Culture Shock Faced by International Students

 

According to the definition, “culture shock is a multifaceted experience resulting from numerous stressors occurring in contact with a different culture (Winkelman, 1994)”. This could occur for groups of people who travel to different countries and encounter different cultures than their own, like immigrants, businessmen, international students and so on. For international students especially, they are extremely susceptible to the ramifications of culture shock and experience struggles regarding identity and value.

As international students, they often need to travel back and forth between their home country and the country of their study. Cultural shock can occur not only when they first encounter a new culture, but maybe after years of being in that culture. International students usually study abroad when they are still quite young and when their world values are still in the stage of development. In this case, they are more susceptible to assimilate to that new culture, but having family members back home and having to travel between the two cultures could expose them to culture shock more easily. 

According to research, the causes of culture shock encompass stress reactions, cognitive fatigue, role shock and personal shock (Winkelman, 1994). Stress reactions refer to the body’s physiological change which is triggered by stress when coming into a new environment. When international students first come to a new country, the whole new environment is likely to cause stress and disrupt students’ overall well-being. It will damage their immune system and cause all kinds of illness. On the other hand, international students are more susceptible to mental health issues compared to domestic students because of the mental stress they are experiencing. Cognitive fatigue illustrates “information overload” where international students need to consciously process social cues that are going on in social settings. Even in a familiar culture, this process could be tiring not to mention a whole new culture. Role shock refers to how international students might need to eliminate all or parts of their previous identity and to form new identities when they study abroad. Conflicts and clashes will take place as a result of this. For example, a girl who was raised to never express love because her parents never express it directly (Asian culture) might experience struggles after she sees how her professors, American friends, or her host families encourage, care and love her. As direct as these love actions could be, this girl will realize the discrepancies and struggle to reform her identities. Last but not least, examples of personal shock should be that international students might not be able to see their family members, old friends anymore; or they might need to get rid of their old lifestyle because it is no longer available (Winkelman, 1994). Even though cultural shock can take on various forms, it is important to recognize it and catogorize it.

To better mitigate the ramifications of the culture shock that international students experience, there are certain mesaures that could be useful. “Predeparture preparation”, “transition adjustments”, “personal and social relations” as well as “cultural and social interaction rules” (Winkelman, 1994). To be more specific, actions that can be taken include learning the language well before departing, familiarizing with the host culture, making new social connections, understanding social rules within the host country and so on. Simultaneously, it is important for us to remember that “promoting intercultural communication competence and intercultural friendship among international students can make them feel more confident, content and integrated with their host environment (Nish, 2017)”. If you who are reading this could apply these meausres to mitigate cultural shock, you might help an international student in need!

Works Cited

Nish, B. (2017). International students from Melbourne describing their cross-cultural transitions experiences: Culture shock, social interaction, and friendship development. Journal of International Students, 7(3). https://go-gale-com.proxy.library.ucsb.edu:9443/ps/i.do?p=CWI&u=ucsantabarbara&id=GALE%7CA491804553&v=2.1&it=r

Winkelman, M. (1994). Cultural Shock and Adaptation. Journal of Counseling & Development.