CULTURE SHOCK: ADAPTATION STRATEGIES

Rubén Darío Alves López y Alicia de la Peña Portero

Universidad Antonio de Nebrija, Centro de Estudios Hispánicos
[email protected]; [email protected]

ALVES, R. y DE LA PEÑA, A. (2012). Culture

Shock: Adaptation Strategies. Revista Nebrija de
Lingüística Aplicada 11 (número especial), 3-50.

RESUMEN
Kalervo Oberg definió el choque cultural como una serie de reacciones
emocionales “precipitadas por la ansiedad que provoca la pérdida de los
símbolos que nos son familiares en el intercambio social” (Oberg 1954) y
el ajuste al que nos vemos obligados para adaptarnos. Este choque cultural
afecta a todos “los que son trasplantados a una nueva cultura” (Oberg
1954) y, aunque no se puede hacer desaparecer totalmente, sí se pueden
paliar sus efectos negativos. Para ello, hemos confeccionado un test
preparatorio que los alumnos habrán de realizar en los primeros días del
curso. No evitaremos que se sientan mal ante situaciones nuevas y
desconocidas, pero sí intentaremos que abra los ojos a otras
interpretaciones diferentes a las de su cultura.

Palabras clave: choque cultural, adaptación cultural, contexto de inmersión

ABSTRACT
Kalervo Oberg defined culture shock as a series of emotional reactions
“precipitated by the anxiety that results from losing all our familiar signs
and symbols of social intercourse” (Oberg 1954) and the adjustment we
are forced to make in order to adapt to this situation. This culture shock
affects all those “people who have been suddenly transplanted abroad”
(Oberg 1954) and, although it cannot be eliminated completely, its
negative effects can be softened. In order to do this, we have elaborated a
preparatory test that students will have to make in the first days of their
experience abroad. We will not prevent them from feeling anxious when
facing new and unknown situations, but we will help them open their eyes
to new interpretations different to those of their culture.

Keywords: culture shock, cultural adaptation, immersion context

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1. WHAT IS CULTURE SHOCK?

1.1 Definition of Culture Shock

Kalervo Oberg, who coined the term culture shock in the mid-
1950s, defines culture shock as “the anxiety that results from losing
all our familiar signs and symbols of social intercourse” (Oberg
1954). According to Oberg, a person is not born with a culture but
only with the capacity to understand it and use it. As we grow up in
a determined cultural environment and we learn to interact socially
in this environment, this culture becomes our way of life; it becomes
a safe, automatic and familiar way to get what we want.
When people abandon the social environment they know and
where they feel comfortable and safe and move to a new cultural
environment, as in the case of students who decide to spend a
period of time abroad, they will have to adjust to the new
environment and the new culture. It should not be assumed that the
target culture is ruled by the same patterns the culture of origin is,
as each culture (not only each country) perceives the world around
it in different ways and develops different mechanisms and
strategies to interpret it. For all this, those people transplanted
abroad will be exposed to stimuli, which, at some point or another,
they will not know how to interpret in a coherent way as they will
try to apply interpretation patterns that they found useful in their
culture of origin but which are not always useful in the target
culture.
It has been evidenced that any person entering a new cultural
environment will be exposed to suffer this culture shock. The only
variation will be the degree to which this person will be affected.
This depends on a series of factors, of which, the most common are
listed and briefly commented here:

1. The intercultural experience the subjects have had in the

past: travels to places with cultures that are different from their
own, relationships with people from other cultures in their culture of
origin, etc.
2. The previous knowledge they have about the target
culture: the more we know about the place and the people hosting
us (their history, their folklore, etc.) the easier it will be to
understand the behaviors we observe.

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 3. The linguistic ability they have to manage in the target
culture: the higher the level of foreign language the subjects have
the less probable it will be for them to experience
misunderstandings.
4. Human values previously learned and developed by
subjects: tolerance, respect, etc.
5. The subjects’ personality: confident, open and sociable
people will find it easier to establish new relationships with local
people who will help them interpret those not very familiar
behaviors they will come across in the target culture.
6. Similarities between the culture of origin and the target
culture: the more similar both cultures are, the fewer the occasions
in which the subject will be exposed culture shock will be.
7. Geography and weather: certain physical contexts
(excessive heights, nearness to the sea, etc.) and climatic
conditions (rain, cold, excessive heat, etc.) affect people, specially
those subjects that are not used to them. These physical conditions
increase the subjects’ discomfort and often make them project and
expand all this negative feelings into the target culture.
8. The subjects’ situation in the new environment: are they
integrated in the target culture?, are they in a culture-of-origin
bubble?, etc.

1.2 Stages in the Process of Adaptation to the Target Culture

Oberg (1954) described the process of adaptation to a new

cultural environment as a U-shape continuum where the following
stages are usually present:

Image 1. Oberg’s U-Shape Continuum

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 1. Honeymoon Stage: The subject has just arrived in a new
environment and is fascinated. All the senses are alert and even the
foreign language is understood and spoken better than expected.
The subject feels euphoric, energetic, and enthusiastic. Everything is
fantastic and the differences between the culture of origin and the
new culture are hardly perceived and excused as the defects in the
loved person.
2. Rejection or Regression Stage: The physical tiredness
resulting from the previous stage appears, issues with the physical
adaptation process to the target culture are detected (insomnia,
food or water problems, etc.), the subject is exposed to more
situations of linguistic intercourse where the level of language may
not result as good as it was thought at the beginning, family and
friends are missed and a feeling of loneliness and vulnerability
hovers around. The differences between the two cultures are evident
now and frequently, in the comparison, the target culture comes off
badly (everything is better in my country) and the target culture is
blamed for all the problems the subject suffers when s/he does not
know how to behave in an unfamiliar environment (nothing works
well in this country, people is rude, etc.). The subject feels
confused, tired, afraid, rejected, lonely, irritable, vulnerable and
anxious every time one of these situations is faced.
3. Adjustment/ Negotiation Stage: The subject progressively
adapts to the new environment and starts to develop routines
(following the same itinerary to class, buying in the same shops,
etc.), meets new people who can help interpreting situations that
may not be completely understood, linguistic abilities are improved,
the city is better known and the subject manages well in it. Of
course, the subject is conscious of the differences between the
culture of origin and the target culture but know s/he understands
the target culture is not bad; it just has to be interpreted with
different patterns. There will be things the subject will like or not
and also, s/he will know why.
4. Mastery Stage: Not all the subjects spend enough time in
the target culture to complete this stage where the subject would
become an adoptive cultural native.

1.3 General Recommendations to Overcome Culture Shock

The recommendations we give our students aim to help them
overcome culture shock in the better way possible. In general, it is
recommended to:

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 - Observe, listen and learn,
- Show respect,
- Learn from mistakes and apply the knowledge acquired
through them in future situations,
- Leave stereotypes and preconceived ideas aside and open the
mind to the new culture,
- Understand the culture shock process in order to understand
the feelings that will arise from it,
- Connect with target culture people who can serve as cultural
informants,
- Analyze the situations that are not understood before judging
or criticizing them just for being different to what the subject is used
to, and
- Enjoy the experience.

2. PROPOSAL TO MINIMIZE CULTURE SHOCK EFFECT

As our teaching experience confirmed all the above said about

culture shock, we decided to develop a tool that would help our
students manage and better understand the process of cultural
adaptation they were going to go through. For that, we elaborated
two different surveys, one for the students to make in the first days
of their programs abroad in Madrid as a cultural introduction to
Spain/Madrid, and a second survey to be completed at the end of
their time abroad so that our hypothesis could be checked.
In this paper, we will present the data compiled in the month of
June 2011, the first time our survey was passed to 49 students.
Afterwards, we will describe each of the surveys and we will analyze
the objectives and conclusions reached through their elaboration a
study.

2.1 Entry Survey

The entry survey is designed for the students to be completed in

the first days of their study abroad programs in Madrid, which, at
Antonio de Nebrija University (as in many other institutions) usually
pairs the beginning of their academic programs as well as their first
days in the target city. The entry survey is divided in three content
sections that are described below.

2.1.1 Section 1: Do you adapt easily?

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 To begin with, the questions in this first section were aimed at
knowing the demography of the students and analyzing their
experiential background in other countries and cultures. Questions
about age, gender or nationality are included; also about the
number of times the student has moved house or city, the number
of countries visited and the length of the visit, how tolerant they
consider themselves or the time they believe they will need to adapt
to the new cultural environment they just arrived in.
The data revealed a group mainly composed of female students,
from United States, and under 25 years old.

Image 2. Participants’ Nationality

Image 3. Participants’ Gender

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 Image 4. Participants’ Age

Half of them had already traveled outside of their countries

although, according to the numbers, they did it on holidays, as only
14.5% have lived outside of their countries for more than four
months.

Image 5. Participants’ Traveling Previous Experience

The amount and the quality of the subjects’ experiences in other

cultures and their reactions to the changes or differences is relevant
as the more exposed a subject is to other cultural environments, the

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greater his/her capacity to understand diversity, to tolerate
unfamiliar situations, to reflect before judging and to solve conflicts
will be.
Spanish as a Foreign Language Programs at Centro de Estudios
Hispánicos at Antonio de Nebrija University traditionally hosts a
great number of students from the United States. Therefore, we had
included in our survey some items related to changes of home or
School/ College, as many of the students from this country need to
move to another city, or even state, when they start college.
Actually, 85.7% of the respondents of our survey were from this
country. Of the students polled, 26.5% had found it difficult to adapt
to the new school/college, commenting that the most difficult part
had been making new friends.

Image 6. Participants’ Adaptation to Change Previous Experience

2.1.2 Section 2: What do Spaniards think about your culture/ your

country?

As we already mentioned in Section 1, it was foreseen that most

of the students polled would be coming from the United States (as
data evidenced afterwards). Therefore, a series of stereotypes
considered to be typical of this culture/ nationality were selected
and included in this second section of the survey: patriotic feeling,
the importance of money, addiction to technology, individualism,

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time consciousness, food, and political correction, among others.
The aim of this section was to offer the students some recognizable
points from which to start reflecting upon their own culture. The
peculiar thing would be that, this time, they would need to do it
from the point of view of others, from what they sensed other
cultures (in this case, the Spanish culture) think about their country,
their culture and their nationality. Let’s now look at the data
obtained from this section of the survey were we used a rating scale
1 to 5 (where 1 was “totally disagree”, 2 was “disagree”, 3 was
“neutral”, 4 was “agree” and 5 “totally agree”).
40.81% of respondents agreed with the statement “My country
fellows are materialist”, and 59.18% answered they totally agreed
with it. Taking into account that the adjective materialist implies
certain negative connotations, the data indicated that the majority
of the students polled understand that the image their country
projects abroad is one of a materialistic society. This does not mean
that students agree with the statement (and probably many of them
do not) but at least the survey results are indicative that they
understand that the members of a culture can perceive it in one
way, while, at the same time, this culture can be interpreted by the
people outside it in a different way. Here there are some more
examples drawn from the analysis of the data complied that support
this dual perception: 69.38% agreed or totally agreed with the
statement “My country fellows are noisy”; 95.91% also agreed or
totally agreed with the statement “My country fellows are addicted
to technology”, and 87.74% agreed or totally agreed with the
statement “My country fellows are always busy and are time-
conscious”.
From these data we can conclude that most of the answers in
this section reflect how conscious students are of the image their
culture of origin projects. In this case, as the majority of
respondents came from United States, the image obtained was that
of a society that is apparently perceived from the outside as
materialistic, noisy, technologic and fast. Maybe the students polled
are not like that, or they have an explanation to clarify those
descriptions: for example, they could argue that not everyone in the
United States is materialist but, as their country is the leader of the
capitalist Western world, it is perceived as such. They could also
explain that they may only be noisy when they are in a group or
with friends and, as this is the way they usually travel abroad, this
is the image perceived by the people in the target country. Another

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possible explanation would be that, as the bigger information firms,
social networks and communication conglomerates have their
headquarters in the United States, this seems to make Internet use
and access and other technological elements (cell phones, social
networks, etc.) widely common in everyday life, which makes them
be perceived as a very technological society. Or as a last example,
in the movies (great source of information of North American culture
for other societies), big cities such as New York, Los Angeles or
Chicago are presented as large metropolis where everybody runs
and is very busy. Maybe we are using ideas that are closed to
stereotypes, but in the end, they are recognizable images and
perceptions through which, in this case, United States society is
evaluated, and even judged.
Thanks to the reflection about their own culture that we
intended the students to make throughout this second section of the
survey, we believe that they are now more capable to understand
that other cultures, such as the Spanish culture in this case, assign
a series of behaviors and characteristics to other societies/ cultures,
such as the North American society in the examples, which may or
may not be faithful to their reality.
The next turn of the screw would be that the student started
suspecting that there will be differences between the two cultural
environments: their culture of origin and the Spanish/Madrid target
culture. In principle, it could be considered as a matter of opposition
of concepts: if the US society is perceived from the outside as
materialistic, it would be logical to think that Spanish culture will not
be such (they have probably heard that in Europe there are more
social security benefits, that working regulations tend to protect the
worker, that as Spanish economic development is smaller, its
consumption rates are be smaller too, etc.). Another example would
be that, if people from the US have new technologies more
integrated in their daily lives, they might start realizing that in Spain
these new technologies may not be as accessible, that there may
not be free Wi-Fi available, that Internet connection may be slower
or that phone call rates may be more expensive. Or maybe, if their
culture of origin is perceive as very time-conscious, by opposition,
Mediterranean cultures may live at a more relaxed pace and may
put more emphasis in the quality than in the quantity of time.
As a summary, section 2 of our survey intends to make students
reflect upon their cultures of origin and upon how they are
interpreted by other cultures. It also tries to make them understand

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that the difference in the interpretation (native versus foreign) is
mainly due to the existing differences between the two cultures: my
culture is this way and things are done this way; therefore, if in
other cultures things are done differently, this culture is then
different to mine. These differences make each culture understand,
interpret and even justify their own cultural behaviors (the things
that are done this way because in my environment they have always
been done this way). Therefore, people tend to interpret a new
culture using the same interpretation patterns that are valid in the
culture of origin. However, the fact of using the same interpretation
patterns to analyze a different cultural environment that is regulated
by different patterns, inevitably leads the subject to criticize or
judge those behaviors that are alien and unknown.
Our intention with this project was to make the students become
conscious that in the target culture many things are done in a way
that differs from the way they know and that certain actions are
interpreted in a different way because different interpretation
patterns are used. It does not have to be better or worse, it is only
different and it has an explanation. The most important thing is to
make the students reflect upon the difference before criticizing it
and to make them understand the reasons behind those behaviors
that are unknown to them.

2.1.3 Section 3: How much do you know?

The last section of our survey is presented as a small cultural

test and bears a double objective: on the one hand, to compile
information about what international students exactly know before
arriving in Madrid and what preconceived ideas they have about
Spain. On the other hand, the second aim is to prepare them for
recurrent situations and habitual behaviors in Madrid daily life that,
out of experience we know they are going to experiment at some
point of their study abroad experience and are going to shock them.
All the items in this section are accompanied by a picture or image
in order to facilitate a full understanding of the cultural situation we
wanted the students to be exposed to.
We would like to mention that, as certain resources were not
available to us by the time this survey was passed to organize a
post-survey workshop with all the participants about the survey and
its content, students were given a document that could be called
“Quick Tips to Spanish Cultural Behaviors”. In this document, the

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students are briefly explained the reasons underlying the
idiosyncratic cultural behaviors presented to them in the survey. In
the document, each explanation is illustrated by the same image
used in the survey in order to help the students remember and
connect ideas.
The most typical reactions of someone facing a situation or
witnessing a behavior which is alien to him/her and that, therefore,
is not completely understood is feeling offended (they are doing this
to me because I am not Spanish and they do not like me), feeling
angry (I want to leave this restaurant but they still have not brought
the check, they are so slow), feeling isolated (I am the only one that
is different, I do not have friends here) or feeling disenchanted (I do
not know why I decided to come to this country, it is not what I
expected). All these negative feelings that can be experienced in
culture shock situations distort the perception a subject is forming
about the target culture and may ruin the experience abroad. This is
what we have intended to avoid with this proposal.
Now, the results of the most representative items in the third
section of the survey will be commented on in order to illustrate
better the objectives of this last section. First of all, we will deal
with personal space. We know that in Spain, in comparison to other
cultures such as North American culture, our personal space is
smaller and interpersonal display of affection is more physician and
public. One of the items in the survey showed the picture of tow
youngsters passionately kissing in the mouth in a park. To the
question “Would this behavior take place in your country?” 77,6% of
respondents said that only some people do it, from where we
deduce that most people would find this behavior unusual. The
following item, illustrated by the picture of two young girls kissing
on the cheeks, asked if greeting people with two kisses on the
cheeks is normal in the students’ country of origin. 73,5% of
respondents said no. From this data we conclude that both
behaviors are perceived as unusual by most of the subjects and will
probably be interpreted according to their own cultural patterns:
they may think that a man/boy is a pain if he wants to kiss them the
first time they meet, they may feel intimidated if someone is too
close, they may judge the couple in the park as exhibitionist or too
liberal, etc.
In order to help them think about the Spanish culture and
minimize the culture shock effects, in the “Quick Tips to Spanish
Cultural Behaviors” document the same picture of the couple kissing

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in the park is presented with this text: “In Spain, personal space is
smaller than in other cultures. There is a lot of physical contact and
closeness. It is normal to see couples holding hands, kissing and
hugging in public places (metro, parks, etc.)”. The text that goes
with the picture of the two young women kissing in the cheek says:
“In Spain, when you meet someone for the first time in an informal
context, Spaniards usually greet others with a kiss on each cheek. It
is common between girls and between boys and girls (not so
common between two boys). Spaniards also kiss their friends when
you see them or when you say goodbye”. Now, they now that it is
common in Spain to kiss your friends, to hold hands and to touch
them, etc. They may not like this behavior, they may sometimes
feel uncomfortable, they may love it and adopt this behavior to
greet their country fellows. The most important thing is that they
now know that this is a behavior they are going to witness regularly
in the new cultural environment and that it does not make sense to
judge it according to their interpretation patters as they do not work
properly in this case in Spain.
Here we have another example, this time related to the food in
Spain. Another item in this third section of the survey was a multiple
choice item illustrated with a picture of the floor of a bar covered
with paper napkins and toothpicks. The question was: “How would
you react if you entered a bar and the floor looked like this?” Three
options were given: (a) I would not even enter because it is dirty/ I
would leave; (b) I would assume they have a problem with the
cleaning service, and (c) It is fine. I guess they offer great food and
many people eat here. 71.4% of respondents said they would not
even go in; 22.4% said the owner had a problem with the cleaning
service and only 6.2% would deduce that it is a good place to eat.
Clearly, the majority of the students entering a bar like this will be
shocked, as they will tend to interpret this situation using the
patterns of their culture of origin (they have a cleaning problem, the
bar is dirty, the food is sure to be bad, etc.). The “Quick Tips to
Spanish Cultural Behaviors” document explains that “traditional
Spanish bars with a lot of clients usually have their floors covered
with paper napkins and toothpicks. It is interpreted as a sign of
good quality. A Spaniard would think: many people eat here so the
food must be good”. We do not know if our students will finally go in
a bar like this but if they do, or if they see the floor from the
entrance, they will probably not judge the place from the point of

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view of their culture of origin (where this would be unthinkable); we
hope they will understand that this is normal in Spain.

2.2 Exit Survey

Out of the 49 students who answered the survey at the

beginning of their program in Madrid, only 38 answered the exit
survey, which was passed just before the end of their one-month
stay. The aim of this exit survey is, on the one hand, to make
students reflect upon the cultural experience they have lived in an
environment that is different from the one they are used to, and, at
the same time, we wanted to obtain information about their
adaptation process to this new life. We will now summarize briefly
the most relevant results obtained from this exit survey.
First of all, we wanted to obtain information about how the
participants remembered feeling when they arrived in Madrid. The
attitude and the positive predisposition help enormously to adapt to
a new cultural environment. As it can be seen in the graph, most of
our students were excited, more than half of them were anxious,
and only a small percentage felt afraid and lonely. All these feelings
are normal and correspond to the typified reactions when facing new
situations.

Image 7. Participants’ Feelings at Arrival

Regarding the adaptation process of the participants to the new

Spanish cultural environment, 73.7% found the effort to adapt a

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hard process, although only occasionally. In 65.8% of the cases
they wanted to escape the Spanish culture at some point or another.
60.5% found shocking or disgusting things and felt weird or nervous
when relating to Spaniards; however, only 2.6% did not feel
accepted by locals. When, at some point, participants had negative
feelings, 79% solved it contacting their friends and family back
home (phone, Skype or Facebook), 60.5% going out with other
country fellows and 29% going out with Spaniards they had met.
With regards to the aspect of the Spanish culture they had more
difficulties adapting, 63.2% answered that the foreign language;
36.8% food and eating habits; 24.2% said social interaction and
13.2% schedules. In 10 of the cases, students said to have suffered
some kind of discrimination during their stay in Spain. Among this
discrimination cases they mentioned the impatience they were
treated with, how linguistically inferior they felt when Spaniards
assumed they had a lower level they believed to have; and in two
cases they made reference to being treated badly because of being
North-American or Afro-American.

3. CONCLUSIONS

As it has been seen along this presentation, culture shock is a

process that every foreign student participating in an experience
outside his or her cultural environment of origin will suffer to some
extent. The aim of the surveys we designed, as well as the
explanatory material students were given after, has always been to
help students adapt to the Spanish culture in the least aggressive
way possible and to open their minds so that they can understand
and tolerate different forms of thinking, acting and living. With the
data compiled from the analysis we intend to improve the surveys
so that they can fit better the students we host at Antonio de
Nebrija University. To conclude, we consider it essential to
implement lectures and workshops on culture shock and adaptation
process in every international department; they will improve the
quality of the international experience of our students.

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