1. CHAPTER 5: CULTURE SHOCK
&
CHAPTER 6: ADAPTATION
By:
Teddy Fiktorius (F5221 2025)
Angela Genoveva (F5221 2028)
Postgraduate Study of English Language
Education
Teacher Training and Education Faculty
University of Tanjungpura
Pontianak
2013

2. ?????????

3. CULTURE SHOCK
International students’ challenges
Environmental
lingusitic
academic
Adaptation
Difficulty
Familiar ways VS. New ways
social

4. MULTITUDE OF DIFFERENT BEHAVIOURS
Obvious VS. Not so obvious behaviours
American students bring food and drinks to classrooms
Americans show physical affection in public places
obvious behaviours
How American greet, introduce, interrupt, take turns speaking, stand
in line, open a gift, ask the teacher questions, etc
Not so obvious behaviours
More difficult to cope with

5. MICRO-BEHAVIOURS
Hall (1998):
Micro-behaviours
Nonverbal cues
Cues that tell people how to behave
Whether or not to pass an approaching person on a sidewalk on the left or right?
When and how long to look into a person’s eyes during a conversation?
Differ across cultures
out of awareness
(Anderson & Wang, 2006; Hall, 1998; Morain, 1986)

6. WHAT CAUSE CULTURE SHOCK?
obvious behaviours
not so obvious behaviours
micro-behaviours
Emotional difficulties
Culture shock
Brown (2000), Kohls (1996), and Storti (1989):
Symptoms of culture shock
Anxiety, homesickness, helplessness, boredom, depression, fatique, confusion, selfdoubt, weeping, paranoia, physical ailments, isolating
aggressive symptoms
behaviours,

7. Isolating behaviours
- Stay alone in the room
- read and study excessively
- avoid contact with Americans
- solely befriend with people from their own
homeland

8. AGGRESIVE SYMPTOMS
- Compulsive eating
- obsessive drinking
- exaggerated cleanliness
- hostility towards Americans

9. How culture shock can affect a student’s behaviour and attitude
Narrative 1: What happened to Roger?
An American student sees behavioural changes in her Malaysian boyfriend
Roger: A Malaysian fitness trainer who went to the United States to study Physical therapy
Roger’s girlfriend (the narrative writer): An American women strength trainer
who have similar interests
Frequented the movie theatre
Did aerobics
Went cycling, running, swimming, and dancing
Enjoyed listening to the ‘80s music
A beautiful life romance, huh???????

10. AFTER SOME TIME IN THE U.S.
…entering a stage of
…
Roger started to complain about
The snow-covered terrain
A freezing apartment
The food
Grueling semesters of classes
“What have I done? I had a good life (in Malaysia), I think I really made a
mistake”

11. WHAT IS NEXT???
Roger identified it as STRESS
depression related to culture shock
emotional and physical hardship of living in another country
…A happy ending narrative…
Roger finally worked through his depression and regained his ‘life’
Roger’s girlfriend now understands more about
cultural adjustment & culture shock
IS
THE CURE?????

12. NARRATIVE II: Stranger at My Door-A Married
Indian Student’s feeling of Isolation Sparks Her Wild
Imagination
How loneliness and isolation triggers
….
Husband: An Indian graduate student in the U.S.
Wife (the narrative write): An Indian undergraduate student in the U.S.
How it starts….
Arriving at a new, quiet home far away from the city….
A perfect place that would inspire anyone to study???
YET,…

13. As time went by….
The nice big house
A place of its own
Homesickness and loneliness
Nobody to see or talk to
Loss of appetite, ability to read and study, & smile
Wild Imagination (beyond our imagination)
‘A
Stranger at My Door’
Life changed
Depression & fear

14. HOW IT ENDS….
After spending a good deal of time in the
U.S. and living in that house….
…becoming used to life there
Making a lot of friends
Being able to
AGAIN, IS
adapt to the quiet country life…
THE CURE????

15. Stages of Cultural Adaptation:
Emotional Reactions to the Unfamiliar
•
•
•
•
•
Preparation
Initial Experiences
Ongoing Interaction and Challenges
Culture Shock
Adjustment

16. The U Curve of Cultural Adaptation

17. It is called a "U Curve" because
people generally start at a high
point, then experience a decline, or
depression, before a leveling off
period, then go through a critical
"recovery" stage and end up more or
less balanced, where they began

18. Phases of adaptation according to
Oberg (1960)

19. Honeymoon Stage
(Happiness and fascination)

20. •
•
•
•
Have high hopes and expect great things
Feel this is a very exciting time
Feel everything is new and interesting
Feel confident and that you can easily cope
with problems and stress
• Tend to focus on what is similar between the
host country and the culture and country you
come from

21. The Crisis
(Disappointment, confusing feelings,
frustration and irritation)

22. • Feel happy about the challenges you have overcome
• Feel frustrated, confused and disappointed
• Feel very positive one day & very negative the next
day
• Focus on the differences between yourself & natives
• Miss your family & feel no connection to the host
country
• Feel loneliness for your country and loved ones
• Feel guilty about leaving family members behind

23. Recovery
(Gradual adjustment)

24. • Feel more in control of your life as you gain a
better understanding of the host country
• Feel more confident in your language skills
• Gradually get involved in the community
• Have a better understanding of how to adapt
to live in the host country
• Have a better sense of what you need to do to
get what you want

25. Adjustment
(Acceptance)

26. • Feel more comfortable in the host country
• Have made some friends and be more
involved in your new community
• Understand better how things are done in
that new country
• Be studying, planning to return to school or
working at better jobs
• Generally feel content about having come to
the country

27. Adjustment
• Some have too many conflicts with values and
ways of behaving and cannot fully adjust
• Some do adjust enough to participate in the
culture, but they become comfortable and do
not want to go much beyond the minimum
• Other international students move into larger
community (make friends, adapt the values)
• Some even become bicultural (function in two
cultures with confidence)

28. Thank you