2 Minutes Reading Time

by Giuseppe Gillespie

The realization that our way of life isn’t ubiquitous can throw our disposition out of joint when immersed in a new culture…

Photo by Faruk Tokluou011flu on Pexels.com

Culture shock is the phenomenon of stress and anxiety arising from feeling displaced in a new culture. The realization that our way of life isn’t ubiquitous can throw our disposition out of joint when immersed in a new culture; we may feel intimidated and downright repulsed by the customs and cultural norms of another culture in the early stages of acclimating to it.

The Canadian anthropologist Kalervo Oberg came up with five common stages to describe the process of culture shock:

There is also sometimes the phenomenon of reverse culture shock when returning to your culture of origin. This can be characterized by increased stress and anxiety upon re-entry to your original culture with the perspective instilled by the new culture and can have physical and psychological symptoms including a disconnect with people and depression caused by a conflict of new cultural values and norms.

~ Giuseppe Gillespie September 2024