Reverse Culture Shock
What Is Reverse Culture Shock?
Reverse culture shock is the emotional and mental distress endured by certain individuals when they return home following a number of years overseas. This can bring about unforeseen difficulty in straightening out to the culture and values of the nation of origin, since the already recognizable has become new.
In a business setting, the coming of globalization has brought about an ever increasing number of employees being sent on extended tasks to different countries. With the number of expatriates who live and work in countries other than their own having increased in recent years, reverse culture shock is a phenomenon that is on the rise.
Understanding Reverse Culture Shock
The degree of reverse culture shock might be straightforwardly proportional to the time allotment spent overseas — the more drawn out the time spent abroad, the greater the shock factor upon the possible return home. Another factor that might influence the size of reverse culture shock is the degree of the difference in cultures between the exile's nation of origin and the foreign country.
In the event that personal contacts back home express lack of engagement in catching wind of the new encounters of the individual who is overseas, it might augment the split between them, which can lead to reverse culture shock.
How Reverse Culture Shock May Occur
As an individual invests energy overseas and gets more adjusted with their environmental factors, they might become more used to the nearby standards than what they encountered at home. For example, taking off one's shoes before entering a residence in various cultures is a neighborhood custom.
Adjusting to such a custom might make a propensity that is difficult to break upon a return home. There might be a change in the pace of work and relaxation that is initially disruptive to the lifestyle, afterwards turns out to be part of their new everyday practice. This interchange in lifestyles might make the traveler put their native behavior and customs under a microscope.
On a mental and interpersonal level, the degree of reverse culture shock might be increased or decreased by the amount of communication that is kept up with family, friends, or collaborators in their nation of origin. Assuming there is minimal ordinary discourse between the parties, it very well might be simpler to separate from the customs and attitude of the home nation for the new culture.
Episodes of reverse culture shock commonly are less serious for individuals who have voyaged overseas and returned home all the more regularly and developed a point of view on connecting with different cultures.
Features
- In the event that there is minimal customary discourse with relations from the nation of origin, it very well might be more straightforward to confine from the customs and attitude of the home nation for the new culture.
- The more drawn out the time spent abroad and the greater the social difference, the greater the reverse culture shock.
- In a business setting, globalization has brought about an ever increasing number of employees being sent on extended tasks to different countries.
- Reverse culture shock is the emotional and mental distress endured by individuals when they return home following a number of years overseas.
