Culture Shock

Culture shock is experienced mostly when someone moves to a new place where they feel disoriented with the new culture as a result of new way of life experience or set of attitudes.

Culture shock is usually experienced when a person is travelling to a new country as it is a new environment, in the beginning person feels fascinated about the new place. Suddenly those new experiences become discomfort as that person feels unsettled at that place. This fact is known as culture shock. Culture shock tends to be more boring rather than jet lag and it affects those people who usually enter a new culture like, tourists, immigrants, students and etc. The three major causes of culture shock are Language, food and currency.

Language being the most important barrier in the culture shock that everyone experiences when in a new country. For example I have travelled to Europe and Saudi Arabia, during those trips I had to face difficulties in terms of language. It can cause you problems since it will take time to get acquainted with the place and also cause difficulties in understanding people. In order to minimize the culture shock what one can do is either hire an interpreter or travel with people who speak English. According to Nelson Mandela “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language that goes to his heart”.

Language helps to make friendships. One more thing that you can do is learn that country’s language before visiting it so that it helps you get accommodated easily.

Food is the second cause which is also a challenge for whoever goes to a new country. As every country has specific food and the real issue is when you eat a local dish that is new to you. It is taken as an insult in some cultures if a person refuses their local food but that concerns needs to be balanced with well-being. Different cultures use different flavors which can be the main problem as some cultures have foods which contains spices while others do not use spices at all so that can cause some issues. I would like to suggest two ways in which we can reduce the cultural shock. Almost everywhere in the world you can find famous fast food chains such McDonald’s, Pizza Hut and KFC where one can have food and expect to have same type of food. Secondly a person can bring packaged food from back home which can save you