Upon returning to your home country, you may experience a sense of disorientation or feeling of being out of place. This is called return shock or reverse culture shock. These feelings and the readjustment process associated with them are completely normal, and it is a temporary transitional state than many study abroad returnees encounter. Culture shock is expected when you go abroad but students usually don’t anticipate how difficult it may be to readjust to their own culture upon return. Typically, students who easily adjusted to their host culture experience a greater sense of return shock than those who had a more difficult adjustment. Part of the difficulty for many students is that it is so unexpected. Being aware about this phenomenon can help you deal with it.
Below:
Common Re-entry Challenges
Keeping Your Experience Alive
Stage One - Disengagement
While abroad and your departure date looms near, you begin to move away
from your abroad experience and start concentrating on your return.
It is a feeling of having one foot in your host country and putting
the other foot in your home country. You start thinking about wrapping
up your time abroad and making plans for what you will do when you get
home.
Stage Two – Euphoria
In this stage, you get very excited about the prospect of going home.
You think about how happy you will be to see your friends, eat your
favorite foods, and speak your native language. This may occur before
leaving your host country or just upon arrival home. It may be quite
brief, especially for those who were very well adjusted to their host
culture. It is longer for those who were less attached to the host culture.
Students who were unhappy while abroad may not experience return shock
beyond this stage.
Stage Three – Dampened Euphoria
This stage occurs after a short time back in your home county and is
characterized by feeling like a foreigner in your own country. You may
feel frustrated, alienated and critical of your own culture. Things
that were previously completely normal to you now stand out. For example,
upon return, American returnees are often frustrated with their peers’
lack of knowledge or concern for international issues. You feel like
no one really wants to hear about your experience and can’t relate
to it. This is a good time to seek out other study abroad returnees.
They can provide support and sympathy as you readjust to life back in
your home country.
Stage Four – Gradual Readjustment
Things are no longer so shocking and you are less critical about aspects
of your culture that bothered you during the dampened euphoria stage.
You begin to analyze what you learned abroad and decide how you will
apply it to your life in your home country. You may decide to adopt
certain host culture characteristics or habits into your daily life.
You will begin to think about how to apply what you’ve learned
both academically and professionally.
Summarized from "Back in the USA: Reflecting on your study abroad experience and putting it to good work," by Dawn Kepets
Common Re-entry Challenges and How to Handle ThemBoredom
After being abroad where a daily task was an exciting challenge and
where you were meeting so many new people, returning to the comfortable
routines of home may seem boring. However, with your new international
experience and language ability, you can seek out new outlets to channel
your interests – new friends, clubs, activities, etc.
“No one wants to hear”
Upon return, you may wan to talk non-stop about your time abroad only
to find that people don’t seem that interested. Or you feel frustrated
that people ask, “How was it?”, as if there is a simple
answer to that question. Frequently, people who haven’t had an
international experience will have a hard time relating to yours and
may lost interest once they hear the highlights of your time abroad.
You should seek out other study abroad returnees because they will be
more receptive to listening to all the details about your time abroad
and will have stories to share with you as well. And when discussing
your time abroad with less receptive audiences, remember to keep your
stories brief and interesting. This is called the elevator speech –
when you can answer “How was it?” in the time it normally
takes to ride in an elevator.
It’s hard to explain
You experienced so much while abroad that it may be difficult to accurately
explain all the feelings you had or describe all the sights you saw.
You may feel that you can’t get people to understand it. But that’s
okay. Again, this is a good time to talk to other study abroad returnees.
Also, journaling or scrap booking may help you better articulate and
express what you went through.
Reverse homesickness
If you made good friends and grew to love the host culture, it’s
only natural that you will miss it upon leaving. Luckily, technology
has improved do much that it is easy to keep in touch with your new
friends via e-mail, Skype, Facebook, telephone, letters, etc. It may
help to seek out and befriend people at home who are from your host
country.
Relationships have changed
Just as you’ve changed while abroad, people back home have undergone
changes while you were gone. You may notice upon return that you relate
to people differently than before. Whether positive or negative, this
is normal. Handle it with an open mind, patience, and not losing sight
of why you were close to the person in the first place.
People see “wrong” changes or misunderstand you
Some people may be upset by changes in your behavior or ideas upon returning
to your host country. From holding your fork differently to changes
in your musical taste to a new political ideology; some people may fixate
negatively on these changes. This negativity is often rooted in feelings
of jealousy, inferiority or superiority. This phase normally passes
quickly if you are aware of how people react to you and are willing
to explain these changes in way that isn’t boasting or defensive.
Feeling of alienation or seeing home with critical eyes
After experiencing a different culture, you may find yourself critical
of some aspects of your home culture. You may see faults all around
you and feel very critical, remembering what you liked better about
your host culture. Keep these comparisons to yourself and know that
you had to go through these same feelings upon arrival to your host
culture. In due time, you will gain a more balanced perspective and
realize the strengths and weaknesses of both cultures without being
so critical.
Inability to apply new knowledge and skills
You might feel like your newly acquired linguistic, cultural, and practical
coping skills aren’t relevant at home. While ways to apply them
may not be immediately obvious, have patience and you will find ways
to use them. Your international office on campus should have resources
to help you with this.
Loss/Compartmentalization of experience
After getting back into the routine of life at home, you may feel like
your experience is slipping away from you and it will become like photos
kept in a box that you only take out and look at from time to time.
Don’t let this happen. Keep the experience alive by maintaining
contact with the friends you made while abroad and sharing your experience
with those who can relate to it. Look for ways to apply your new skills.
Adapted from “International Study Transitions: Creating and Leading a Reentry Workshop,” by Alan C. Lerstrom.
Keeping your experience aliveBefore returning home
• Read about the challenges of re-entry so you are aware of the
possible challenges.
• Spend quality time with all the people you will miss the most.
Let them know how they’ve impacted your experience.
• Spend time in the places you liked or doing the things you like
the best in your host country.
• Take all the photos or video you’ve been intending to
take.
• Collect contact information for all the people with whom you’ll
want to keep in touch.
• Write down recipes of your favorite local dishes. Buy any special
ingredients that you can’t get at home.
• Download or buy the music that you’ve been listening to
while abroad.
• If you’ve had your eye on buying something that will serve
as a memento of your experience, get it. You may regret it if you don’t.
Right after returning home
• Create a written or photo essay for the ISEP website.
• Create a scrapbook.
• Visit your ISEP Coordinator to share your experience.
• Volunteer to be an ISEP-Ambassador at your university.
• Seek out other study abroad returnees. They can relate to your
experience and also have something interesting to share. They can offer
support during the transition of return shock.
After settling in
• Volunteer in your International Office. You can help other students
make the life- altering decision to study abroad. You will get to talk
about your time abroad and how it impacted you. You may also volunteer
to work on country-specific orientations.
• Interact with international students on campus. There are many
ways to get involved with the international students and some may even
be from the country where you studied.
• Continue your language learning. Look for ways to maintain the
language skills you gained while abroad either through taking classes,
joining a conversation club, or volunteering in a bilingual setting.
• Keep in touch with the friends you made while abroad. Exchange
letters, e-mails, and photos to keep up-to-date with one another.
• Become an expert on your host country. Read up on it, take courses,
or watch films.
• Keep informed on current events in your host country. You can
subscribe to a publication or read it online.
• Join an international club or association on campus that is
relative to your host country.
• Investigate international careers or careers that will use your
language skills.
Portions adapted from MU-International
Center – Reverse Culture Shock
(http://international.missouri.edu/studyabroad/after/cominghome.shtml)