Many Foreigners Go Through Culture Shock

Introduction

Within the cultural adaptation process that foreigners go through, the most critical phase of this process is called culture shock. It may be considered as a profound and individual experience which may bring an emotional and physical discomfort, due to having to leave people behind and adapting to new people with different mentality and a different way of living. Although cultural shock used to be only seen as negative, explanations of culture shock describe that the adjustment period is a situation of growth and development, in which, however painful it may be, it can result in positive and even essential insights (Adler 1975).

Methods

Due to the short time in which this report needed to be put together, it was decided that, a survey method would be the best method. The survey was submitted to 2 students from Greenwich university and another 19 from other London universities, just to see if the students from other universities have the same struggles and support. The method used for this study was descriptive research with a qualitative approach.

The main objective of the descriptive research is a detailed description and it assumes that the researcher has previous knowledge about the problem that is the base for the background of this study.

As for the survey, it was created through SurveyMonkey since this site specializes in survey design allowing you to design in a simple yet sophisticated way thanks to its wide variety of question formats. In this way, participants only answer questions that were related to their previous responses.

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The survey has 10 mains questions and multiple choices were students could choise the answers adequate for them.

Results

The survey was made to 21 students 2 from University of Greenwich and another 19 from other London universities, London South Bank University and Bath Spa University. This survey was completed by students from different Genders, ages and nationalities, just to see if the students from other universities have the same struggles and supports.

All the students had the same view that the adaptation to the country was hard, especially because of the language with 32% and with 16% of Students went do depression. Within the fourth questions they had different approach, the propose to move to other country from mostly of student it was to study (40%). Students say that the most effective technique to deal with culture shock with 37% it was to get involved with the local community, with 21% it to make an effort to learn the local language and with 21% push themselves to make local friends.

Discussion

From the information obtained in the analysis of the results, it is observed that most respondents had the same comments, related with the theory proposed by the authors, in which, the first phase of cultural adaptation. The statements involved: enthusiasm when thinking about traveling and discovering new lands; the feeling that everything was new and intriguing; positive attitudes about the new country and excitement about the possibility of living with different people.

However, the opinion of foreigners regarding the cultural distance between UK and its countries of origin was not significant, since opinions were diverse. This was perhaps due to the improvement in the quality of information and the current globalization process. Furthermore, it is probably since respondents. Some found is easy to adapt and feel that were supported by the University, while others thought that support may be available, but no one tells them how to get it.

References

1. Adler, P.S. 1975. The transitional experience: An alternative view of culture shock. Journal of Humanistic Psychology 15 4, pp. 13–23
2. Milstein, T. 2005 Transformation abroad: Sojourning and the perceived enhancement of self-efficacy. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 29(2): 217-231