my experience with culture shock essay

Essays About Culture Shock: Top 5 Examples and 7 Prompts

Writing essays about culture shock promotes awareness, improves character, and fosters meaningful interactions; reading our top examples and prompts to get started.

Two things stood out when I visited Thailand: the beautiful tourist destinations and the country’s food. I enjoyed the meals and snacks, especially  Roti Sai Mai . It’s a sweet candy floss rolled into a salted roti sheet. My peers, however, liked eating Nhon Mhai or silkworms sprinkled with pepper and soy. I knew the country had exotic foods, but it still shocked me. 

Culture shock happens when one is unfamiliar with the environment and culture of a place they’re visiting. People who usually experience this are international students, migrant families, and first-time travelers like myself. An effective way to promote awareness of its  symptoms and stages  is through writing essays about the subject.

5 Essay Examples

• 1. What Is the Culture Shock? By Anonymous on EduBirdie.Com
• 2. Long Essay on Culture Shock by Prasanna
• 3. Cultural Shock and Adaptation by Anonymous on GradesFixer.Com
• 4. Culture Shock — What Is It by Anonymous on IntervarsityChicago.Org
• 5. My Experience of Culture Shock in the United States by Anonymous on GradesFixer.Com

1. Culture Shock: Defined

2. symptoms of culture shock, 3. the phases of culture shock, 4. how to overcome culture shock, 5. factors and effects of culture shock, 6. is culture shock normal, 7. my personal experience of culture shock, 1. what is the culture shock  by anonymous on edubirdie.com.

“Culture shock is the result of national culture. Everyone has a culture which he or she grows, works, and lives. Because of that difference, people are having trouble to adapt new culture.”

In this essay, the author uses students studying abroad as an example to explain culture shock. They mention that culture shock is inevitable even if students prepare themselves for the problems they may face when moving to another country. As a result, students become unfocused and stressed and develop psychological problems.

According to the writer, culture shock is an insurmountable problem, but there are ways to reduce its impact, especially on students. It includes orientation programs from universities, research about the new culture they will encounter, and human interaction. You might be interested in these essays about city life .

2. Long Essay on Culture Shock  by Prasanna

“Traveling to a foreign country is one of the best ways to step outside your monotonous life. The fear of facing unfamiliar situations holds many people from stepping out of their comfort zone. When you reach a new country, you will have the opportunity to see and experience things that you were longing for, have fun and enjoy the atmosphere that you can’t do in your home country.”

Prasanna describes culture shock’s many benefits that significantly improve one’s life. For example, it assists in breaking routines so one can adapt to others’ customs. It leads to individuals being more flexible and expanding their horizons. 

Culture shock also helps build self-confidence and overcome challenges. People make new friends and create new experiences by exposing themselves to unfamiliar cultures, places, and groups. The new knowledge about a foreign place dramatically influences one’s personality and promotes self-growth. Ultimately, Prasanna believes that culture shock is difficult at first, but one becomes comfortable with the changes around them as the day goes by.

Looking for more? Check out these essays about globalization .

3. Cultural Shock and Adaptation  by Anonymous on GradesFixer.Com

“… The differences of how people live, their beliefs, values are rather obvious. We not only find no evidence of convergence – we actually find that the gap between the value system of rich and poor countries have been growing, not shrinking, during the past 20 years.”

This essay contains various quotes from people knowledgeable about culture shock, such as Michael Minkov, the author of  “Cultural Differences in a Globalizing World.”  The writer says that traveling abroad is more than just enjoying the sights, festivities, and food. It’s about learning and understanding how its people live — the travelers’ difficulties in understanding these lead to culture shock. Since this is a broad and sensitive topic, the author believes that people should learn about the culture and its differences to know its causes and develop effective methods to overcome them.

4. Culture Shock — What Is It  by Anonymous on IntervarsityChicago.Org

“Culture Shock is the disorientation and change that is experienced after an international relocation… You will feel as if you are in the wrong place; everything will appear abnormal and you will often find things hard to comprehend.”

The author defines culture shock as mental confusion brought on by moving to a foreign country, locale, school, and workplace. Various factors contribute to culture shock, and its effects differ from one person to another. For students and employees, culture shock makes them unproductive and tired. 

The essay further explains that the usual cause of culture shock is homesickness. People feel various indicators like insomnia, anger issues, irritation, and many others. Their advice to readers dealing with culture shock is to look for its causes to handle it properly to avoid adverse effects. You might also be interested in these essays about culture shock .

5. My Experience of Culture Shock in the United States  by Anonymous on GradesFixer.Com

“Many of the customs of the new culture may seem odd or uncomfortably different from those of your home country. Being in a new and unfamiliar place can be challenging even for the experienced traveler, and it is normal to feel frustrated and isolated.”

Being from Kazakhstan and using a Hollywood movie as a basis for American life, the author has no idea that pursuing their dream of living in The Land of the Free will give them culture shock. The writer discusses three significant differences between their home country and America.

First, compared to their native land, where people only befriend those they trust, Americans are approachable and make easy friends with strangers. Second, privacy and personal space are nonexistent in America. Lastly, Americans’ ideas of equality spill into how they talk and dress.

7 Prompts for Essays About Culture Shock

Use this prompt to discuss culture shock by talking about its literal meaning, experts’ views, and your idea of it. Then, pick what’s consistent across these varying explanations to create a comprehensive definition of culture shock. Add relevant citations from reliable sources to strengthen your statements and make the essay more informative. 

If you find this topic complex, simplify it and write a five-paragraph essay instead.

Some common symptoms of culture shock are feeling isolated, bored, and irritated. However, it differs in the stage, cause, or degree of culture shock a person has. For this prompt, briefly discuss the definition of culture shock and then identify its symptoms. Expound on each stage’s indicators and how long a person typically goes through these symptoms. The essay must also explain how these signs differ from one individual to another.

There are  four stages of culture shock : honeymoon, frustration, adjustment, and acceptance. Explain each stage and focus on what causes an individual to transition from one phase to the next. Add how long each stage lasts and what feelings are involved. Include examples so readers can better understand each stage.

Certain situations do not allow an individual to return to a familiar environment to get rid of culture shock. In this prompt, center your essay on ways to help people cope with culture shock. Search for effective ways to adapt to the changes, such as developing new hobbies and making friends in the new place. 

Climate, language, social roles, values, and unspoken rules are some factors that contribute to culture shock. For this prompt, briefly explain culture shock and list its common causes to help the reader verify if they’re experiencing this phenomenon. Then, discuss how these factors lead to culture shock by offering examples and include some of its positive and negative effects.

To write this prompt, you need to find reliable references such as demographic statistics to determine the number of people experiencing culture shock worldwide. After gathering data, analyze and discuss your findings. 

Remember to answer the question prompt and summarize your conclusions at the end of your essay. Here’s an example statement: Based on research , 85% of international students experience culture shock, and their top problem is adjusting to the country’s language.

Share a story of your travel or move to another location where you experienced culture shock. Write about the reason for your transfer and describe where you came from versus where you moved to. Include how long you stayed in the place and what culture shock symptoms you felt. Add how this experience affected you and your expectations whenever you visit a new location. If you are interested in learning more, check out our essay writing tips !

Maria Caballero is a freelance writer who has been writing since high school. She believes that to be a writer doesn't only refer to excellent syntax and semantics but also knowing how to weave words together to communicate to any reader effectively.

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• Global Guide
• Culture Shock

Culture Shock - A Personal Story

But, even though all exchange students participated in a one-day preparatory meeting, no kind of preparation could have avoided the inevitable culture shock I was experiencing - and I am glad it didn’t! Many people confuse the term culture shock with the phase of feeling discomfort, confusion, frustration and homesickness before adjusting to a foreign culture. However, culture shock is so much more!

The Honeymoon Phase

It also includes those first weeks or months of the so-called “honeymoon phase” where you are super happy to be in that other culture and everything you experience, from cultural aspects such as ways of living and interacting with others to clothes, music, and food, seems exotic, new and exciting. You are, so-to-speak, wearing your pink-coloured culture glasses and cozily float on a cultural cloud nine!

However, as I was going to experience soon enough this feeling didn’t last forever. After about two months, things started to feel odd. Differences became more apparent. I started missing my friends and family more and more. Frustrating thoughts increasingly populated my head: “Nobody really understand me, my English is not good enough. I wish people would just be able to speak German for one day! Why is it so impossible to find proper bread (‘proper’ in my opinion referring to bread from Germany)? I wish public transportation would work the same way as at home! And so on.

The Negotiation Phase

These thoughts were of course highly unproductive and unhelpful. However, these are part of the process and herald the “negotiation phase”. Feelings of anxiety would creep up on me from nowhere! Homesickness would dominate most evenings. Of course it was not like this all the time. Initial ‘honeymoon’ feelings of excitement and exhilaration would take turns with feelings of disorientation and frustration. Phases are not clearly marked because each phase overlaps with the next one and sometimes you feel like you take two steps forward and one back.

The Adjustment Phase

Over the next few months, though, feelings of adjustment and belonging more and more superseded those feelings of displacement and homesickness. I developed my own little routine, learned to adapt to stress through various techniques, and made many new friends. I had slowly and unknowingly entered the “adjustment phase”. I had learned what to expect in most situations, had adapted my own behavior and learned to appreciate new ways of thinking and attitudes. My English had improved dramatically - not only my vocabulary had expanded significantly but I also thought and dreamt exclusively in English! During those months I had developed a very interesting sleeping pattern where I would sleep approx. 14 hours a day straight. My mind needed time to recover after experiencing so many challenges throughout the day - speaking English, dressing differently, attending class at High School, making new friends, observing and processing differences, adjusting my own behavior, analyzing the meaning of what people say and translating it into something I could understand and appropriately respond to etc.

The Mastery Phase

Things started to make sense and I understood Australian culture better and better (or at least the culture lived at my host family and High School in Sydney)! That was a major breakthrough for me personally. Every day I felt more and more comfortable with my new home. I adopted many new traits while also keeping earlier ones from my home country. I would often refer to myself as ‘having a second nationality’. This process which occurred over my last few months abroad is called the “mastery phase”. My happiest moment was when my dear friend one day remarked during a conversation: ‘You are Australian now, Jude! You sound just like us!’ She knew what she was talking about, had she not seen me transform from a silent timid German who could hardly follow a conversation to an almost accent-free bicultural Australian/German?

I want to point out that the effects of culture shock are different for everyone and can result in different behaviors and feelings. The timing of the different phases also varies a lot from person to person. One thing’s for sure though: Culture shock is inevitable and acceptance is the first step towards adjusting better to a foreign culture.

Dealing with Culture Shock

Here is my 5 cents on what has helped me deal better with culture shock: Try to really put yourself out there and make friends! Talk, even when you make mistakes! Develop a routine! Think about how you dealt with stress at home and apply it in the new culture: Yoga, sports, going for a walk, talking to a dear friend? Try to be positive and see the good aspect in everything. Negative thinking is a vicious circle and can quickly pull you down. Also, laugh about yourself or whatever is frustrating you - humour helps us make light of a situation. Always remember - what can I learn from this? Don’t try to negate the positive aspects of the other culture. Often there is a valid reason behind why things are done that way. Realizing that doesn’t mean you have to give up all you are and believe in! It merely widens your horizon and helps you negotiate between different cultures. And I believe that if you manage to acquire those intercultural skills during a culture shock, the previous feelings of disconnection and anxiety are well worth it. Maybe if we all did an exchange of some sort we would live in a more understanding, peaceful world.

The best thing for me personally is that I am still in touch with my host family that I stayed with now ten years ago! I visited them again with my Mum, and they visited me in in Europe and will come again soon to visit me in Buenos Aires where I currently live! I am very grateful for their friendship and hospitality while I went through culture shock - it certainly can’t have been easy! Their own unlimited generousness has been a great role model to me and has convinced me to host my own exchange student when I am older.

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My experience with culture shock

As an international student coming from Nigeria, Canada was a world of difference for me. I’d travelled across seas and seemingly across worlds to start my higher education. It didn’t help that prior to my departure, the only thing I had learnt about the Canadian way of life was that phone bills were paid monthly — and I had the leisure of hearing this from my mum. Needless to say, I was the embodiment of being clueless about Canadian culture.

In Nigeria, a highly regarded part of our culture and day-to-day norms is greeting older people known to you with the respective formal title of “miss” or “mister” following a formal greeting. Imagine my shock when I had an English teacher tell me I didn’t have to greet her and, to further my shock, call her by her first name whenever I did! 

That was just the tip of the iceberg of many aspects of Canadian culture I would come to discover. For instance, I encountered several conversational “norms” during small talk and many other engagements that would be deemed as oversharing in my culture. Observing and learning these conversational and social norms has been  a very eye opening experience that’s helped me navigate culture shock. 

My advice on navigating culture shock? Dive right into it. It will initially be surprising to learn all the ways of a Canadian but it has been fun experiencing Canadian culture. Practicing my observations of social norms has helped me feel more comfortable and understand people better. Some aspects have even been more pleasant than expected —not having to greet every older person I pass by? Sign me up! But on a more serious note, this helped me feel like I belong and has been an interesting personal and societal discovery. 

In my journey of discovery, there are some notable myths about Canadians that I’ve found to be an absolute bust and of course, some of them are more factual than not.

• Canadians say “Eh” at the end of every sente nce : More factual than not, and a habit that has grown on me the more I have conversations with Canadians. 
• Canadians are very polite all the tim e : This has been a bust. I would admit the average Canadian is more diplomatic and polite in speech but, like all humans, they're just like people anywhere else in the world with good days and bad days.
• Canadians and their obsession Tim Hortons: T he most factual statement around town. You haven't been to Canada if you haven’t purchased a food item from this extremely popular cafe. And once you start referring to Tim Hortons as “Timmies”, Canadian culture is a part of you!

Culture shock whether in Canada or anywhere else in the world can be a huge learning curve. My ultimate advice would be to embrace it because it’s entirely normal and is one of many unique experiences that comes with being an international student. Overcoming this mini hurdle can greatly help you understand other societies and subcommunities even in smaller groups such as at work. When you experience culture shock, observe it and embrace it!

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Essay on Culture Shock

Culture shock is defined by the University of Florida Interactive Media Lab as “the uncomfortable feeling of uncertainty that many people experience when immersed in unfamiliar surroundings where they are unsure of the acceptable norms of behavior, or what to expect from other people.” This phenomenon can occur when traveling or moving to a new city, state, or country. While it’s not something that can easily be avoided, being prepared and knowing what to expect can make the experience one that is both beneficial and not life shattering.

Travelers to new and foreign places are most likely to experience culture shock as their surroundings can change dramatically from what they’re used to at home. However, other populations can also suffer from culture shock. That includes students who have recently moved away to attend college or those who relocate for their job.

There is a variety of signs that a person may be suffering from culture shock. They include losing the ability to pick up on the social and language cues of the people in their new environment as well as a difference in the values and morals that one finds important and valuable. Other things that one might experience include feelings of depression, anxiety, fear or anger. Feeling disoriented is also to be expected. Losing a feeling of satisfaction with life and the ability to appropriately interact with peers and coworkers are other things to be on the lookout for.

According to Global Perspectives, there are four stages to culture shock that one must work through to before a resolution is discovered. People can move through these stages in any order, but typically must go through each of them before coming out the other side and feeling satisfied and successful in one’s new environment, whether it’s short term or long term.

The first stage is called the honeymoon stage and refers to the initial positive feelings associated with trying something new and living or traveling in a new place. People often become infatuated with their new surroundings during this stage and love everything that has to do with it, including the people, food, entertainment, and living environment. For some people on shorter trips, this honeymoon phase describes the entire trip and the other stages don’t come into play because one isn’t in the new place long enough to transition through them all.

The frustration stage, which can also be called the disenchantment phase, sets in when one begins to become frustrated or irritated with the inability to interact with locals, whether due to the differences in customs or the language barrier that crops up when traveling or living abroad. As the ability to cope declines, a person will feel increasingly angry, frustrated, and hostile about the new situation and the difficulty that comes with trying to shop, dine out, and meet new people when different languages are spoken and different customs are followed.

When one moves into the adjustment phase, he or she is becoming more familiar and comfortable in the new surroundings and is getting better at navigating the new location. People may begin to pick up on the language and social cues and start to meet new people. Shopping, eating out, reading street signs, using public transportation, and making new friends become easier during this stage, which is usually a positive one for most people.

The acceptance stage can take weeks, months or even years to get to, but is characterized by the ability to thrive in a new place, despite the differences in customs, culture and language. A person in this stage begins to realize that these differences will likely stay in place, but they don’t have to be a barrier to success and fulfillment in the new home or workplace.

Though culture shock can be uncomfortable or even unpleasant at times, experts say that there are benefits to feeling and experiencing it. According to experts at Work the World, culture shock can help a person gain a better understanding of why their home customs, values and traditions are so important and meaningful to them. At the same time, going through the stages of culture shock also gives people confidence that they can thrive anywhere, as well as improving their feelings toward and interactions with people in a variety of cultures. A greater level of maturity and a clearer perspective on the different parts of the world are other positive aspects of going through culture shock.

There are a few tips to help one get through culture shock, including trying to immerse oneself in the new place while also surrounding oneself with what’s comfortable and familiar from home. This might be cooking favorite foods or wearing favorite clothes. Staying in touch with family and friends at home, as well as building a new social network can also help make the transition smooth and positive.

The very word “shock” gives the phenomenon of culture shock a negative connotation, but the experience can actually be very valuable and important.

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