The document describes activities that are part of an intercultural communication lesson plan, including a survey about living abroad, a vocabulary matching activity, and a discussion about differences between Chinese and Western cultures. Students are then introduced to the five stages of culture shock - honeymoon, shock, adjustment, acceptance, and re-entry shock - and asked to match scenarios to the appropriate stages. Finally, students work in groups to create a short role play about a Chinese student experiencing one of the culture shock stages upon arriving in the U.S. for graduate school.

2. Overseas Living Survey
• Each two students will be given one
survey question about living in a different
country
• For several minutes, each student should
ask their question to as many of their
classmates as possible
• Pairs will then be asked to summarize the
answers that they heard in 30 seconds or
less

3. Vocabulary Matching
• Every student will be given either a word or a
definition
• WITHOUT consulting a dictionary, students
with the words must find the classmate who
has the correct definition to their word
• When you think you have a match, confirm with
the teacher that you are correct
• Sit together in a group of two for the next
assignment

4. adapt
to change to better fit a certain
situation

5. custom
traditional and widely accepted way
of behaving among a certain group
of people

6. dialect
a particular form of language that is
specific to a certain region or
group of people

7. diversity
having a great deal of variety and
difference

8. globalization
the process of increased
communication between countries
and cultures, mostly due to
enhanced technology

9. homesick
experiencing a longing for one’s
home during a period of absence
from it

10. misunderstanding
a failure to understand something
correctly

11. social norms
group help beliefs about how people
should behave in a certain
situation

12. stereotype
a widely held, but fixed and
oversimplified idea of a particular
type of person

13. values
principles or standards which guide
one’s behavior

14. Chinese vs. American Cultural
Differences

15. Friends Clip

16. Discussion Question
What aspects of American
culture which are different from
Chinese culture did you notice
in the video clip?

17. What do you think are some of
the main differences between
Chinese and Western culture?

18. Indirect vs. Direct
Communication

19. Personal Space

20. Monocultural vs. Multicultural

21. Society vs. Individual

22. Harmony vs. Freedom

24. Stage 1 Honeymoon

25. Honeymoon Stage
• New culture seems new and exciting
• You idealize your new culture and
may even consider it better than your
own
• If you sometimes have problems, you
quickly recover
• Can last anywhere from a few days
to several months

26. Stage 2
Shock

27. Shock Stage
• All little problems seem much bigger
• You consider everything to be dirty or
unhealthy
• You try to find people from your own
country and spend a lot of time
complaining about the new culture
• You miss your own culture and
country a lot

28. Stage 3
Adjustment

29. Adjustment Stage
• You manage to combine the new
culture with your own beliefs
• You begin to learn the language and
adapt to the habits of the new culture
• You make friends with people from
the new culture
• You are able to laugh at your
difficulties

30. Stage 4
Acceptance

31. Acceptance Stage
• You can now live with your new
culture
• You go through changes to better
adapt to the new culture
• You do not totally change to the new
culture, but you have developed a
good understanding of your new
culture

32. Stage 5
Re-entry Shock

33. Re-entry Shock Stage
• You return home and everyone is
happy to see you
• The problem is that you have
changed a lot and others have not
• People do not understand that you
have changed
• People get tired of hearing you talk
about your experiences abroad

34. Culture Shock Scenarios
• Take the 15 scenarios and put them into 5
groups of 3 based on the 5 stages of culture
shock:
1)Honeymoon Stage
2)Shock Stage
3)Adjustment Stage
4)Acceptance Stage
5)Re-Entry Shock Stage

35. Honeymoon Stage
• John takes his camera with him wherever he
goes and takes pictures of everything, even
street signs.
• John visits the Statue of Liberty and Times
Square and is very excited to see these famous
landmarks.
• John loves the variety of food available and
wants to try all kinds of different food.

36. Shock Stage
• John takes the bus and is extremely
embarrassed and frustrated when he doesn’t
know where and how to pay and the driver
cannot understand his question.
• Other than going to class, John spends all his
time with his Chinese roommates, mostly
complaining about all the annoying parts of
American life.
• John often feels sick in his stomach and misses
his mother’s dumplings.

37. Adjustment Stage
• John still misses his mother’s cooking, but has
found some American food that he likes.
• John makes friends with some American boys
and they often play basketball together.
• John orders some food on the phone for the
first time, successfully completing his first
English phone call.

38. Acceptance Stage
• John has learned to keep a certain distance
between himself and others when they are
talking.
• John has learned to drink cold water and
doesn’t miss drinking hot water.
• John feels mostly comfortable with life in New
York and can accomplish almost any task by
himself.

39. Re-entry Shock Stage
• John’s friends in China throw a big party for
him upon his return.
• John’s friends gradually get tired of his
“America stories”.
• John fakes laughing at his friends’ same old
jokes, but doesn’t find them funny anymore.

40. Assignment
• In your groups, create a 2 minute role play based
on the your assigned stage of culture shock and
the following situation:
Chris is a Chinese student who recently
completed his undergraduate degree at Nankai
University. He was accepted into Harvard
University as a masters’ student. He has never
been to America before, and as he arrives, he
struggles to adapt to American life.
• Each member of your group must use at least 2 of
the 10 vocabulary words learned earlier today