Text 3 Culture Shock

Vocabulary notes

culture shock

nevertheless

to blunder

lack knowledge

fascination

enchantment

cordiality

superficial

depression

Inadequacy

to subside

adjustment

- культурный шок

- тем не менее

- ошибаться

- испытывать недостаток знаний

- обаяние

- очарование

- радушие

- поверхностный

- уныние

- несоответствие требованиям

- убывать

- приспособление

Culture shock refers to the psychological reaction you experience when you’re in a culture very different from your own. Culture shock is normal; most people experience it when entering a new and different culture. Nevertheless, it can be unpleasant and frustrating. Part of this results from the feeling of alienation and difference from everyone else. When you lack knowledge of the rules and customs of the new society, you cannot communicate effectively. You are apt to blunder frequently and seriously. In your culture shock, you may not know basic things:

• How to ask someone for a favor or pay someone a compliment;

• How to extend or accept an invitation for the dinner;

• How early or how late to arrive for an appointment or how long to stay.

Anthropologist Kalervo Oberg who first used the term culture shock, notes that it occurs in stages.

Stage One: The Honeymoon. At first you experience fascination, even enchantment, with the new culture and its people. When in groups of people who are culturally different, this stage is characterized by cordiality and friendship among these early and superficial relationships. Many tourists remain at this stage because their stay in foreign countries is so brief.

Stage 2. The Crisis. Here, the differences between your own culture and the new one create problems. This is the stage at which you experience the actual shock of the new culture. Sometimes people experience depression.

Stage 3. The Recovery. During this period you gain the skills necessary to function effectively. You learn how to shop, cook, etc. You learn the language and the ways of the new culture. Your feelings of inadequacy subside.

Stage 4. The Adjustment. At this final stage, you adjust to and come to enjoy the new culture and the new experiences. You may still experience periodic difficulties and strains, but on the whole, the experience is pleasant.

People may also experience culture shock when they return to their original culture after living in a foreign culture, a kind of reverse culture shock. In this case the recovery period is shorter and the sense of inadequacy and frustration is less.

EXERCISE 1.

Answer the following questions:

What does culture refer to?

What is enculturation?

What is acculturation?

What factors does the acceptance of the new culture depend on?

EXERCISE 2.

Using the information from the text speak about:

1. culture

2. immigrants

3. the host culture

4. the acceptance of the new culture

5. risk takers

EXERCISE 3.

Define the main ideas of the text and retell it.

UNIT 9. VERBAL AND NONVERBAL

COMMUNICATION