The single biggest difference between now and when I was here before is that now Spain is Spain. These is now (at least where I am) an almost universal identification as being "Español" rather than being "Madrileño." I can only assume that the same thing has happen across the nation.
The only possible explanation I can think of for this is winning the World Cup. It has changed the attitude of the entire nation. They don´t really talk about it but it is almost always there, like a little undercurrent of victory. The best example of this is this song. If you go out at night and hear this song, EVERYONE sings it. And I mean EVERYONE. They all know all the words and most bellow it out as loud as they can as if they were trying to remind the world that they won.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Monday, January 3, 2011
Culture: It´s a real shocker
So this post is about that terrible phenomenon that so many people have, but almost no one ever really understands: Culture Shock. And I am posting this for what is probably the gayest reason I have ever posted: My mommy told me to.
OK, here is where I cheat. The following is Josh Broward writing about his experience with culture shock in Korea. If you are interested in the full article it can be found here. I don´t know him, and using this bit of his blog is probably plagiarism in some way or another but such is life.
Stage 1: The Honeymoon Period.
This is the stage when everything is new and beautiful and wonderful. You are so excited about your new adventure in a new culture. Everything is cute. Isn't it cute how the little kids ask if you are an American? Aren't those little old ladies selling things on the street just so cute? It makes me want to buy every vegetable they have! I love how the lady in the store just keeps talking to me. I don't understand anything she's saying, but I bought the soap she was selling because she was just so cute!
This stage usually lasts between two weeks and three months. For me, it lasted about 12 hours. After a hot night with no air conditioning and community loudspeakers at 6 a.m., the honeymoon was pretty much over for me.
Stage 2: Frustration.
Eventually things aren't so cute any more.
Why does everyone ask me if I'm American? I'm Canadian, OK?! You want to keep pointing? I've got a finger. I can point, too! I feel sad for those grandmas selling vegetables on the street. I hate when that lady at the store keeps talking and talking and talking. Doesn't she know I can't understand her? Just let me pick my own soap already!
It may be helpful here to remember that some of the frustrations we are experiencing are not because of the host culture. We would have similar struggles in any culture different from our own. Also, part of the frustration is related to change, not culture: new job, new home, new friends, new food, new modes of transportation. That's a whole lot of change at one time, and it can be really hard.
This is the hardest stage of culture shock. We can feel homesick, depressed, angry and helpless. This stage can last anywhere from three months to one year. Some people go home while they are still in frustration mode.
Stage 3: Transition.
You start to learn some things that are helpful. Maybe you actually start studying the language, so you can say more than “Hello” and “Thank you.” You can actually use chopsticks without dropping your food all over your shirt. You learn which stores have more familiar food.
Now, when kids look at me in shock and say, “Foreigner,” I point back and say, “Korean!” Instead of moving awkwardly past the cute lady hawking laundry detergent in the grocery aisle, some of our single guys stop and try to get her phone number. I remember the first time we ordered pizza over the phone in Korean. It was a huge emotional victory!
The transition isn’t always smooth, though. Once, when I was at the city swimming pool, a large group of elementary boys were getting ready for their swim lesson. Some of the boys started pointing and saying, “Foreigner.” I decided to have some fun and practice my Korean at the same time. I said in Korean, “No I’m not a foreigner; I’m Korean. I’m from this city.” This started a raucus argument among the kids. They quizzed me about Korea and divided into camps. Some claimed that I was obviously a foreigner because of my white skin and hairy arms (which they freely touched). Others vehemently argued that I was clearly Korean because I spoke Korean (still somewhat of a rarity among foreigners here). As I stood there, at the center of a storm of elementary boys, I decided this was not helping my culture shock.
The key point in the transition stage is regaining hope. The transition period usually lasts one to three months.
Stage 4: New Balance.
After a while, you start to get adjusted. You find your rhythm in a new place, living in a new way. You feel less out of place. You find a few groups or communities where you really belong. And amazingly, your focus begins to shift away from culture shock and culture and on to just living regular life.
This is the best and easiest stage, but some people never get here. Some people just give up and go home. Some people isolate and form a ghetto culture within their new culture. All their friends are foreigners. All their food is foreign food. Sure they work with Koreans, but once they are done working, it's like they live on a different planet, and all interactions with Koreans are unfortunate necessities. This is really sad. People who don't get to the New Balance stage miss out on many good experiences and good people. They never really see Korea.
Stage 5: Re-entry Shock.
You thought we were done, right? Nope. When we go home, we have culture-shock in our own culture. Home isn't the same any more – or at least it's not the same for us. Maybe new buildings have gone up in your favorite park. Or maybe nothing has changed, and that seems incredibly boring.
Once I asked a Korean KNU worker to help me at the ATM, and she said she didn't know how to work them either. She had just come back to Korea after 15-20 years abroad, and they didn't have ATMs here when she left.
A few years ago, we felt lucky to find more than two or three varieties of cereal in our local grocery store in Korea. While visiting family in Iowa, my wife and I walked up and down the aisles of a small country grocery store just counting the different kinds of cereal. I lost count somewhere after 70!
Some people feel a great sense of surprise and betrayal when they go “home.” Others feel deeply out of place returning to friends and family who have not had the same life-changing experiences.
So that pretty much sums up culture shock except for one tiny thing: He skipped a step. For me (and many of the other exchange students) there are two honeymoon periods. The first lasts just a short time and is when "Everything is so darn cute" as he says. I like to call it The Fog. You are there. You are lost. You walk around like you are in a dream "experiencing" he culture as best you can. 2nd, there are The Frustrations. This is basically the same thing he describes. BUT WAIT THERE IS MORE! Because there is one more stage right after the Transition (and it is probably the hardest one). I like to call it the This-Totally-Blows period, the The-Time-Of-Reckoning-Has-Come period, or the Kick-In-The-Testies period. Take your pick. It is the time where you realize that you have not transitioned completely. I expect that Josh (the guy who wrote the article above) may have not experienced this because (at least I am guessing) he lived with his own family, not an entirely new one. Anyway, this period is when you realize that not only do you need to transition how you act, you also need to transition yourself. This stage requires that you sacrifice a small part of yourself to let the culture shape you into one of its own.
I think that this stage is what makes re-entry is so hard. You have altered yourself to live in a new world and suddenly no longer need the part of you that you gained. And at the same time you kind of need a part of you that you no longer have because you sacrificed it to get that new part of you which you needed to adapt. Because of this, and this may sound really weird, but to try to re-enter your old culture seems almost like a self-betrayal. It seems like you must deny all those changes that happened to you and become the old you (which you almost certainly do not want to be). It is hard but eventually you have to learn to take the best of the two selves and put them together making YET ANOTHER new and improved you. Hard but worth it.
Sorry if that makes no sense at all.
OK, here is where I cheat. The following is Josh Broward writing about his experience with culture shock in Korea. If you are interested in the full article it can be found here. I don´t know him, and using this bit of his blog is probably plagiarism in some way or another but such is life.
Stage 1: The Honeymoon Period.
This is the stage when everything is new and beautiful and wonderful. You are so excited about your new adventure in a new culture. Everything is cute. Isn't it cute how the little kids ask if you are an American? Aren't those little old ladies selling things on the street just so cute? It makes me want to buy every vegetable they have! I love how the lady in the store just keeps talking to me. I don't understand anything she's saying, but I bought the soap she was selling because she was just so cute!
This stage usually lasts between two weeks and three months. For me, it lasted about 12 hours. After a hot night with no air conditioning and community loudspeakers at 6 a.m., the honeymoon was pretty much over for me.
Stage 2: Frustration.
Eventually things aren't so cute any more.
Why does everyone ask me if I'm American? I'm Canadian, OK?! You want to keep pointing? I've got a finger. I can point, too! I feel sad for those grandmas selling vegetables on the street. I hate when that lady at the store keeps talking and talking and talking. Doesn't she know I can't understand her? Just let me pick my own soap already!
It may be helpful here to remember that some of the frustrations we are experiencing are not because of the host culture. We would have similar struggles in any culture different from our own. Also, part of the frustration is related to change, not culture: new job, new home, new friends, new food, new modes of transportation. That's a whole lot of change at one time, and it can be really hard.
This is the hardest stage of culture shock. We can feel homesick, depressed, angry and helpless. This stage can last anywhere from three months to one year. Some people go home while they are still in frustration mode.
Stage 3: Transition.
You start to learn some things that are helpful. Maybe you actually start studying the language, so you can say more than “Hello” and “Thank you.” You can actually use chopsticks without dropping your food all over your shirt. You learn which stores have more familiar food.
Now, when kids look at me in shock and say, “Foreigner,” I point back and say, “Korean!” Instead of moving awkwardly past the cute lady hawking laundry detergent in the grocery aisle, some of our single guys stop and try to get her phone number. I remember the first time we ordered pizza over the phone in Korean. It was a huge emotional victory!
The transition isn’t always smooth, though. Once, when I was at the city swimming pool, a large group of elementary boys were getting ready for their swim lesson. Some of the boys started pointing and saying, “Foreigner.” I decided to have some fun and practice my Korean at the same time. I said in Korean, “No I’m not a foreigner; I’m Korean. I’m from this city.” This started a raucus argument among the kids. They quizzed me about Korea and divided into camps. Some claimed that I was obviously a foreigner because of my white skin and hairy arms (which they freely touched). Others vehemently argued that I was clearly Korean because I spoke Korean (still somewhat of a rarity among foreigners here). As I stood there, at the center of a storm of elementary boys, I decided this was not helping my culture shock.
The key point in the transition stage is regaining hope. The transition period usually lasts one to three months.
Stage 4: New Balance.
After a while, you start to get adjusted. You find your rhythm in a new place, living in a new way. You feel less out of place. You find a few groups or communities where you really belong. And amazingly, your focus begins to shift away from culture shock and culture and on to just living regular life.
This is the best and easiest stage, but some people never get here. Some people just give up and go home. Some people isolate and form a ghetto culture within their new culture. All their friends are foreigners. All their food is foreign food. Sure they work with Koreans, but once they are done working, it's like they live on a different planet, and all interactions with Koreans are unfortunate necessities. This is really sad. People who don't get to the New Balance stage miss out on many good experiences and good people. They never really see Korea.
Stage 5: Re-entry Shock.
You thought we were done, right? Nope. When we go home, we have culture-shock in our own culture. Home isn't the same any more – or at least it's not the same for us. Maybe new buildings have gone up in your favorite park. Or maybe nothing has changed, and that seems incredibly boring.
Once I asked a Korean KNU worker to help me at the ATM, and she said she didn't know how to work them either. She had just come back to Korea after 15-20 years abroad, and they didn't have ATMs here when she left.
A few years ago, we felt lucky to find more than two or three varieties of cereal in our local grocery store in Korea. While visiting family in Iowa, my wife and I walked up and down the aisles of a small country grocery store just counting the different kinds of cereal. I lost count somewhere after 70!
Some people feel a great sense of surprise and betrayal when they go “home.” Others feel deeply out of place returning to friends and family who have not had the same life-changing experiences.
I think that this stage is what makes re-entry is so hard. You have altered yourself to live in a new world and suddenly no longer need the part of you that you gained. And at the same time you kind of need a part of you that you no longer have because you sacrificed it to get that new part of you which you needed to adapt. Because of this, and this may sound really weird, but to try to re-enter your old culture seems almost like a self-betrayal. It seems like you must deny all those changes that happened to you and become the old you (which you almost certainly do not want to be). It is hard but eventually you have to learn to take the best of the two selves and put them together making YET ANOTHER new and improved you. Hard but worth it.
Sorry if that makes no sense at all.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
