In her first monthly column, Sharon Couzens de Hinojosa discusses an often overlooked aspect of living and teaching abroad.

Culture Shock can be difficult to deal with, it can affect you at work and in your daily life. The best thing to do is to be aware of culture shock and how to deal with it. Try reading up on culture shock before leaving and understand how you can deal with it. If you’re prepared for what to expect, it will make overcoming culture shock that much easier. Having pictures from home, talking to people in your native language, talking a walk in the park, or even sleeping can all help with culture shock.

Learning the language is probably one of the most important steps you can take to getting accustomed to your host country. Even if you speak the language of the country you’re moving to, you’ll find yourself going through culture shock. It starts with fascination with everything and seeing things through rose colored glass and then goes to not being able to accept anything. Though people usually grow to accept things over time, even after years of living in the country, small things might still frustrate you, but with time and effort, you can get over culture shock.

If people speak English where you work, you’ll probably face less problems. But you will still have to deal with culturally issues, such as greetings, time, personal space, or dealing with co-workers and management. Observe how other people interact at work and when in doubt, ask others what you should do in a given situation.

Bureaucracy is often less organised in other countries, people love paperwork and bureaucracy. Standing in line to do simple things, such as pay the bills in common, not to mention going through immigration. Lots of people mean that you might have to wait for a couple of hours just to pay bills. If you have to get a work visa, be prepared to run around to lots of different places to get notarisations, legalisations, and translations.

You’ll have to be a patient person to deal with all this paper pushing. I personally think that they do this to create jobs. So if it helps you to think that all this paperwork allows someone to feed their family, then all the better. If you’re not a patient person, bring something to do or find something to do. Let’s say you’re in the bank and you just got ticket 301 and they’re on ticket 199. You probably have a good hour’s wait. You can either stay in the bank, read a book, listen to music, correct papers, or lesson plan, or leave the bank. If you leave the bank, you can get other errands done, maybe grab a coffee, go to the internet, call a friend, or exchange money. After about 45 minutes, pop back over to the bank and see what number they’re on. If they’re close to yours, stick around, if not, head back out and get more errands done. Be patient, smile, and bring something to do to pass the time. If you’re nice to those who are helping you, they’ll be nice to you and more likely to help you out.

You can, change the way you dress, act and speak. Try wearing less casual clothes. Tank tops, shorts, flip-flops, cargo pants, swishy pants, tennis shoes, hats, and sunglasses are pretty casual wear in many countries. And when you decide to go on a trip or out to see some sites, forget the cameras, guidebooks, and maps.

The way you act is also key, don’t try to call attention to yourself, by looking lost or staring at everything around you. The way you speak can also go a long way. If you don’t speak the language of the host country, that’s fine, but try to make an effort to at least learn the basics. If you have to speak English, don’t shout or speak to people like they’re stupid. Use simple words and gestures. If they can help you, great, if not try asking someone else. So if you take into account the problems you may face, you’ll be prepared and more ready to conquer them during your time abroad.

About…

Sharon Couzens de Hinojosa holds a BA in Liberal Arts and a MA in TEFL. She has seven years teaching experience and has worked in the Czech Republic, China, Korea, Taiwan, and Peru. She is currently working at Sungkyunkwan University in Suwon, Korea.

Sharon’s websites

www.tefltips.blogspot.com
www.theultimateperulist.blogspot.com
www.thelajoblist.blogspot.com

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