CULTURE SHOCK & STEREOTYPES

1. CULTURE SHOCK & STEREOTYPES By Žaneta ČĖSNIENĖ Sakarya/Turkey,2012

3. WHAT IS CULTURE SHOCK? ?

4. WHAT IS CULTURE SHOCK? (1) • Reaction to the failure to understand, control and foresee the behaviour of others. • This state is manifested by surprise, anger, abhorrence and outrage facing the cultural differences. • Feeling that the members of the unfamiliar culture “do not let you in”.

5. WHAT IS CULTURE SHOCK? (2) • Disability to fight with a new environment; feeling of loss (of friends, social status, property). • Mismatch between the expectations and reality. Such a feeling is tormenting until we open ourselves to the new culture and form in ourselves respective models of behaviour.

6. FEATURES OF CULTURE SHOCK • Tension, great attempts seeking to adapt psychologically. • Feeling of loss (of status, friends, homeland, profession, property). • Feeling of separation (inability to accept the new culture) and feeling of alienation (the new culture does not accept).

7. OTHER FEATURES OF CULTURE SHOCK (1) • Annoying frequent washing of hands, worry over the cleanness of water, dishes, bed-sheets, over the quality of food. • Feeling of helplessness, lack of self-confidence, dependence on the people from your native country living in the foreign country for along time.

8. OTHER FEATURES OF CULTURE SHOCK (2) • Anger over small and trivial failures and obstacles. • Unwillingness or complete refusal to learn the language of the host country. • Constant fear of being deceived, robbed, injured, hurt. • Giving prominence to your small efforts.

9. STAGES OF CULTURE SHOCK (1) • HONEY MOON • During the first weeks the person admires everything what is new, feels elated and flattered by warm and friendly relations of the local people.

10. STAGES OF CULTURE SHOCK (2) • CRISIS • It occurs when trying to adapt new culture which is in essence very different. • The endured experience arises hostility and aggression. • Local people indifferently react to the problems of the newcomers as they cannot understand their worries. • Thus the “witless hosts” are described as uncaring, hateful.

11. STAGES OF CULTURE SHOCK (3) • REVIVAL • The crises passes by when a newcomer tries to get involved in the social life of the new culture (i.e. starts learning the language, understands the ongoing events, learns about the traditions and customs). • New discoveries give the feeling of happiness, help to recover psychologically.

12. STAGES OF CULTURE SHOCK (4) • AJUSTMENT • The newcomers, assessing the customs of the local as a normal way of life, understand that the new culture has both, positive and negative aspects. • Changing the views, the barrier when we feel as foreigners disappears.

13. STAGES OF CULTURE SHOCK (5) • SHOCK OF RETURN • When the expatriate returns home, he/she experiences a similar process of aculturisation. And as this reaction is least expected, it is extremely painful. • The cultural differences and experienced changes will influence one’s further life, work and carreer. One understands that he /she has changed though cannot say how and why.

14. MAIN PROBLEMS OF STUDENTS • EMOTIONAL • Loneliness, longing for home, dietary disorders, worry about the problems back home. • ACADEMIC • Communication in a foreign language, a higher level of studies, misunderstandings b/w the lecturer and students.

15. FOREIGN STUDENTSYNDROM (1) • Suffered more frequently by the representatives of the female gender, elder people, the ones with higher education diplomas and living far from their families. • Depends on the social class (students of higher social level adapt easier that the middle level), university level (easier studies at the province universities), duration of studies, age and personal traits.

16. FOREIGN STUDENTSYNDROM (2) • Students having close friends do not lack the help. • The geographical distance is described as disaster followed by the alienation, colder interrelations. • Extra stresses: communication barrier, cultural disorganization – clash between the old and new values, lack of family support.

17. SUCCESSFUL ADAPTATION • Positive contacts in the new environment • Solving of daily problems (school, family, household) • Good humour

18. INDICATORS OF SUCCESSFUL ADAPTATION • Participation in the social and cultural life of the new culture. • Satisfactory psychical and physical health, adequate communication. • Integral personality.

19. ADVANTAGES OF CULTURE SHOCK • Self-development – knowledge about new cultures, acknowledgement of new values. • Broadening of mind and development of self-identity, acknowledgement of personal abilities – to adapt, communicate, feel. • Understanding of the differences in cultures.

21.  CULTURAL ASSIGNMENT

22. STEREOTYPES GAME

23. Stereotypes game 1. Where was spaghetti first made? 23

24. Stereotypes game 2. What does an ostrich do when it feels a danger? 24

25. Stereotypes game 3. Which European city has the biggest number of bridges? 25

26. Stereotypes game 4. At what part of the day can you hear nightingales singing? 26

27. Stereotypes game 5. Was Einstein a good pupil at school? 27

28. Stereotypes game 6. What should you do when you see a snake? 28

29. Stereotypes game 7. Was Cleopatra beautiful? 29

30. Stereotypes game 8. Which European country has most of rainfall? 30

31. Stereotypes game 9. Why does chameleon change its colour? 31

32. Stereotypes game 10. Why do monkeys scratch each other? 32

33. STEREOTYPES GAME

34. STEREOTYPES AND ATTITUDES (1) • A simplified a priori attitude which does notarise from personal experience. • Stereotypes occur spontaneously. • Divide the world into two categories – “known” and “unknown”. • What is known is “good”, and what is unknown is “bad”.

35. STEREOTYPES AND ATTITUDES (2) • The formed stereotypes respectively correct our perception, applying certain features, traits to the observed object. • The formed attitudes frequently influence the selection of partners for communication, of activityand behaviour, which corresponds to the formed attitudes, in specific situations.

36. STEREOTYPES AND BEHAVIOUR (3) • A stereotype is formed not only in the context of reflection of objective reality but also in the process of communication. • While communicating, it is possible to modify the stereotype itself, to strengthen or weaken its separate parts.

37. SURVEY RESULTS (1) • Over 5 years the opinions have got worse on the following groups: • Gypsies (35.3 %) • Muslims (31.5 %) • Chechens (30.5 %) • Refugees (29.4 %) • Pakistanis (26.9 %) • Chinese (24.4 %) • Hindu and Buddhists (23.1 %)

38. SURVEY RESULTS (2)

39. SOCIAL FUNCTION OF A STEREOTYPE (1) • When meeting a representative of another culture, a person tries to remember what he / she has heard about this culture, the peculiarities of its members, and tries to apply this information to specific case.

40. SOCIAL FUNCTION OF A STEREOTYPE (2) • Expectations sometimes fail, but the formed stereotype prevails for a long time and has influence on the evaluation of the behaviour. • Stereotypes help to “divide” the social environment, different social groups and individuals and thus to simplify the acceptance of a different culture. • Stereotypes help to preserve the positive identity of our native cultural group.

41. “CULTURAL GLASSES” (1) • Each individual is born in a particular cultural community, where he/she learns the language, customs, ways of behaviour from the very childhood, and takes over the system of values from this community. • When we are born, we enter the programming process of a particular collective mind, which gives the person the feeling of belonging to one community and allows to distinguish b/w other groups of people (ethnic, racial, religious, age, sex, etc.)

42. “CULTURAL GLASSES” (2) • The implemented and learned attitudes of our “national” groups or the group we belong to form the basis for our beliefs, and it is difficult to ignore them. • The implemented dominant values of the national culture predetermine the world-view and the attitudes of people of a particular nation. • The inherent values (respect, politeness, ethics, etc.) are typical to all cultures, but the way they are expressed is the result of a specific culture.

43. “CULTURAL GLASSES” (3) • The representative of each culture evaluates other people through the prism of their own cultural values, behaviour, customs and traditions. • The possessed cultural experience “colours” the understanding about the behaviour of the representatives of other cultures, and “marks” their acceptance. • The stereotypes of behaviour are formed, which may not necessarily be true.

44. Language stereotypes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vc8tfioOKvU&feature=related

45.  CULTURAL TEST Group work Scenario

46. Scenario • You caught a train Deer Valley Express for a week’s journey from Lisbon to Moscow. You travel in a sleeping carriage and you have to share it with three other people.

47. The list of passengers: • The Serbian soldier from Bosnia. • The overweight Swede – the finance broker. • Italian disc jokey who likely has a lot of money. • The African woman selling leather goods. • A young artist, who is HIV positive. • A Gipsy from Hungary, who was recently released from prison. • The Bask nationalist who often goes to Moscow. • The German rap singer, preferring an alternative lifestyle. • A blind accordionist from Austria. • The Ukrainian student, who does not want to return home. • A middle-aged Hungarian woman, who does not have an entry visa, and holds a one-year-old baby in her hands. • A strict and aggressive woman-feminist. • A skin-head Swede, who is seemingly intoxicated with alcohol. • A wrestler from Belfast, seemingly going to the football match. • A Polish-origin prostitute from Berlin. • A French farmer who speaks only French and has a basket full of strong-smelling cheese. • The Kurd refugee living in Germany and travelling back home from Libya.