Culture Shock:Easing the transition

Line up based on how long you have lived in Manila.

In your table groups discuss:

• What cultural similarities do you find between Filipino culture and what you consider to be your culture?

• What do you find are the cultural differences?

• Is there anything that conflicts?

What are we talking about when we talk

about “Culture”?

• a: the integrated pattern of human behavior that includes thought, speech, action, artifacts and depends upon the human capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations.

• b: the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group.

(Merriam-Webster)

Culture is:• Symbolic: a learned system of meanings

attached to objects and actions—and we react to the meanings as much as to the things themselves—it is the meaning that we read into them that matters.

• Integrated: system of meanings that fit together coherently and are extended in ways that make sense to people in the culture.

• Arbitrary and learned.

• If you asked people from different cultures to tell you what these symbols mean, they may each have very different answers.

• Meanings are layered onto the symbols by people, not somehow inherent in them.

• The meanings would seem random or crazy to someone not familiar with the culture.

• Culture is socially constructed, a set of cultural constructs.

• We learn to recognize something for what it is and what it is not.

• Cultures may exist as subdivisions of larger cultures.• Culture changes: it is constructed and re-constructed

in different ways, for a variety of reasons.

Cultural Iceberg

“We seldom realize, for example that our most private thoughts and emotions are not actually our own. For we think in terms of languages

and images which we did not invent, but which were given to us

by our society.” Alan Watts

Cultural Universals 1. communicating with a verbal language consisting of a limited set of sounds and grammatical rules for constructing sentences

2. using age and gender to classify people (e.g., teenager, senior citizen, woman, man)

3. classifying people based on marriage and descent relationships and having kinship terms to refer to them (e.g., wife, mother, uncle, cousin)

4. raising children in some sort of family setting

5. having a sexual division of labor (e.g., men's work versus women's work)

6. having a concept of privacy

7. having rules to regulate sexual behavior

8. distinguishing between good and bad behavior 9. having some sort of body ornamentation10. making jokes and playing games11. having art 12. having some sort of leadership roles for the implementation of community decisions

“People are all exactly alike. There's no such thing as a race and barely such a thing as an ethnic group. If we were dogs,

we'd be the same breed. George Bush and an Australian Aborigine have fewer differences than a Lhasa Apso and a Toy Fox Terrier. A Japanese raised in Riyadh would be an

Arab. A Zulu raised in New Rochelle would be an orthodontist. People are all the same, though their

circumstances differ terribly.” ― P.J. O’Rourke

What is “Culture Shock”?

• Disorientation experienced when suddenly subjected to an unfamiliar culture or way of life.

• A characteristic set of specific psychological symptoms caused by the stress of being immersed in a foreign culture.

The characteristic symptoms include:

• - anxiety, frustration, irritability, anger, hostility, depression- from unease, to bursting into tears, to unjustifiable rages

• - constant complaining about the people, food, customs, etc.- and an idealized memory of the home culture

• - paranoia- excessive fear of being cheated, robbed, taken advantage of

because we often don’t really understand what is going on• - withdrawal from social contact

- spending lots of time hiding in your room, avoiding contact• - seeking the familiar

-seeking compatriots• - seeking familiar foods - even ones we don’t normally want• - focusing on returning home

- making, rechecking, confirming travel arrangements, etc.

Phases of Culture Shock

• Wonder (Honeymoon) New, exciting, curious• Frustration (Crisis, Distress) Confused, isolated• Depression (Flight, Re-integration)

Superior/inferior, angry, frustrated, hostile• Acceptance (Autonomy) Beginning to feel like

ourselves again, more confident, coping easier• Independence

What role does grief play in culture shock?

Universal Stressors that can trigger Culture Shock:

• Loss of the familiar• Loss of friends• Language barriers and unfamiliar

customs• New school or work situation• Household help and status issues

• If you and/or your children ever experienced culture shock, how did you know it?

• How did you deal with it?• What was helpful?

HOW DO I KNOW IF MY CHILD IS EXPERIENCING

CULTURE SHOCK?

• Physical symptoms are the most obvious.

--Poor sleep, nightmares, change in eating habits, headaches, stomach aches

--Frequent visits to the clinic

• Emotional sensitivity (crying, anger)• Clinginess (separation anxiety)• Behavior regression (acts younger than

his or her age)

WHICH CHILDREN ARE MOST SUSCEPTIBLE TO

CULTURE SHOCK?• First-timers• Children of working parents• Sensitive children• Children of cross-cultural marriages

In what ways does living in the digital world

contribute to prolonging culture shock?

HELPING THE FAMILY MOVE THROUGH CULTURE SHOCK

• Make one parent available at the beginning

• Create structure and stability• Don’t let your own prejudices show• Control the use of technology

It’s okay to ask for help!

“One of the most effective ways to learn about oneself is by taking seriously the cultures of others. It forces you to pay attention to those details of life which differentiate them

from you.” ―Edward T. Hall

"Culture is a matrix of infinite possibilities and choices. From within the same culture matrix we can extract arguments and strategies for the degradation and

ennoblement of our species, for its enslavement or liberation, for the suppression of its productive potential or

its enhancement.” —Wole Sovinka

“Cultural survival is not about preservation, sequestering indigenous peoples in enclaves like some sort of zoological specimens. Change itself does note destroy a culture. All

societies are constantly evolving. Indeed a culture survives when it has enough confidence in its past and enough say in its future to maintain its spirit and essence through all the changes it will inevitably undergo. ” ―Wade Davis

"People of different religions and cultures live side by side in almost every part of the world, and most of us have

overlapping identities which unite us with very different groups. We can love what we are, without hating what –

and who – we are not. We can thrive in our own tradition, even as we learn from others, and come to respect their

teachings.” —Kofi Annan

“The world in which you were born is just one model of reality. Other cultures are not failed attempts at being YOU:

they are unique manifestations of the human spirit.” ―Wade David

Additional events for parents:

• PTA Bearcat Welcome (September 4th, 2012, 7:30-9:00am)

• Understanding Third Culture Kids (October 16, 2012, 9:00-11:00am)

• Third Culture Kids: The Lived Experience (January 22, 2013, 9:00-11:00am)

• Moving On and Saying Goodbye (April 16, 2013, 9:00-11:00am)

References:

• Owen, B. (2011). Culture as meaning and culture shock: Constructs that affect us profoundly.

• Pascoe, R. (2006). Raising Global Nomads: Parenting abroad in an on-demand world.