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Reverse Culture Shock

state.gov

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Re: Reverse Culture Shock

#41

Post by mathgladiator »

kawsper wrote: post #23

I lived 3 years in the UK, and now I am back in Denmark for a while, I hope to return, but lets see what Theresa May & co figures out. I always thought I wanted to go for the dual-citizenship, but not anymore. It is difficult to live in a new place, you don't really feel integrated even though you have friends, speak the language, go to events, pay your taxes, and get the jokes, you will always be the dane and a fore…

As an American, I experience almost (not to same degree, but same kind) when I visit Kansas where I grew up. I now live in Washington, and the two states in the same country are entire worlds apart.

The people I know in Kansas, I can tell that my thinking has changed a bunch in a multitude of dimensions.

Re: Reverse Culture Shock

#42

Post by komali2 »

I disagree that the jarring bit about home is that it's changed. For me, it was that so little had changed.

At the supermarket I worked at when I was 16 were some of the same people, working the same cashier job.

Friends were still talking about "getting back into college," doing the same thing they had done every weekend for years.

It depressed me.

Re: Reverse Culture Shock

#43

Post by CalChris »

bandrami wrote: post #3

Yup. I'm a "trailing spouse" for an American diplomat, and this is so true. One thing that always, always, always happens to Americans when we repatriate is the "grocery store freakout". At some point, you will go to a grocery store, and freeze. "Man..." you'll keep saying, "Americans really love breakfast cereal..."

But when I lived in Geneva, it was the opposite. They had an entire freaking shopping aisle for bricks of chocolate. I'd never seen a brick of chocolate before let alone an entire aisle of it. Trader Joe's has these bricks now.

Re: Reverse Culture Shock

#44

Post by nickbauman »

A German-born American with 11 years total living in Germany. Almost all of it with the iron curtain in place. A white guy, I now live in a neighborhood that's 3/4 black, 10% Hmong for 16 years, I feel very normal being permanently out-of-place. In Germany I am the "Amerikanischer". Here it's "he's German".

But I'm permanently alone in a crowd, too. Always on the outside looking in. Suspicious of the herd. Skeptical of consensus. Circumspect. Cantankerous at times. I am, simply, permanently, "the other".

It's all not bad. You notice things other people don't wherever you go. You're the first person to seek out the people who don't fit in and hold out your hand in friendship. Because you know, deep down, that with all the divisiveness we're experiencing right now, that we will never get through it any stronger without the greatest concern for each other.

Re: Reverse Culture Shock

#45

Post by inimino »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #33
cjcenizal wrote: post #4

Perhaps not culture shock per se, but when I fly back to LA, I am always shocked at how gray and brown everything is from the air.

I just moved to LA from Beijing. I'm shocked at how clean the air is, there are never bad AQI days (at least nothing over 200), and...I can smell flowers. I visited often enough, so it shouldn't have been a surprise, but I realized I wasn't really smelling anything but dust and air pollution for 9 years.

Beijing air is horrific. I can't imagine putting up with it for nine years.

Re: Reverse Culture Shock

#46

Post by hueving »

holdenc wrote: post #35

Why call it reverse culture shock? It's simply a realization that the United States not the best country in every regard. And in many regards it's failing badly. Personally, I call it the I-can't-get-healthcare shock, or the I-can-only-find-chain-restaurants-in-flyover-country shock, or the NYC-subway-is-not-as-nice-as-the-Asian-country-train-system-I-just-left shock.

Did you even read the article? It has nothing to do with the US infrastructure or healthcare system.

It happens between cultures, even when neither of them are American. It can even happen if both are American if the source and destination are different enough (e.g. moving from a farm town of 500 in Wyoming to Manhattan).

Re: Reverse Culture Shock

#47

Post by wtbob »

55555 wrote: post #34
bandrami wrote: post #3

Yup. I'm a "trailing spouse" for an American diplomat, and this is so true. One thing that always, always, always happens to Americans when we repatriate is the "grocery store freakout". At some point, you will go to a grocery store, and freeze. "Man..." you'll keep saying, "Americans really love breakfast cereal..."

Very true! In the same vein though, the selection at places like Whole Foods is one of the best parts of coming home (from the third world). One of the hardest things for me to adapt to is how "liberal" America has become. It's not an objectively bad thing, but I feel like I went into a coma and woke up 20 years later in a world I can barely relate to. As an example, I'm thinking about stuff like Miley Cyrus' perform…

> One of the hardest things for me to adapt to is how "liberal" America has become. It's not an objectively bad thing

One wonders, if the rest of the world is more cautious about this sort of thing, if maybe it's America that's in the wrong. Maybe other cultures deal with these things more sensitively or more rationally or just better.

My experience travelling abroad is that people seem more comfortable in their skins, which is sad given that America is supposed to be the place where anyone can make it.

Re: Reverse Culture Shock

#48

Post by yladiz »

holdenc wrote: post #35

Why call it reverse culture shock? It's simply a realization that the United States not the best country in every regard. And in many regards it's failing badly. Personally, I call it the I-can't-get-healthcare shock, or the I-can-only-find-chain-restaurants-in-flyover-country shock, or the NYC-subway-is-not-as-nice-as-the-Asian-country-train-system-I-just-left shock.

If you think of culture shock as visiting a new culture and being "shocked" by something different, reverse culture shock is returning to your original culture and being shocked by it. It has nothing to do with the US.

Re: Reverse Culture Shock

#49

Post by [deleted] »

kawsper wrote: post #23

I lived 3 years in the UK, and now I am back in Denmark for a while, I hope to return, but lets see what Theresa May & co figures out. I always thought I wanted to go for the dual-citizenship, but not anymore. It is difficult to live in a new place, you don't really feel integrated even though you have friends, speak the language, go to events, pay your taxes, and get the jokes, you will always be the dane and a fore…

[deleted]

Re: Reverse Culture Shock

#50

Post by inv »

kawsper wrote: post #23

I lived 3 years in the UK, and now I am back in Denmark for a while, I hope to return, but lets see what Theresa May & co figures out. I always thought I wanted to go for the dual-citizenship, but not anymore. It is difficult to live in a new place, you don't really feel integrated even though you have friends, speak the language, go to events, pay your taxes, and get the jokes, you will always be the dane and a fore…

I have the same, living in the UK for the last 3 years. Any ideas how to feel home back in Denmark? Do you mind you don't feel 100% home in any of the places?
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