It is acknowledged that students who travel to other countries for a semester may experience anxiety as a result of being exposed to a foreign environment, and often a foreign language as well. It’s called “culture shock.” But after these brave young college students return back home from their respective experiences abroad, some say they’re in for an even bigger shock – reverse culture shock.
According to University Director of International Studies, Carolyn Sorkin, students may find it difficult to readjust to their own culture.
“There’s a sort of disconnect,” Sorkin said.
In an e-mail that was sent to all scheduled to return from studying abroad, Sorkin warned, “A word about re-entry: it may seem counterintuitive to think that it will be hard [maybe even harder than leaving] to return home to loved ones or friends and family, but it can be. You’ve been away. You’ve changed. The people you left behind, and the ones who went elsewhere, they may have changed or stayed the same, but it’s likely that they haven’t changed in the same way.”
Although conventional culture shock, which may be a combination of homesickness and loneliness, can manifest itself physically with symptoms as varied as fatigue or sleeplessness, boredom or over-stimulation or loss or gain in appetite, reverse culture shock is generally more cerebral.
For those who might feel somehow out of place in American society, or even more specifically on campus, the task is to readjust to some earlier habits while incorporating some of the attitudes that were acquired while abroad.
“I don’t even know where I fit into things,” said Emily Polak ’05, returning from Senegal. “I want to share my experiences with others, but I don’t want to be imposing on [anyone]. I don’t want to be that girl who inundates everybody with pictures.”
One of the most salient elements of reverse culture shock, said Sorkin, is the disparity between the desire of returnees to discuss their adventures abroad and the desire of their friends and family to listen.
“Friends and family of the returnee may not want to listen to the story about the hike through the Himalayas for the tenth time,” Sorkin said.
Realizing that some of her stories might get tiresome, Polak chose to live with a student who also studied abroad in the fall for the spring semester.
“That’s part of the reason why I’m living with [another returnee], so we could feed off each other and not overwhelm one another,” Polak said.
“It is a really nice transition to come back living with someone who is in the same frame of mind,” said Lee Grodin ’05, Polak’s roommate, who has returned from Cameroon.
The effects of reverse culture shock can include slight difficulty or unwillingness to readjust to one’s home environment, including the weather and natural landscape. Since an experience abroad can bring out more fundamental changes in an individual’s outlook, the effects can also be much more profound.
“I think what has produced any sort of shock is my internal change in values,” said Eric Herman ’05, who studied in the Republic of Mali, West Africa. “I find now that my mentality is even less compatible with my American environment.”
In the West African village where Herman lived for four months, he said that the community came before the individual, and that everyone was much more aware of conservation.
“It would never have crossed my mind to buy anything that wasn’t absolutely necessary. Just the other day I went to Target with some friends and we ended up with carts full of completely extraneous items,” Herman said.
As much as experiences abroad can point out the contrasts between different cultures for students, it can also bring to light the similarities that all human beings share.
“It turns out that all people want the same things emotionally – happiness, friendship, love,” said Jake Orlowitz ’05 who studied in Nepal. “Different cultures just communicate these desires in different ways.”
Other students like Dustin Shea ’05, who studied in Australia, didn’t experience significant awkwardness returning home.
“I felt a little odd at first [returning home] but it was not a difficult adjustment,” Shea said. “Maybe this is because I was in Australia, as it is English-speaking and has a stronger American influence than some countries that other students visited.”
Regardless of the level of reverse culture shock a returnee may be experiencing, Sorkin said that she would always be available to talk with students about their experiences. To help keep the returnees’ memories vibrant and the skills they acquired abroad in practice, Sorkin suggests writing, possibly incorporating themes from abroad into an academic thesis or talking about the experience to interested professors and prospective study abroad students.
“When you return from study abroad, it’s not just over,” Sorkin said. “It’s an ongoing thing. I’d like to see these students re-integrated into the international and cultural life of the campus.”
For returnees who are interested in returning abroad in an academic capacity after graduation, Sorkin is willing to provide information.
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