Suite101 has a great series on Work/Study abroad which features several articles on expat life by contributing writer Maria Foley. Since I’ve been focusing on reverse culture shock a lot lately, I wanted to share these two articles by her, with blurbs from various interviews with expats who have gone through the experience, and references to a great piece by Sheila J. Ramsey, PH.D., and Barbara Schaetti called ‘Re-entry: Coming “home” to the Unfamiliar’. Maria’s second article offers solutions on how to manage reverse culture shock, which are practical and important.
May 6, 2011
May 2, 2011
More Reverse Culture Shock!
The information on reverse culture shock just keeps coming. Last week I blogged about it and included various sites and articles I had come across on the subject. Since then, there have been many more. I have shared a few, but don’t want to inundate you with this topic. However, I think this is a good one and worth a mention. It’s from last year, but it’s as relevant as ever. In it, Expatica features a good summary of reverse culture shock – what it is, how it shows itself and how to manage it. With information drawn from various sources and other websites, it does a good job of explaining how it happens, what it is and how to cope. Read the full article here.
April 26, 2011
Reverse Culture Shock – Coming Your Way
I’ve become more and more interested in and concerned about the effects of reverse culture shock. I myself have gone through it countless times, most significantly when I moved “home” to the US to go to college. Not only did I leave my beloved Thailand, home for 5 years and all of high school, but I also said goodbye to my parents who moved to Nigeria for the next five years. I lost everything in that moment, but I eventually worked things out, as I always did. Now with social media I am seeing more and more blogs, websites and articles on repatriation. They say that repatriation is the hardest part of expatriation, and from the looks of it, it’s certainly something we need to pay attention to, as expats and professionals; whether in multinational HR departments or as providers of services to expats. Here are a few examples of mentions I have recently come across. There is no reason why so many deal with the US and Asia, it just turned out that way.
Here is a blog from a young woman who taught for a year in Korea. This is from an American woman living in China and her experience visiting the U.S. Another is from an American woman coming to terms with being back in the US after living in Japan. Here is another from Jennifer Kumar, a cultural adjustment coach, and yet another from blogger and traveler, Amanda Kendle, who wrote a feature article on vagabondish.com. To top it all off, here is a full article series from Expatica NL, which is dedicated to covering all aspects of repatriation, including an article re-entry shock. I could go on and on with this list, but I think this provides a good overview of what you can find online.