Making the Most of Your Study Abroad experience:

1. Making the Most of Your Study Abroad experience: Suggestions for Successfully Adapting to Life in the U.S Adrian F. Aveni Professor of Sociology Jacksonville State University

2. Why Live Abroad • Study at a College • Job Opportunities • Someone Else Wanted Me Go • Employer • Government • Parents • Wanted to Learn More About the Country • Thought It Would Be Fun

3. Traveling to Another Country • How People Think, Feel, Behave Will Be Different • Choices: Continue As If I Still Were Back Home Change Some My Thinking, Feeling, Behaving Adapting Involves Changing Some of My Thinking, Feeling and Behaving While Away Adapting Does Not Involve Changing What You Love About Your Country

4. Ways That the US and Brazil Are Alike • Large Land Areas • Part of the Americas • Large Populations • Colonized by European Countries

5. Ways That the US and Brazil Are Different • The US Is More Physically and Culturally Isolated than Brazil

8. Ways That the US and Brazil Are Different • The US Is More Physically and Culturally Isolated than Brazil • People in the US Are Called By Others and Call Themselves “Americans” (When, of Course, Brazilians Are Also Americans) • There Is A Large Middle Section in the US That is Far From Any Ocean

9. Useful Concepts: Tools You Can Use • Culture • Ideal vs. Real Culture • Subculture • Cultural ‘Maze Ways’

11. Cultural Maze Ways Provide Paths for Solving Problems • Physical Locations • Practical Problems • Social Relationships

12. Many Maze Ways Useful in One Country Are Not Useful in Another Country When You Approach People in a Different Country They Will Be Operating on the Basis of Maze Ways From Their Country and Not Your Country To Successfully Adapt to a New Country You Must Develop New Maze Ways

13. U-Shaped Curve of Feelings Toward The Host Countryfrom University of the Pacific website: http://www2.pacific.edu/sis/culture/pub/1.6.1-_Common_Reactions.htm

14. Stages of Cultural Adaptation • The Honeymoon Stage • The Conflict Stage • The Critical Stage • The Recovery Stage

15. Honeymoon Stage from: website of theOffice of International Programs at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical University: http://www.ncat.edu/~oip/cultureshock.htm#Ucurve • Common thoughts: Isn't this exciting? I can't wait to tell _____ about this. Aren't they interesting? Everything here is so _____! • Characteristics: • Busy taking care of business (registration, housing, bank account, etc.) • Observing the new culture and familiarizing yourself with the new environment • Meeting useful and friendly university staff • Making your first social contacts with members of the host culture • Seeing and doing new things and enjoying a new world

16. The Conflict Stage from: website of theOffice of International Programs at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical University: http://www.ncat.edu/~oip/cultureshock.htm#Ucurve • Common thoughts: We would never do that in my country! Why can't they just _? I only have _ months before I go home. These people are so _! • Characteristics: • Want more personal relationships with local people • Have little time or opportunity to make friends • Feeling isolated, out of place • May feel tired, sick, depressed, angry, or frustrated • Have an awareness that your home culture's behaviors may not be accepted in the host culture, and you may have to give up, suspend, or modify your own behavior • Blame the host culture for your problems • Spend lots of time with members of your home culture complaining about the host culture

17. Critical Stage from: website of theOffice of International Programs at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical University: http://www.ncat.edu/~oip/cultureshock.htm#Ucurve • Common thoughts: Why shouldn't they say/do that? We say/do that too, but differently • Characteristics: • You choose to become an "explorer" in the new culture • You accept the challenge of self-reflection • You assume responsibility for your own cultural adjustment

18. Recovery Stage from: website of theOffice of International Programs at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical University: http://www.ncat.edu/~oip/cultureshock.htm#Ucurve • Common thoughts: You don't understand them like I do. I'm beginning to like this • Characteristics: • Language skills improve noticeably • Begin to understand the actions of members of the host culture • Finally made friends and feel part of the community • Develop a greater tolerance for what is strange and new • Become a mediator between the two cultures • Feel proud that you can make yourself understood in the target language and that you can understand native speakers.

19. New Maze Ways Help Adaptation • Be Sensitive to Differences in Maze Ways • Recognize That Some People Will Easily Adapt to Your Maze Ways • Recognize That Some People Will Not Easily Adapt to Your Mazeways and That This Doesn’t Mean They Don’t Like You or People From Your Country

20. Useful Concepts: Tools You Can Use – I I • Norms • Beliefs • Values

21. Norms Some Areas in Which Norms Operate • Time • Arrival at a Job Interview • Arrival at Dinner at a Friend’s House • Arrival at a Party • Space • Eye Contact • Dating • Making Friends

22. Beliefs • If you work hard you will get ahead • People are poor because they don’t work hard • A college education is the best way to getting a good job • It is not what you know it is who you know • It is better to delay marriage until after college • When you find the right person you should marry him/her

23. Values Individualism Material Comfort Privacy Morality Freedom Equality Democracy Life/Safety/Health Success Linear Thinking Hard Work Quality of Life Efficiency Openness to Change

24. Using the Internet • YouTubehttp://www.youtube.com/ • Facebookhttp://www.facebook.com/ • WFMUhttp://wfmu.org/ • IMDBhttp://www.imdb.com/ • Hulu http://www.hulu.com