Student Profile

Jennifer Grilli School: Kean University Abroad Location: Spain

It is an unforgettable experience that will forever remain with you...

To me, study abroad is what college is all about. It is about exploration, learning, growing, failure, and success. ...

Read more of Jennifer Grilli's Interview

Culture Shock & Study Abroad

When you go abroad you’re going to experience new cultures, people, food, music and probably a new language. All of the newness combined with the lack of things and people that you are familiar with might cause you to have some anxiety. This type of anxiety is called cultural shock. Expect to experience some degree of cultural shock.

Cultural shock can be put into four stages. Once you become familiar with the stages you will be better able to combat it.

• Honeymoon Stage
• Frustration Stage
• Understanding Stage
• Acclimation Stage

Honeymoon Stage

Think of the first stage of cultural shock as the honeymoon stage. This occurs in the first few days of you arriving in your host country.

Symptoms of honey moon stage:

• Excitement and euphoria
• General anticipation of everything that you are about to experience
• Everything and everyone you encounter is new and many times exciting
• You’ll probably be eager to learn the language spoken in your host country

During the honeymoon stage you will be poised to take on the challenges of living broad.

Frustration Stage

After the honeymoon stage your initial excitement may wane. You also may start to feel frustration; this is the onset of the frustration stage. Frustration can occur for various reasons.

Symptoms of the frustration stage:

• Some of your initial excitement dissipates
• Feelings of anxiety, anger and homesickness creep in
• You might reject your new environment and begin to have a lack of interest in your new surroundings
• You’ll become frustrated with trying to speak a foreign language

How to handle the frustration stage

• Don’t blame the host country or its people for your feelings. Your anxiety and frustration happens to millions of people who study, work or travel abroad.
• Remember, you’re in a new environment and getting accustomed takes time. How you handle this frustration that determines how you to grow from your experience abroad.
• Don’t be negative; you’ll only prolong the feelings of frustration.
• Stay positive. Think about the experience you’re having living abroad and learning about new people, food, and culture.
• Try keeping a journal chronicling your experiences.

Understanding Stage

The understanding stage arrives when you develop a more balanced view of your experience abroad.

Characteristics of the understanding stage

• You become more familiar with the culture, people, food and language of your host country
• You will have made friends
• You become less homesick
• You’ll be more comfortable with speaking and listening to the language spoken in your host country
• You become more comfortable and relaxed in your new environment
• You better handle the situations you previously found frustrating

Acclimation Stage

During the acclimation stage you will begin to feel like you really belong in your new environment.

Characteristics of the acclimation stage

• You’ll be able to compare the good and bad of your host country with the good and bad of your home country
• You feel less like a foreigner and more like your host country is your second home
• You laugh about things that frustrated you at earlier stages of cultural shock

Once you reach the acclimation, you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that you can live successfully in two cultures; this is a huge milestone.

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