Must Get Over Culture Shock

By Miu

When we live in a new country that we have never lived before, we often feel some unusual emotions. There are four stages: honeymoon, culture shock, acceptance and integration. When you surely noticed the change of your feeling, it means that you moved the next stage. Many people have lots of worries at the culture shock stage. However, everyone experiences that; so it is normal, and not only you. If you worried about culture shock, I’ll teach characteristics of each stage and also introduce my experiences in this essay.

First, which stage do you think you are at now? As I wrote before, our feelings can be classified into four stages. If you were excited, interested and always happy, you were at the honeymoon stage. While you are at this stage, your life can seem so wonderful. However, the feeling doesn’t continue so long. The culture shock stage is coming next. It is the opposite of the honeymoon stage, and you often feel negative emotions like stress, anger and anxiety. You miss your country or family and want to go back to your home. This is the most difficult stage to get over, but we’ll certainly overcome it. After that, we can enter the acceptance stage. At this stage, we worry about our life, we even can feel comfortable as if we are at home. It means we are used to the new life. To graduate the final stage, it takes long time. When your life becomes natural and very comfortable, you finally reach the integration stage. You don’t have any problem to live in the country, and this is your new home.

In my case, I am at the acceptance stage now. It’s because I can live at MFWI without any concern. My life such as classes, friends and food is good and I feel confortable. Therefore, I think I am in the third stage. At MFWI, I didn’t experience honeymoon or culture stage because I had been to Spokane when I was a high school student, so I think that is the reason.

However, when I went to Australia three years ago, I was really in trouble. At first, I was so excited at the new school, family and all environments; but after that, I really missed my family and friends in Japan. In addition, I was depressed about my English skill and I cried a lot for a few days. I was just homesick, sad and unhappy; but I got over that thanks to new family and friends in Australia. They encouraged me so much and always listened to my talk regardless of my poor English. I really appreciate them still because the experience is very useful for me. Therefore, if someone has a problem about culture shock at MFWI, I want to help them. I can just listen to their fear or anxiety, but it may be helpful for them. Culture shock is hard to get over, but I want people to understand that everyone absolutely experiences it at least once. However, we must overcome culture shock and also have the power to get over it.