To begin this blog post, I would like to say that it is perfectly okay if you do not experience culture shock. It can affect someone tremendously, but it can also be nonexistent. In addition, there are many different forms of culture shock so just because you don’t experience the same as your friend shouldn’t cause concern. As I have traveled multiple times before this study abroad experience, and I had experience with the German language, I found I had no trouble adapting and did not feel any indicators of culture shock. Some of the other students at the school had some difficulties in various degrees, though not all. Never feel you are doing something wrong because you don’t experience what every program drills into you before departure: culture shock.
As I traveled to a moderately Western European country, I did not find many prominent cultural differences in Austria. There were certainly little things, such as how to hold your cutlery or the amount of noise deemed acceptable in public places, that were different, but these really did not affect my daily life. Language is of course another difference, however in Salzburg everyone speaks English as well, so again there was not much to adjust to. The hardest difference for most people in my program to adjust to was having all the shops and many restaurants closed on Sundays due to Christian tradition.
Because I cannot say I experienced culture shock on this trip, and I will not make something up simply for this post, I will instead write about some of the different types of culture shock you might experience, though of course I will say it again, not everyone experiences any at all.
The most famous form of culture shock is known as the U-Curve. Here, you get to a country happy about experiencing new things. This feeling of being adapted and happy falls over time as you encounter new experiences and difficulties, ending with one experience that can be termed as culture shock. Once you start becoming more of a local, however, the line rises again as you adapt and once again grow happy in the culture.
An extension of this model is known as the W-Curve. Here the former is all true except there is another fall when you return back to your home country. This experience is known as re-entry culture shock, something I do have experience with. In this scenario you miss customs from your study-abroad country and find that people back home don’t understand you. Again, you re-adapt, this time to your home country’s culture.
Finally, I know of another model of culture shock that resembles a series of loops starting at the bottom left corner of a graph and rising as it moves to the right. Here, you experience constant ups-and-downs as you adjust to the new culture. I wish newer models such as these were also taught to students before they go abroad because it can be quite stressful to think there is something wrong with you simply because you don’t experience travel the same way as is “standard”. I hope this blog post helps those of you embarking on a new adventure whether you experience any of these models or not.
