People Like Us, Too…How to Avoid Culture Shock?

Абдеева Эльмира – студентка III курса                  группы 3Э-3  УКСИВТ

Научный руководитель: Ерофеева С. М.

Elmira Abdeeva is a 3 year student of the faculty Economic and Record-keeping of the Ufa College of Statistics, Computer Science and Computer Facilities. She’s future book-keeper.  She's  fond of travelling. She likes to meet new people, read book about customs and traditions of other countries. She’s interested in everything that’s happening in the world.

Абдеева Эльмира студентка III курса отделения “Экономика и бух. учет (по отраслям)”. Она будущий экономист. Любимый род занятий в свободное время – путешествие. Она любит знакомиться с новыми людьми, читать книги об обычаях и традициях других стран. Ее интересует все, что происходит в мире.    

People like us, too… How to avoid culture shock?

Our world is called a “Melting Pot” of cultures, customs, styles and ways of life. Every culture has its own traditions, ways of communication, taboos. This is the reason of culture shock. That is why, if you decide to visit some country, before it you should learn everything of its culture. If you don’t do it, you will look illiterate, impolite and foolish. Culture shock describes the impact of moving from a familiar culture to one which is unfamiliar.            

It can affect anyone, including international students. It includes the shock of a new environment, meeting lots of new people and learning the ways of a different country. It also includes the shock of being separated from the important people in your life.  When familiar sights, sounds, smells or tastes are no longer there you can miss them very much.

      The process (of culture shock) can be broken down into five stages:

1. The ‘honeymoon’ stage                                      

 2. The ‘distress’ stage                                                        

3. The ‘re – integration’ stage

4. The ‘autonomy’ stage

5. The ‘independence’ stage

   So, I want to give you some examples. These are the opinions of people, who visited different countries and faced problems of culture shock. It would be wise to bear in mind that pork, shellfish and alcohol are forbidden in many Arab countries. Take ‘thank you’, for instance. In Japanese it’s ‘arigato’ and Spanish it’s ‘gracias’, which are totally different, and neither of them sound like ‘merci’, which is what the French say. The Italians say ‘grazie’. In Japan they consider it very rude if you look at them for too long. So if you ever go there, try to avoid prolonged eye contact. In some Asian countries it seems to a quite the opposite. On trips to Pakistan men often stare at you for ages. It makes you quite nervous, I can tell you. In Australia, the ‘thumbs up’ sign that you use in Britain and the States is actually quite rude and you should avoid it.

   As it was said above every country has its own customs, traditions. So there are a lot of different holidays that are celebrated in Russia, Britain and the USA, and even the same holidays can be celebrated in different ways in these countries.

     What are the things that occupy the time of modern teens? Of course, the most important things is studying. But many youngsters chose different kind of sport as their hobbies. But there’s a bit difference between sports in Great Britain, the USA and Russia.

     Taking into account that the year 2009 is announced the Year of Youth and the Support and Development of Youth Initiatives we can’t avoid speaking about youth problems. One of the most dramatic problems of the youth is peer pressure.

  What is peer pressure and why does it happen. Peer pressure can happen when we are influenced to do something we would not usually do because we want to be accepted by our peers, i.e. groups of friends who are about the same age and share the same interests.

  How does peer pressure affect people? Peer pressure can influence how people dress, how they talk, what music they listen to and how they behave. People never want to be looked down upon or made fun of. Peer pressure can lead people to do things they would not normally do on their own.

  What can parents do about it? They need to encourage children to stay out of situations in which they know they would be pressurized and uncomfortable.

     Our generation has so many opportunities now. We are much alike; we look alike, we have similar musical preferences, we have equal opportunities to gelling education and travelling. We have an access to the Internet, where we can find just everything that we want. The main teenager’s educational breakthrough is that teens can travel all over the world today. There are a huge amount of travel companies which offer to students facilitating travel aboard or exchanging students from different countries. For example, such companies as Star Travel, Work and Travel, which are the most popular among students and pupils. The main advantage of these companies is that teens become more informed, expand their horizons and learn more and more about other countries cultures. All these points help them to avoid culture shock, too.

    Наш мир называется “Кипящим котлом” культур, обычаев, стилей, образов жизни. Каждая культура имеет свои традиции, манеры общения и табу. Это служит причиной “культурного шока”. Поэтому если вы хотите посетить какую-нибудь страну, вы должны узнать как можно больше о ее культуре. В противном случае вас сочтут за неграмотного, невежливого или просто глупого человека.

  Различают пять стадий культурного шока:

1. Стадия “первого знакомства”
2. Стадия “разочарования”
3. Стадия “реинтеграции”
4. Стадия “автономии”
5. Стадия “независимости”

  Мы все во многом схожи: мы выглядим одинаково, имеем одинаковые музыкальные пристрастия, одинаковые возможности для получения образования и путешествий… Главные прорыв в области образования молодежи это возможность путешествовать и одновременно получать образование. Путешествуя, люди расширяют горизонты своих познаний и узнают все больше и больше друг о друге, тем самым преодолевают “культурный шок”.