Similar to language, the rules and customs that define a person’s culture are learned early and reinforced steadily through their continued experiences and social learning.
A person’s culture shapes their identity and provides an understandable framework for social interactions.
When people travel, however, they are immediately plunged into a very different social system. At first, the newness of it all is exciting, but as the traveler stays awhile, they can become very confused and experience very scary feelings simply due to the newness of it all.
People travel for all sorts of reasons: for study, for business, for pleasure, for a better place to retire, but when the values, behaviors, and social customs a person has always understood – even taken for granted – no longer serve them well in their new environment, culture shock sets in and it can cause quite a bit of trouble for the traveler and for those around them.
A 5-Part Guide to Understanding Culture Shock
This 5-part tutorial is designed to help travelers understand culture shock along with giving you a strategy for surviving it.