In the today’s lesson of globalization and professional change we have been talking about the culture shock. Marcus introduced us to the progress and the different phases of the culture shock and thereby I recognized that I already experienced it a few couple of years ago when I moved to Leeds/England. At first, I was really happy to live in a country which was so unfamiliar to me. All the differences in the culture, the food, language and daily life made me feel newborn. But after a few couple of months I felt annoyed by it. My bosses who asked my: “Hi ya, are you alright” and left me alone at the second of asking without expecting an answer as well as the superficial conversations I had to bear when talking to my “friends” made me feel lonely. I also felt tired and lost and it took me a long time until I could talk about my feelings with the people I met in Leeds.
I found a lot of ways to deal with the culture shock myself. These are some of them:
- I tried not to judge the people in England for their behavior but I rather asked a lot questions to understand why people behave differently than I did.
e.g.: I was wondering why so many people have bad teeth in England and at first, I got the impression that maybe they are not as hygienic as the Germans. One day I asked my friend about it and he explained to me that they don’t have a proper insurance for going to the dentist and consequently, it is really expensive to see a dentist so that not all people can afford to go there every year. And that was just one small example.
With this awareness it was so much easier to understand people and their behavior.
Hence, I decided to question everything that made me wonder.
- I didn’t want to change things because I knew that I had to integrate into a different culture.
In my point of view, it is always a good way to accept things in a different culture because we just experience the surface of it and we can’t see it from an inside perspective but only from a foreigner who tries to live in an unfamiliar country.
- Talking about experiences.
In England as well as in Copenhagen it worked very well for me to discuss about certain tradition, behavior or experience with a different culture with other foreigners or inhabitants. In that way we could compare our cultures, explain why we have certain traditions and have a deeper look behind the people’s mentality.
- In Copenhagen it was very helpful to do a lot of group exercises with the Erasmus students.
e.g.: In Educational we had to describe our school system, in Visual Culture we had to compare our home institutions and ideal learning environment and in globalization we had to talk about our experiences concerning the culture shock to the other nationalities. That helped me to see certain aspects from a different point of view.
- I also tried not to see my opinion as the one and only one.
- When I couldn’t talk to anybody, I did some research on the internet or in books to understand the sources of situations
These ways of dealing with cultural diversity made me more open-minded toward it.
After a few couple of months, I realized that people in England don’t meant to be rude or impolite if they ask you “Are you alright?” and don’t expect an answer of you. It is their way of just saying “Hi” which is, in a way, polite.
In class today, we had a closer look on schools in different countries (Laos, Denmark and Eritrea). We discussed about the different classrooms and raised questions to understand how teaching takes place and what preconditions teachers and pupils in these countries have. Raising questions also helped me to discuss about nationalities’ traditions and therefore becoming more open-minded.
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