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TN4: How to manage culture shock. With Clara Wiggins.
In this episode, I brought to you a special guest to share with you some great tips on how to deal with culture shock. Her name is Clara Wiggins.
Clara is born in Cuba to British diplomats and traveled her whole life, she lived in 11 countries and 5 continents! She has been living abroad as a child, as a single adult and as an expat partner. Clara and her husband have two daughters and they just moved very recently to South Africa. After a career in journalism and diplomacy, Clara manages today a journal called the International Journal of Birth and Parent Education, she is also the author of a great book that I highly recommend to you: the Expat Partner Survival Guide.
Experiencing culture shock as an expat in a host country can be a huge challenge. If we don’t learn how to manage it and to overcome this culture shock it can have quite a negative impact on our experience abroad. We definitely don’t want to end up leaving with a feeling of frustration, disappointment and sometimes hate towards the host country. That is why it was important for me to bring to you some guidance if you are going through a culture shock, some insights on how to detect that you are going through it and how to adapt to a new country and a new culture.
In this episode, Clara shares her definition of culture shock and the 4 stages that she found out most people go through. Some go through all of them, some go through only few of them and others go through these stages in different orders:
* The wonder and honey moon phase.
* The negotiation phase.
* The adjustment phase.
* The acceptance phase.
Clara also shares some great tips to deal with these different phases and with culture shock in general:
* Be aware of the culture shock and in particular on the "cycle" that you are likely to experience before you arrive in your new location. It is a lot easier to deal with if you recognize it for what it is and what the symptoms are.
* Realize that things very likely will be difficult (possibly very difficult) at the start, but that they will almost certainly get better, usually between 3-6 months of arrival
* It is very normal to get angry with your host nation and their way of doing things, especially in the early days. You will find fault with even the most easy-going of nationalities because they don't do things the same way as you are used to back home. Gradually this will lessen as you start to get used to the way things are done.
* Find a way to let off steam. For some, the best way of doing this is with other expats who understand what you are going through. For others, they prefer to stay away from negativity, so would prefer to let off steam in other ways (perhaps by talking to family back home).
* If you can't find real life people to talk to, don't forget there are plenty of online places to meet others.
* Look after yourself. Try to stay healthy, eat regularly and exercise regularly. If you are working long hours try and do something totally different at the weekend. If you are the stay-at-home or non-working partner, look for ways to meet other people. For example at the gym, in book groups, through voluntary work, photography or cookery classes... etc. If you can find a hobby where you "do" something with the locals you m...
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By Amel Derragui
5
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In this episode, I brought to you a special guest to share with you some great tips on how to deal with culture shock. Her name is Clara Wiggins.
Clara is born in Cuba to British diplomats and traveled her whole life, she lived in 11 countries and 5 continents! She has been living abroad as a child, as a single adult and as an expat partner. Clara and her husband have two daughters and they just moved very recently to South Africa. After a career in journalism and diplomacy, Clara manages today a journal called the International Journal of Birth and Parent Education, she is also the author of a great book that I highly recommend to you: the Expat Partner Survival Guide.
Experiencing culture shock as an expat in a host country can be a huge challenge. If we don’t learn how to manage it and to overcome this culture shock it can have quite a negative impact on our experience abroad. We definitely don’t want to end up leaving with a feeling of frustration, disappointment and sometimes hate towards the host country. That is why it was important for me to bring to you some guidance if you are going through a culture shock, some insights on how to detect that you are going through it and how to adapt to a new country and a new culture.
In this episode, Clara shares her definition of culture shock and the 4 stages that she found out most people go through. Some go through all of them, some go through only few of them and others go through these stages in different orders:
* The wonder and honey moon phase.
* The negotiation phase.
* The adjustment phase.
* The acceptance phase.
Clara also shares some great tips to deal with these different phases and with culture shock in general:
* Be aware of the culture shock and in particular on the "cycle" that you are likely to experience before you arrive in your new location. It is a lot easier to deal with if you recognize it for what it is and what the symptoms are.
* Realize that things very likely will be difficult (possibly very difficult) at the start, but that they will almost certainly get better, usually between 3-6 months of arrival
* It is very normal to get angry with your host nation and their way of doing things, especially in the early days. You will find fault with even the most easy-going of nationalities because they don't do things the same way as you are used to back home. Gradually this will lessen as you start to get used to the way things are done.
* Find a way to let off steam. For some, the best way of doing this is with other expats who understand what you are going through. For others, they prefer to stay away from negativity, so would prefer to let off steam in other ways (perhaps by talking to family back home).
* If you can't find real life people to talk to, don't forget there are plenty of online places to meet others.
* Look after yourself. Try to stay healthy, eat regularly and exercise regularly. If you are working long hours try and do something totally different at the weekend. If you are the stay-at-home or non-working partner, look for ways to meet other people. For example at the gym, in book groups, through voluntary work, photography or cookery classes... etc. If you can find a hobby where you "do" something with the locals you m...