What's Culture shock? Surely there is nothing about our beautiful American culture that is shocking. Or is there?
I can only imagine what it would be like for someone to set foot on American soil for the very first time. Take someone from a hot tropical climate and have them enter JFK airport in Mid December.
Upon entering the airport there would be the shock of the hugeness of it all. They have just left a country with a small 3 terminal airport where they walked across the air field to climb a shaky little stairway into an the massive airplane that would take them across the ocean.
Although they were the top English speaker in their school it's shocking for them to realize that there are many different versions of English and not everyone who speaks English actually sound the same. If you can actually get a native English speaker to speak slowly enough there's still a good chance that the accent they speak with is different than the one learned in school. The hugeness of the airport and the mobs of people whom they can't understand is SHOCKING. Loneliness is overwhelming and they're thinking...if only I could turn around run back into that big machine that just dropped me in this foreign place and go back to the familiar...But the crowds keep pushing them forward.
Then after waiting in long lines and finally finally getting all the papers stamped and the freedom to exit those airport doors they are hit with a huge blast of freezing air. The short sleeves and flip flops just aren't working any more. A whole new life is laying before them.
One person may look at this and say..."My life is over."
Another person may say..."What an adventure. My life is just beginning."
And Angela when experiencing reverse culture shock might say. "My life is over" followed by "Life is an amazing adventure, wow, my life is just beginning".
I can only imagine what it would be like for someone to set foot on American soil for the very first time. Take someone from a hot tropical climate and have them enter JFK airport in Mid December.
Upon entering the airport there would be the shock of the hugeness of it all. They have just left a country with a small 3 terminal airport where they walked across the air field to climb a shaky little stairway into an the massive airplane that would take them across the ocean.
Although they were the top English speaker in their school it's shocking for them to realize that there are many different versions of English and not everyone who speaks English actually sound the same. If you can actually get a native English speaker to speak slowly enough there's still a good chance that the accent they speak with is different than the one learned in school. The hugeness of the airport and the mobs of people whom they can't understand is SHOCKING. Loneliness is overwhelming and they're thinking...if only I could turn around run back into that big machine that just dropped me in this foreign place and go back to the familiar...But the crowds keep pushing them forward.
Then after waiting in long lines and finally finally getting all the papers stamped and the freedom to exit those airport doors they are hit with a huge blast of freezing air. The short sleeves and flip flops just aren't working any more. A whole new life is laying before them.
One person may look at this and say..."My life is over."
Another person may say..."What an adventure. My life is just beginning."
And Angela when experiencing reverse culture shock might say. "My life is over" followed by "Life is an amazing adventure, wow, my life is just beginning".
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