A few days ago my blog got a comment, asking if I was feeling any culture shock since coming home. In college, I studied abroad twice in Germany and didn’t experience a whole lot of culture shock but each time I was only away for a month. So after being gone for a year and a half I didn’t really know what to expect.
Again I’ve actually had very little reverse culture shock. One thing that I noticed right away was that there was less landscaping back in DC and Maryland and things were far apart. I guess I had forgot that but it wasn’t really shocking. I did however have two definite instance of reverse culture shock and both were when I was picking up lunch alone in a fast food restaurant. Both places were pretty packed and in the first instance, which was the day I got back, I was a 100% minority but there wasn’t a single Asian around me, let alone a Korean.
The second time I was definitely in the majority but it still felt weird being around so many English speakers but still not really having anyone to talk to since I was alone (like if I went into a Korean fast food place unless I was with someone I wouldn’t really be able to talk to anyone but for a better reason since I can’t speak enough Korean). This time around, I actually felt a little nauseous and overwhelmed for a moment. It was very strange especially since it’s only been when I was alone getting food. Maybe it’s because I had to run out and get lunch at the McDonald’s next to work so many times especially towards the end of my time in Korea so I have a strong memory of what it’s “SUPPOSED” to be like getting lunch at a fast food place.
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August 2, 2011 at 1:03 PM
Casey
Its interesting how people can experience reverse culture shock so differently. I guess you’ve already had experience living abroad and that’s why it wasn’t a blanket experience of reverse culture shock like I experienced when I came back from being abroad after a year which was also my first time traveling outside of the country. I know I was constantly being surprised at things I’d kind of forgotten that Americans do in certain situations. For example, I live in the South and had stopped getting used to people I don’t know smiling at me and greeting me pretty much everywhere ago. In Latin America, where I studied abroad, you only did this if you knew the person, so you actually didn’t interact with people very much if you went out alone. It definitely took me a while to get used to that.
But I would think that since Asian culture and Western culture are so different that it would affect you a lot more. I already know that my culture shock will be insane since I have pretty much no experience with it and that I’ll experience reverse culture shock as well because I know I like to really get into the culture and the language of where I go therefore immersing myself in it. I just think its all very interesting. Thanks for writing about this.