You finally made it. The place you have been dreaming of since you were a little kid. You can smell crepes cooking in the small shops and fresh baguettes at the bakery near by. You see tons of tourist just as adventurous and in love with the city, country, and its culture. You feel like your in a fairy tail with the Eiffel Tower powering over you, and the River Seine flowing in the back ground and you never want it to end. You have just moved to Paris, France to attend college, and it is everything you have dreamed of.
You finally get settled in. You start to see what its like to live as the locals in Paris do. You find that things aren't the way they are back at home and by week three you actually find yourself very home sick. Is this normal? Am I normal for wanting and desiring to go back where I have spent the last 20 years of my life when I am now in the city of love?
The answer is yes! You are normal. Paris is a lovely city, but just like everywhere else in the world it most likely has a different culture than what you are used to and have grown up in. Our bodies go in shock mode when we are overwhelmed with a new language, new culture, and new everything when we stay for over a certain amount of time in a new place. This is called culture shock. Culture shock is not a bad thing. It is good for everyone to experience a taste of culture shock so that we can work past it and understand how other cultures work.
How do you get over culture shock?
-three basic steps that just scratch the surface.
1. The first thing I do to try to avoid severe culture shock when I get to a new country is to do research. I find that if I google maps of the cities, study up on the history of the culture, and see important events that has happened in each place, it brings more meaning to where I am going. For example before I went to a the Ludwigsburg Palace near Stuttgart, Germany, I did a lot of research on the kings and rulers that that lived and visited these palaces. There was so much more meaning to the place knowing that Neapolitan had been in the same room that I was in. I think with looking at these tourist places as more of a historical meaning made my trip more personal. The more you can relate to something the less culture shock you will experience.
2. Try to learn the language. This is so important. When I went to Switzerland alone for the first time I was so overwhelmed by not knowing how to speak German, and with the fact that people from Switzerland even spoke German. I remember attending an event with locals that were the same age as me and none of them really being able to speak English and me not being able to speak German to them. I went back to my hotel room and cried for hours, not because I felt offended, but because I had not prepared myself enough to be able to accomplish my goal of seeing how the locals really lived. How can you experience real life in a country when you can hardly say one sentence in their language. Learning the language makes things a bit more smoother, so you can order off a menu, or ask for a post office. The more you are able to communicate with people and get involved in the everyday activities in the culture the more it will make your culture shock vanish.
3. The last thing that I think is very important to help get over culture shock is to accept that you have culture shock and to do things that remind you of home. You have to realize that culture shock is very normal feeling and almost everyone experiences it (If you are one that doesn't then you are very lucky and everyone wants to be you). Its okay to miss the air back at home, and the food that is probably way more unhealthy than the food that you are getting in the county you are in now. ITS NORMAL. You must realize this. Its healthy to do things that you did back home. Do your normal schedule and daily activities that you used to do. Cook American food. Watch American TV. The more normal you keep your life the better experience you will have with culture shock.
Once you get past the stage of culture shock (which if not handled correctly could take months or even years), you will automatically start transforming into the culture you are in if you allow your self! Take it in, enjoy it, and TRAVEL LIKE A LOCAL!
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