Culture Shock

Culture Shock

Culture shock has been described by many experts and cross cultural commentators but it is never understood until you experience it. For some, culture shock is just that: such an extreme shock in cultures that it physically and mentally hinders your ability to function successfully in another culture. For others, culture shock is small moments of everyday life that nag and frustrate which can include utopian thoughts about the homeland and unrealistic comparisons between countries and their practices. Alas, I have met my culture shock and it includes remarkably utopian thoughts about my homeland. It happens usually when a certain everyday event jogs my memory about the wonderful United States of America. For example, the running water we apparently have in our community stopped, well, running. This usually goes beyond utopian thoughts about running water and can include anything from thinking about our wonderful roads to Starbucks to walking barefoot outside in the fresh green Tennessee grass in the late afternoon sunset of spring. Oh, say can you see!

Also, I have fallen madly in love with the English language. Recently, with the gaping absence of it in my life I have realized how well I can explain myself, how easily I can express thoughts and how fast I can complete a conversation. This was thought about at length after a wildly frustrating English class I taught in which no one could understand any English. There was a lot of repetition and work on pronunciation. We continue to press on.

Culture shock, however, has not affected my recent addiction to freshly squeezed orange juice. I make the trek every few days or so with my host mother to pick oranges and as soon as we return I get to squeezing and boy is it gooood!