Managing Culture Shock In America: An International Student Guide

By William Drake

Being chosen to study in an American university brings great excitement and heavy responsibilities. Students fortunate enough to be given this opportunity carry with them the hopes and dreams of their family, friends and community. Every student selected for overseas study has demonstrated the highest levels of achievement and a strong work ethic, and has shown that they understand the commitment that it takes to be successful.

But behind this exciting future lie the realities of adjusting to life in America. Too many high-achieving, extremely competent students are not well prepared to face these realities and therefore face unnecessary struggles in adjusting to America’s complex culture.

Research shows that the greatest challenge faced by international students in American colleges and universities isn't academic performance -  it is the psychological and even physical impact of a phenomenon known as "Culture Shock" during their first six months in America.

Being ready for each of the five well-defined stages of this process, knowing what to expect and understanding where all those difficult emotions and anxieties are coming from, can make the difference between great success and great difficulty in achieving your goals in America. This book will explain each of the five stages of Culture Shock that you can expect in your first six months and recommends proven strategies you can apply to ensure that you not only survive but thrive.

Culture shock is not an exotic disease – it is a challenging set of psychological processes that occur every time a person moves to a new environment, whether that new environment is a new school, a new job, or a new country. It doesn’t just affect International students studying in America – it affects every international student in the world.

Even older people who have lived in many different countries experience culture shock every time they move to a new country. In spite of how confident and well-adjusted they may appear to be, even very experienced people still go through culture shock. They simply have been through it enough to be able to understand that there is nothing wrong with them, they are not sick, and they are not falling apart emotionally. They are just going through an unavoidable and manageable process that is part of living internationally. This book will help you achieve that level of self-confidence and get on with your successful academic career in America.

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bill Drake
• Release date: Dec 25, 2018

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

Being chosen to study in an American university brings great excitement and heavy responsibilities. Students fortunate enough to be given this opportunity carry with them the hopes and dreams of their family, friends and community. Every student selected for overseas study has demonstrated the highest levels of achievement and a strong work ethic, and has shown that they understand the commitment that it takes to be successful.

But behind this exciting future lie the realities of adjusting to life in America. Too many high-achieving, extremely competent students are not well prepared to face these realities and therefore face unnecessary struggles in adjusting to America’s complex culture. The greatest of the challenges faced by international students in American colleges and universities is understanding and managing the psychological and physical impact of Culture Shock during their first six months.

Culture shock is not an exotic disease – it is a challenging set of psychological processes that occur every time a person moves to a new environment, whether that new environment is a new school, a new job, or a new country. It doesn’t just affect international students studying in America – it affects every international student in the world.

Even older people who have lived in many different countries experience culture shock every time they move to new country. In spite of how confident and well-adjusted they may appear to be, these very experienced people still go through culture shock. They just know how to handle it – and so can you.

Culture Shock occurs because your mind and body have to go through a period of both psychological and physiological adjustment when you move from a familiar environment to an unfamiliar one. The cues received by all of your senses suddenly change. You get on an airplane and leave everything familiar behind in the morning, and then you step directly into the excitement and confusion of the American society, culture and ecosystem in the evening. Just because fast international travel is normal, however, doesn’t mean that our bodies or our psychology can adjust as quickly as our cellphone to being taken halfway around the world in a day.

That first day and every day thereafter in the new environment you will be bombarded with unfamiliar sights, sounds, smells, tastes, language, feelings, vibrations, lights, gestures, rules, requirements, signs, interactions, demands, systems, and expectations.

Even when you are asleep in a new environment your ears continue to receive sounds that your brain does not recognize, your nose continues to detect unfamiliar odors, your body doesn’t recognize the food it is digesting, and your dreams likely contain new and unfamiliar features and characters.

Culture Shock is the cumulative effect of all of the different kinds of stress from your environment and from your own emotions and thoughts. You will probably not be aware of how most of these kinds of stress are affecting you, but it is a fact that every kind of stress in a new environment - the strange diet, the unfamiliar sounds, the unreadable signs and labels, making things work, directions that must be followed, faint peculiar smells – all have physical, mental and even emotional effects.

So when you see those effects reflected in your personal feelings, thoughts and behavior as anxiety, fear, loneliness, loss of appetite, confusion or depression during the stages of culture shock, it’s important to understand that these feelings are natural and not something going wrong – although if you ignore the symptoms and hope they will just go away they will not. But they are not mysterious, and they can be handled.

That means that if you reach out to the help and support