Culture Shock: Coping in Diverse and Cultural Environments Essay

Adjustment to a new environment or culture with unfamiliar people is often marred by significant challenges, one of which is culture shock. Culture shock is the confusion and anxiety that arises when one is exposed to unfamiliar social surroundings that are noticeably different from their own (Anjalin, Mazumdar, & Whiteside, 2017). Students, expatriates, and business people who move from one culture to another are at risk of experiencing culture shock, and need to cope with the same to enhance their performance. This text outlines some of the coping strategies that an expatriate moving to a foreign country could adapt to manage culture shock.

The Scenario

An expatriate has received a promotion that requires him and his family to transfer to another country to run operations in that country. The country is not only third-world, but has different cultural norms and speaks a different language. It would be prudent to identify the coping strategies that the expatriate and his family could use to effectively deal with culture shock in the new country.

Problematic Situations that might Occur

There is likely to be a difference in social structure between the US and the new country. Americans are able to climb the social ladder through determination and hard work, implying that the social statuses of most of them are largely achieved (Rempel, 2011). Conversely, societies in developing countries are rigid, characterized by huge inequalities that result in large proportions of the population living in abject poverty. With a significantly large number of poor people, living conditions are abominable as compared to the US, making transition for American immigrants difficult (Rempel, 2011). Further, the expatriate and his family speak English as their official language, while the new country has an entirely new official language. Thus, there is the risk of a language barrier that could make communication with neighbors, employees, and other children in school difficult for the entire family. Moreover, given that the new country has a different culture, there are likely to be differences in the religious make-up, norms, the nature of social interactions, nationally-recognized festivals and even cuisine (Rempel, 2011).

Suggested Coping Strategies

Coping strategies could be categorized into three: knowledge-based strategies, emotion-based strategies, and physical strategies.

Knowledge-Based Strategies

One way to cope with culture shock…

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…new culture rather than being critical and suspicious. Besides adopting a positive attitude towards the new culture, there is a need for the expatriate and his family to build a strong support system of friends and colleagues at work to offer the support needed to re-establish their cultural identity (Kim, 2012).

Physical Coping Strategies

Studies have shown that good physical exercises have significant benefits in the battle against culture shocks (Chen, 2019). In this regard, the expatriate and his family could focus on relaxation therapy such as meditation and yoga as a coping strategy. Further, although the external environment is marred with elements of the new culture, the family could devise ways of making the internal home environment more or less similar to the American culture. They could do this by having a pet at home and displaying portraits and images reminiscent of the American culture within the home.

In conclusion, the family has a range of knowledge-based, emotion-based, and physical strategies that they could adopt to cope with culture shock in the new country. The family needs to take time to learn the new culture, connect with other members…