Culture Shock Sprouting Growth

January 23, 2020

Traveling abroad is an enriching experience that can create a space for personal growth and expansion of world views. However, the process doesn’t always come easy, and there is often a rollercoaster of emotions and feelings while adapting (or not) to new cultures. To name a few that I have experienced on my journey thus far, anxiety, fear, confusion, excitement, curiosity, frustration, intrigue, disgust, happiness, etc., the list goes on! It has been a constant dance between these feelings as I have discovered the realities of the countries I have visited. The more different the customs of the culture are compared to my American world view, the more fear, anxiety, and frustration pop up.

 The term culture shock explains the experience of being immersed in a new culture. It was coined by Kalevro Oberg in the 1950s and is defined as the anxiety that occurs after losing known symbols, traditions, and customs of social discourse (Irwin, 2007). In other words, the inability to communicate and interact in a normal, fluid way, gets lost when traveling to foreign countries. This results in a “shock” or anxious feeling of having to really think about each course of action. From getting around, making a phone call, saying hello or asking for help from locals, things that would normally take little effort at home, require full attention and alertness.

Oberg also created four stages of experience that one goes through when experiencing culture shock, Honeymoon, Anxiety, Adjustment, Acceptance. The stages don’t always occur in that exact order, and the entire time one is abroad, they can move between stages. I drew an illustration below of the 4 stages.

When I visited Togo, a small country that is four hours east of Ghana, I was hit with a strong bout of culture shock. I showed up to Lomé, Togo with an expectation of the atmosphere being similar to Accra, despite the many warnings from others that every African country tends to be very unique and diverse in their ways. French is the most widely spoken language in Lomé, as the country was colonized and ruled by France until it gained independence in 1960. Hardly anyone spoke English, and when I arrived, I found that my phone’s internet connection was not working. The anxiety immediately settled in, and I thought “how am I going to get around? I have no idea where I am going and no way to communicate with people!” Despite the fear that wanted to take over, I had to remain calm and begin to strategize ways I could communicate despite the language barrier. I found the first person that spoke English and asked to use their phone. I called the host of the Airbnb I was staying at and the man kindly took directions from her. He then helped me find a motorcycle taxi, told the man the directions in French and I was on my way. I arrived at the Airbnb to find that my host didn’t speak a lot of English as well, but we were able to successfully communicate by pointing and using our phones to describe what we wanted to say.

The most stressful part of Togo was not feeling fully competent in social interactions. I never felt like I was fully understood or that I fully understood others. This is an inevitable part of traveling though, and a part of the Acceptance Stage is realizing that to live in the host country, complete understanding and acceptance of the country isn’t required to function in the culture.

I navigated my way through Lomé with a lot of time spent in silence despite being surrounded by people. I was very lucky to make a dear friend that was staying at the same Airbnb who spoke English and French that was willing to translate for me. I was able to ease out of the Anxiety and Rejection phases into more Acceptance, though I never felt as comfortable as I do in Accra, where the majority of people speak English. The trip ended up being wonderful, especially with a tour of Kpalimé, which I have pictured below. 

Fetish Market in Lome where I learned about voodoo practices!

Kpalime, Togo

Kadi, my lovely friend and translator, getting a natural tattoo.

Cascade Agome Tomegbe

The discomfort that results from culture shock, is the catalyst of the change and transformation that occurs while traveling. When you are pushed so far outside of your comfort zone, and the life skills you are accustomed to must be traded for new ones, you move into new depths of yourself.  You must create a new comfort zone to navigate yourself and others while discovering new skills or overcoming situations you didn’t’ know you were capable of. Your levels of patience increase, acceptance of less personal space, presence, and alertness become heightened, while creativity, and self-resilience are roused for survival. Most of all, when one is able to remain open through the dance of culture shock, the beauty of the diversity of humanity reveals itself and the interconnection between all beings illuminated.  

Resources:

Irwin, R. (2007). Culture Shock: Negotiating Feelings in the Field. Anthropology Matters, 9(1). Retrieved from https://anthropologymatters.com/index.php/anth_matters/article/view/64

Learning, P. (2019, March 11). The 4 Stages of Culture Shock. Retrieved January 23, 2020, from https://medium.com/global-perspectives/the-4-stages-of-culture-shock-a79957726164