THE STAGES OF ADJUSTMENT
Someone who goes to stay in a foreign country, whether it is for a short time or forever, passes through several stages of adjusting to the newness of the culture. If the stay is going to be short, the person moves quickly through the stages. If the stay will be long, the stages last longer. Even children, who seem more adaptable than adults, go through the adjustment cycle, though they pass through it rather quickly.
The first stage of adjustment begins before the travelers even leave home. During this stage, they form ideas and images of what life in the new country will be like. In a way, they imagine themselves into the new way of life. It is a way to begin adjusting to the change.
In the second stage, which begins when the travelers arrive in the new country, everything is new and interesting. The travelers are in a heightened state of emotion, and their moods swing wildly up and down. While they are intensely aware of everything around them, they have no framework into which to put what they see and smell and hear. All their impressions tend to run together, or merge. Travelers at this stage are passive. They watch the inhabitants of their new land, but they do not join in. They are merely spectators.
As the travelers spend more time in the new country, the second stage gradually gives way to the third, or participation, stage. During this stage, the travelers begin entering into the life of the new country. They are no longer spectators but begin taking part. And as they participate, difficulties arise. They make mistakes; they find it difficult to accomplish simple tasks in a new country with an unfamiliar language and customs.
This is the stage where there is the most variability. Some travelers find it challenging. They learn from their mistakes and gradually begin to feel more a part of the country. Others find the task of adjusting nearly overwhelming. But even those who find it difficult gradually–almost against their will–begin participating more and more.
As the travelers participate more in the life of the new country, they begin changing. What was strange becomes familiar. What was difficult becomes easy. What seemed impossible becomes possible. Bit by bit they leave behind some of the assumptions and behaviors and beliefs which were part of them in their native land and begin thinking and acting more like the inhabitants of the new country. They have entered the fourth, or culture shock, stage of adjustment.
By the fourth stage, the travelers are functioning well. The language is no longer the struggle it once was. The currency is no longer unfamiliar. They know what to expect and how to get what they want. And just at this time a strange thing happens. They begin to feel more alienated than they did when they first arrived. Though life has become easier and they are coping well, they become irritable. Some become depressed. What they once found exciting and interesting in the new country is now annoying or hateful. They no longer want to go out and explore their new surroundings. They withdraw into themselves. They are experiencing the classic symptoms of culture shock.
What has happened is that by adjusting to their new surroundings, they have lost their sense of self. In giving up a little of their old culture and taking on some of the new, the very foundations of their identity are threatened. It is a frightening experience, and they cope with their fear by withdrawing from the new culture and temporarily retreating back to being spectators. Some even find that they can no longer use the new language as well as they had only days or weeks before
This stage, the culture shock stage, may be long or short, depending on the individual. Eventually, though, the travelers begin participating again in the culture, and they find to their amazement that they no longer feel so foreign. Out of the depression and sense of loss they experienced in the fourth stage comes real adjustment to the new land. They are less excited than they were in stage two, but their experiences are no longer a blur of heightened emotions and senses. They participate more than they did in stage three, but with less effort. In short, they have adapted to and become a part of their new country.
The final stage, the re-entry stage, occurs when or if the travelers return to their native lands. When they do, they find that they are not quite the same people as they were when they left. They have changed. Their values may be broader and more flexible. They have learned new and often better ways of being and thinking. Their friends and family seem slightly narrow and inflexible. Worse, their friends and family are only mildly interested in the exciting things that happened to them during their sojourn abroad. To their amazement, they feel just a little bit foreign in their own homeland.
Needless to say, personality differences influence the degree to which travelers go through these stages of adjustment. For some, the second stage is merely one of gentle interest in their new surroundings, while they experience culture shock only as mild listlessness or lack of interest in what is going on. Others feel the full force of each stage, going from excitement to despair, fully aware of the imbalance they experience as one stage gives way to another. Nevertheless, all travelers go through these stages of adjustment to a greater or lesser degree, and none return to their homes as quite the same people who left.
U1 A2 Remembering 1400 Winter
