values, standards, preconception and beliefs. Sometimes they

will be surprised and disappointed because people do not have the same values as them,
because we all assume that our values are the norm. Since then, some newcomers can feel
tired, confused and difficult to socialize.
b. Subjective causes
In addition to objective reasons due to differences between cultures that people cannot
influence and change, there are some subjective reasons that newcomers themselves has not
prepared carefully and had the necessary knowledge to adapt to the new culture. These
causes can be disabled if they have sufficient capacity and belief. Firstly, when newcomers
has not learned clearly or investigated the country, people, culture and customs of the place
they are going to, they will take a long time to adapt to the new culture and even more
“shocked”. Secondly, language, skills and friendliness are necessary for a newcomer when
coming to a new culture. It will be difficult for them when they are not fluent in common
language or native language because sometimes they cannot express their feelings properly.
Secondly, there is no preparation of solutions if there are difficulties. In any case and every
problem, research and preparation of solutions are always essential. Knowing what they are
missing and the difficulties that may be encountered and preparing solutions to overcome
these difficulties will help newcomers avoid or quickly overcome the culture shock and
perform well their work. In addition, sometimes the negative thoughts that “I cannot adapt
to this new culture” lead to cultural shock. For newcomers, active and positive thinking is
extremely important because only if they have positive thoughts, they can get motivation to
overcome cultural barriers. Finally, another cause of culture shock is that being selfcontained does not want to communicate and make friends. Making friends is extremely
important not only in their country but also in other countries. This helps them quickly
integrate with the new environment.
2. Effects of culture shock: the good and the bad
a. Negative effects of cultural shock
It is quite normal and usually unavoidable that you will experience a difficult time
when you are in a new environment, where you are no longer in control as you were at
home. However, everyone may experience the negative effects of cultural shock at a
different level. The negative effects of cultural shock may include: frustration; feeling
isolated and lonely; homesickness; idealizing the home country; unduly criticizing culture

of host country; sadness; depression; withdrawal (avoiding contact to host nationals);
sleeping a lot or unable to sleep; suffering from body aches and pains; etc. You may be
surprised to find that you cannot operate normally in a new environment. It might take 6
months to a year for you to adapt, or sometimes even longer.
b. Positive effects of culture shock
In fact, there are positive effects of cultural shock, but hardly anyone talks about them.
Firstly, the experience of living in a different country is a significant learning experience.
Living in a different culture will give you valuable skills to help you in many aspects of
your life and have the power to support your personal journey and development. You will
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grow stronger and more resilient from some difficulties and seemingly unconquerable
situations, which you will encounter. These difficulties will force you to get out of your
comfort zone and fight to them. During this personal development, you will get to know
yourself better. Today, schools emphasize diversity and the desire to teach it in many areas.
You have that experience in your hand if you can embrace the diversities you experience in
your new surroundings. They are diversity in thinking, in ethnicity, in socio-economic
status and in religious beliefs. You will gain different perspectives by looking beyond
stereotypes and appreciating diversity, it will open your eyes and heart for otherness.
Especially in this interconnected world, we need to show respect for others and understand
differences. Learning never ends! If you examine the new culture, reflect and compare it to
your own, you will be more aware of aspects of your own culture and have the ability to
examine it more objectively. Secondly, developing international friendships is one of the
biggest benefits of living abroad. You will get to know people from your host country, like
your neighbors, co-workers or other parents on the playground. Of course, you will meet
other foreigners that you are attracted, because you are sharing the same experience of
international life. Thanks to Facebook, Skype and many other social platforms, it is

currently easy to keep in touch with everyone around the world. Finally, to achieve full
integration into new culture, learning a foreign language is extremely necessary. You can
only achieve full proficiency when you immerse yourself in a language. “Culture shock”
may be a very mind-expanding experience because you will learn words and concepts that
not exist in your own language.
III.

CONCLUSION

In summary, culture shock can happen to anyone. No matter what cultural
environment they come from, no matter how much they have experienced or they are good
at foreign languages, when they have to live and work in a completely alien culture,
cultural shock is unavoidable. So, does cultural shock affect the cross-cultural
communication? The answer is yes. Cultural shock will prevent newcomers from
integrating into a new culture, make it difficult for them to communicate and interact to
learn new culture values, even create a sense of fear and hostility. However, culture shock
is the first step of integration. You should not consider the differences in culture as the
source of all problems. Instead, you should consider where the problem comes from and
what the difference between the two cultures is. With the same event or phenomenon, the
conception of the two cultures is different, so it is impossible to use the measure of this
culture to apply to that culture. Cultural shock is inevitable, but these shocks are an
important and necessary factor for you to connect your cultural values and adjust them to
be suitable for new cultural values. You can minimize the time of shock and its negative
effects by preparing well the necessary knowledge of your host country’s language and
culture. Early preparation is never redundant for those who want to conquer tough
challenges and make them be their own advantages.

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REFERENCES
1. Adler, P. S. (1975). The transitional experience: An alternative view of culture shock.
Journal of humanistic psychology.
2. Furnham, A., & Bochner, S. (1986). Culture shock. Psychological reactions to
unfamiliar environments.
3. Oberg, K. (1960). Culture Shock: Adjustment to new cultural environment. Practical
Anthropologist.
4. Ward, C. A., Bochner, S., & Furnham, A. (2001). The psychology of culture shock.
Psychology Press.
5. Zapf, M. K. (1991). Cross-cultural transitions and wellness: Dealing with culture
shock. International journal for the advancement of counselling.
6. Heike, M. (2014). Refreshed perspectives. Effects of culture shock- the good and the
bad.

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