A Peruvian’s Experience

Soon after arriving in the United States from Peru, I cried almost every day. I was so tense I heard without hearing, and this made me feel foolish. I also escaped into sleeping more than twelve hours at a time and dreamed of my life, family, and friends in Lima. After three months of isolating myself in the house and speaking to no one, I ventured out. I then began to criticize everything about this new culture: values, customs, climate, and its people. During this time I began to idealize my own homeland. I also began to have severe headaches. Finally I consulted a doctor, but she only gave me a lot of drugs to relieve the pain. Neither my doctor nor my teachers ever mentioned the two magic words that could have changed my life drastically during these times: culture shock! When I learned about this I began to see things from a new point of view and was better able to accept myself and my feelings.

I now realize most of the Americans I met in Lima before I came to the U.S. were also in one of the stages of culture shock. They demonstrated a somewhat hostile attitude toward Peru, making crude jokes and fun of the people and culture around them. Peruvians sensed their hostility and usually moved from an initially friendly attitude to a defensive, aggressive attitude or to avoidance as in my case. The Americans mostly stayed within the safe cultural familiarity of the embassy compound. Many seemed to feel that the difficulties they were experiencing in Peru were specially created by Peruvians to create discomfort for “gringos.” In other words, they displaced their problem of adjustment and blamed everything on Peru for being an undeveloped culture.

Case #13

An Overseas Transfer

(Financial Director posted to the Middle East.) Don’t talk to me about foreign postings. You disrupt your family life, sell your house, and they send you off to some country which is either boiling hot or freezing cold. You try to adapt to the way of life in the country, which is often completely alien to you, and to do a good job. Then you come back after a few years and nobody wants to know. They look at you as if you’re a ghost!

Case #14

The Shinto Priest

The U.S. branch of a Japanese manufacturing company had been operating successfully for some years, but in recent months a series of seemingly unrelated incidents had caused concern. First, there was a rash of accidents in the plant itself, then one of the Japanese executive’s children died of a rare illness and another executive’s car caught fire, severely burning him. Rumors of a jinx on the company began to spread among the employees, and morale lowered. Consequently, the management called a meeting of the executives to decide how to react to the situation. The American managers suggested that all safety and quality control procedures be reviewed so as to reassure the workers that their welfare was taken seriously. The Japanese managers, however, held that this had already been done; they felt that other forces were at work. They wished to bring in a Shinto priest to bless the company and protect it against evil spirits – this was the only course of action that would reassure them. The Americans were reluctant to adopt such an action and preferred the idea of seeking suggestions from the employees. The meeting ended in disagreement.

Case #15