Culture Shock

In the reading for Monday's class, "Coping with Culture Shock" by Ferrarro, many insightful tips on dealing with culture shock were expounded upon.  Here are some interesting quotes from the reading:

• "Culture shock ranges from mild irritation to a deep-seated psychological panic or crisis" (p. 161).
• Reading this just made me instantly think, "I really want to avoid the latter."  I can see exactly how psychological panic can occur in a study abroad situation...and I want to avoid it.  It did, however, give me a sense of comfort that I'm not the only one known to have experienced psychological panic/crisis in stressful, and foreign in this case, situations.
• "[U.S. travelers] must struggle to uncover what is meaningful in this new cultural environment, while acknowledging that many of their own familiar cultural cues may be irrelevant" (p. 161).
• I'm so egocentric, I've found, as much as I don't want to be.  I'm not ethnocentric, though, it's mostly that I just have particular ways of doing random tasks throughout the day.  I have very rigid ways of completing menial tasks throughout the day and have trouble deviating from those methods, especially when I deem my methods more effective.  However, in an environment wherein I have no control, like on this field study, I better get used to learning other ways of doing things, and that my own cultural cues are not even inferior, but they're just irrelevant and obsolete in this situation.  I'm going to have to make changes and learn a new language in so many ways.
• Culture shock "results from a series of cumulative experiences" (p. 161).
• It's not just one sudden event.  It builds up over time and experience, and being retrospective is a good way to avoid a meltdown or a long stay in the "hostility" stage of culture shock.
• "The foreign ways of thinking and acting are no longer quaint and fascinating alternative ways of living but rather are pathological, clearly inferior to your own" (p. 162).
• This relates back to my egocentrism comments.
• When returning to the U.S., many travelers find that while abroad they had a tendency to "embellish (in some cases, grossly exaggerate) their fond memories of life in the United States" (p. 165).
• This is funny, and I haven't experienced this yet.  However, I've noticed other people come home having experienced this.  It's just another way we alter our reality to cope with a frightening situation.