Reverse Culture Shock

For this blog post, I would like to shed some light unto the subject of reverse culture shock. We've all heard of culture shock which is, "is the personal disorientation a person may feel when experiencing an unfamiliar way of life due to immigration or a visit to a new country, a move between social environments, or simply travel to another type of life." For example, one could feel culture shock after leaving high school and going to college. I was told that culture shock was a normal part of studying abroad. So when I went to Paris, I was prepared for the changes and how to deal with culture shock. For more information about culture shock, follow this link: http://www.worldwide.edu/travel_planner/culture_shock.html
 
What I wasn't prepared for was how accustomed I would become to life in Paris, and how I would feel returning home to  my normal life. Reverse culture shock hit me way harder than culture shock. I found an interesting quote from Dean Foster, founder and  president of DFA Intercultural Global Solutions, a firm that specializes in intercultural training and coaching worldwide. He said that, "Reverse culture shock is experienced when returning to a place that one expects to be home but actually is no longer, is far more subtle, and therefore, more difficult to manage than outbound shock precisely because it is unexpected and unanticipated.” The euphoria of coming home and seeing loved ones quickly wore off and I would that American culture and the things I was used to no longer felt normal to me. Spending time at home in my Chicago suburb, I felt so bored and isolated in comparison to how I felt in Paris, a bustling city. The worst part of it was that I missed Paris so much but the more time I spent at home the more my semester abroad felt like a dream. I would stare at the postcards I'd collected of all the sites and place I'd been, and it didn't feel real. I was worried I would never get to go back and that I would forget all I'd learn from the incredible experience.


Reverse culture shock and culture shock have very similar stages, illustrated by the picture below:

 

 

 I think schools with study abroad programs should put more emphasis on how students should deal with returning home and less emphasis on the shock of being in a new place. You can read more about reverse culture shock and how to deal with it here: http://www.expatica.com/nl/moving-to/Moving-home-Reverse-culture-shock_104957.html