6.4.1. How to deal with Culture Shock: adjust to your new environment

You have done a lot in order to go on a study abroad experience. You prepared yourself academically, secured the necessary finances, said good-bye to the comfort of family, friends, and familiar surroundings, booked travel arrangements, and maybe even learned a new language. Now that you are abroad, you want things to go smoothly, right? Well, it usually requires a lot of effort to adjust to your new life!

Period of adjustment

Most people who move between cultures experience a period of adjustments as they establish themselves in their new environment. As you learned from the module on culture shock, when traveling outside your home culture can be challenging and even can put you in a uncomfortable situation.

It is important to remember that you may not experience the adjustment process in exactly the same way as your peers. Each person’s experience is shaped by what they bring to it. In the same fashion, the speed you go through the adaptation is highly individual. For some, it is a question of weeks, for others it’s months.

Acculturation

This process is called ‘acculturation’, and it is defined as an exchange process between people belonging to different cultural groups, which leads to cultural, linguistic, religious and psychological changes. 

Most often, it is an exchange process between a majority and a minority group. Cultural anthropologists developed four different acculturation orientations, defined in the model here; considering the value to maintain one’s identity, and characteristics (Identity axis); and considering the value to maintain relationships with society, as a whole (Communication axis).

Image provided by University of Edinburgh

Majority and minority perspective

You can view the process of acculturation from a majority and from a minority perspective. Now that you are traveling abroad, possibly to a culturally different environment, you might find yourself to be part of a minority, immersed in a dominant culture that is different from your own one. In order to adjust to your new environment, it is important to take perspective and understand the complexity of cultural elements that are important to others. Try answering the following two questions, and find out how you value communication and identity during your cultural adjustment period.

This exercise is meant to make you reflect; there are no right or wrong answers and there is no minimum score required to pass. Start the exercise by clicking the 'Take the Survey' button below!

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