So, I am settled into my second week of classes here in Japan, and things could not be going better for me. All of my classes are set for this term and pretty much everything is going according to plan for me. You can pretty much say that I have set for myself a relatively normal life in Japan. That being said, I do miss home like always, but I think that rather than describing what I miss of home, I should talk about culture shock, how it affects everyone who travels, and how to deal with the problems.
So, let's start off with a definition. Culture shock as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary is "a sense of confusion and uncertainty sometimes with feelings of anxiety that may affect people exposed to an alien culture or environment without adequate preparation". I will slightly alter this definition by saying these effects can occur even with adequate preparation.
This first thing to know about culture shock outside of the definition is knowing that culture shock will affect almost everyone to some extent. The effects can range from slight discomfort that might just cause you to shake your head every once in a while to extreme shock, causing one to want to return to their home country.
I can say from my experiences now that I have experienced both ends of this shock spectrum. In Hong Kong, I experienced quite harsh culture shock. This culture shock lead me to hid in my living quarters in Hong Kong multiple times a month, pretty much the opposite of what you want to do when you visit another country. I can't exactly describe it except from anxiety just like in the definition, but it certainly can make your life quite uncomfortable and sometimes scary.
The worst part of this culture shock is the fact that I did not realize that I was experiencing culture shock. This brings me to the most important part of this article: HOW TO COPE WITH AND OVERCOME CULTURE SHOCK. The first thing you can do when you experience anxiety or discomfort in a foreign place is to understand and accept you are experiencing culture shock. Every person you meet might tell you that the best way to experience a culture is to become a local, but you also need to respect that you are a foreigner in many ways and need to give yourself a break every now and then. In a way, this step was the hardest for me to make as I went on exchange to cultures where I look like a local, and thus can not create that barrier to take care of myself every now and then.
The next and basically most important and final key to overcoming culture shock is to share your problems with friends. You might feel that this is a problem you can deal with this problem by yourself, but I will tell you from experience, friends make this nearly impossible problem a lot easier to cope with. Understand that friends that you make both at home and internationally are your friends, and will understand your problems even if it seems something as meaningless as culture shock to you.
I can say from practice that these two methods have been quite fruitful for me in Japan. Even if it is a culture I have been familiar with due to my heritage just like in Hong Kong, I did experience culture shock yet again. I accepted that I was experiencing culture shock and shared it with friends, and as a result, I have enjoyed pretty much every single day I have spent in Japan exploring and experiencing the culture (pun intended).
Talk to you another time!