Culture Shock in Reverse

02/06/2006

Reverse culture shock? Have you heard of the term and if so have you experienced it? This phrase is used to explain the feeling of being out of place in your own country. It is a strange feeling of disorientation, unfamiliarity and separation after living abroad for a fairly long period of time. The longer you are away, the stronger it may be. If you have experienced this, you are not alone. It happens to many expats and is quite normal.

When you move to another country there is so much one has to get used to; food, language, culture, socials norms and expectations among others. I remember vividly when I first arrived in Korea, both the good and bad. The country smelled different, there were concrete high rise buildings everywhere, no one spoke any English, I had no idea what I was eating most of the time, the seasons swung from one extreme to the next, there was a very limited supply of western foods in supermarkets and restaurants and people stared at me wherever I was. The first 6 months were tough to say the least. As time passed, I not only learned how to survive in a country where I could barely communicate with anyone, but I started to appreciate, enjoy and revel in the many differences I was experiencing.

The fantastic public transport system can be compared with the best in the world, the sense of personal safety is a gift for me, eating out regularly at restaurants is very affordable and healthy, Koreans offer help wherever I go, the telecommunications (landline phones, cell phones and Internet services) is nothing less than state of the art and then of course there is the wonderful underfloor heating in winter and the best strawberries and watermelon I have ever tasted.

Pretty soon I settled into my job and life in my new country. Then I went home to visit. I have to say that my first trip back home was nothing less than a shell shock after being in Korea for a year. I felt quite disorientated, isolated, and different. I felt a sense of disconnection. Everyone was zooming around in their cars, nothing seemed to stay open past 11 o’clock at night, eating out at restaurants was a monthly event and walking around the streets or in parks late at night was not even an option. It also struck me that the Internet service seemed to be of the dinosaur era compared to what I was used to, haircuts were exorbitantly priced, the public transport system was very inefficient and I dared not use the public toilets.

To say that I felt like a fish out of water is an understatement. I was used to the convenience and comforts of my life in Korea. What a turnabout. Who would have thought that someone could experience reverse culture shock? Luckily I had experienced this before after living in the UK, Israel and the USA for some years so I knew that it was a normal phenomenon, but with Korea being a completely homogeneous and culturally different country, I was hit with this re-entry culture shock much stronger than before.

Now, when I go back home, I often find myself thinking in Korean, being careful not to drive on the wrong side of the road, comparing prices, hankering for Korean food, searching for a good Internet café, and generally adjusting to a life where there is space and where friends and families people join each other at someone’s house for barbecues on Sundays and weekdays start at 8am and not 10 or 11am.

Yes, I do always feel strange and disorientated when I go home or visit another western-type country, but I welcome these challenges and opportunities. My experiences as an expat and returnee citizen serve to widen my view of the world. I do not see the world as one of separate countries with separate cultures, but rather I view the world as one big global pool full of wonderful, exciting and various cultures, races, beliefs, differences, similarities and peoples. What a wonderful world we live in. As an expat I can soak up the different cultures and add all the customs and norms that I really like to my jewel box. I am afforded the luxury of choosing all the precious things I value in my new environment to adopt as my own and so ultimately enrich my life on a daily basis.

Finally, when I look at my life the whole notion of reverse culture shock is challenged by this quote by Scott Bailey, “There is such a thing as reverse culture shock. I didn't realize that while I was away I had changed, and so had other people.”