Culture shock occurs when people leave their home country to live in a new culture. They often experience stress, homesickness, and difficulty communicating and understanding social norms in the unfamiliar culture. There are four stages of culture shock - an initial honeymoon period, followed by a difficult adjustment phase, then a period of adapting to the new culture, and finally fully integrating into the new community. To reduce culture shock, it is important for people to prepare themselves mentally, learn the local language, participate in cultural activities, stay in touch with their home country, and see themselves as cultural ambassadors when interacting with locals.

1. Culture Shock
Student name: Ahmed Areeshi
Level: 5A
Instructor: Sue
Date: Oct 19, 2012

2. Culture shock
When people leave their own country for studying or working, most of them
suffer from the culture shock; the reason for culture shock is because of
psychological reaction towards unfamiliar environment. In fact, people who leave
their country to live in a foreign country or different culture are more likely to
suffer from stress and homesickness in the new culture. It is important for people
who like to travel abroad to know how to deal with challenges they may
encounter because of culture shock, and they should prepare themselves to
adapt to a new environment and succeed in an unfamiliar culture.
There are many reasons responsible for culture shock, including the
difficulty of communicating with other people in a different country and lack of
understanding the way those people behave in their own culture. For example,
Mark Brain in his novel I Heard the Owl Call my Name talks about the moment
when he arrived to the Kingcome village. He could not speak Kwakwala
language and as a result he found it hard to communicate with aboriginal people.
Therefore, when the white man left Keetah’s sister in the city, she could not go
back to the village because she could not communicate with white people to help
her find the way to the Kingcome village. In brief, knowing social norms and
understanding how individuals act in their own culture can help reduce the effect
of culture shock on people.

3. Also, according to psychologists, people go through four stages before they
get involved in the new culture To make it easier, people should prepare
themselves for adaption of the new rules of the unfamiliar culture because that
can help them reduce the effect of the new environment on them. The first stage
is called the honeymoon because newcomers to different culture enjoy living in
the new society for a while. The second stage appears in less than a month
because of bad experiences and the unacceptable behaviours in the new culture,
which outcomes are high pressure and frustration. Indeed, the second term of
the culture shock is the hardest time for many people in the new society because
the different problems they face and a lot of them can not live under this
pressure. For example, Keetah, from the novel I Heard the Owl Call my Name,
could not get used to white people’s culture because she could not accept living
their lifestyle. As a consequence, the homesick returned to live in the Kingcome.
Conversely, people who can skip the section of the culture shock, will be in the
third stage of the culture shock which is called culture adjustment. Moreover,
people who are at the adjustment stage, are able to reduce the negative impact
of culture shock, and they increase the ability to adapt many ideas from the new
culture. That is what happened to Mark Brian in the story - Mark learned
aboriginal people’s language after he accepted their culture, and he adopted it
successfully. The last stage of the culture adjustment according to psychologists
is when people are able to manage any new challenge successfully and they
start liking the new community they live in.

4. In conclusion, people can reduce the impact of culture shock on them by
applying various strategies. One of them is to start learning the local language.
Another one is to participate in daily life and celebrations as much as possible.
Nowadays our globalized world offers easy access to communications so people
can keep in touch with their family and friends in their home countries. Thinking
about the positive side of living in a foreign country can make the transition
smoother. On the other hand, if people feel like cultural ambassadors of their
own culture, they will easily try to communicate with people from the new culture.
All these simple steps can lead to the opportunity to reduce the negative impact
of culture shock and adapt successfully in the new culture.

5. References
Craven, M (1973). I heard the owl call my name. New York, N Y.: Doubleday, a Division of
Random House, Inc.
Wade,C., Tavris, C. Seucier,D., &Elias,L .(2009) Psycology. Toronto, ON: Pearson education
Canada, Inc.
Xia, J. (2009). Culture shock: anxieties: psychology: psychological aspects: international
journal of psychological studies: psychology, 1(2), 97-101. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.library.yorku.ca/docview/840748938?accountid=15182