What
are the Stages and Symptoms of The Transition Process?
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The stages of transition back home are
almost identical to those of out-going culture shock,
with a few different twists. Let’s look at them
and some of the symptoms of each:
Stage 1: The Honeymoon Stage–It’s great to be home!
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- Everybody wants to see you–you have a certain “celebrity
status”
- You get to eat the foods you’ve missed while
you’ve been gone
- You revel in the things you missed–taking
hot showers, drinking water out of the tap, going
to Taco Bell, driving on good roads where the traffic
is orderly and pretty predictable
- Everybody speaks your language and looks more
or less like you. You can blend into a crowd without
being noticeably different.
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Stage 2: Reverse Culture Shock Stage–It’s
terrible to be home! (I have divided this stage into
three sections, although the symptoms do not happen in
any predictable order.)
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You notice some negative things you never
noticed before. You may even begin to feel somewhat critical
of “home.” |
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- Everyone seems to be in too much of a hurry. There’s
no time just to “be.”
- You seem surrounded by excessive materialism,
abundance, and waste. This is painful if you’ve
lived where there is real need and people live with
few “frills” in their lives.
- People seem very direct, almost rude
- People seem very individualistic with little sense
of community or family
- Everyone seems competitive, loud, and self-absorbed
- People seem ignorant of other places, peoples
and cultures
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You seriously miss things from your place
of service, such as:
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- People–your students, friends, fellow workers
- Foods–good mangoes and bananas, soba, kimchee,
and other foods you thought you’d never adjust
to
- Places–the beach, the markets, exotic places
you got to visit
- Your status as a teacher, pastor, ADRA worker,
whatever
- Your independence
- The climate (especially when really cold weather
hits back home!)
- Amusements, sports
- The closeness of the community you were a part
of
- The challenges that caused you to grow stronger
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You feel “out of it,” a bit
depressed, and wonder if you’ll ever readjust.
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- Many of your friends have moved on and you may
wonder if you’ll ever really belong again
- You are now interested in things others do not
seem interested in at all
- You may feel “homesick” for your field
of service
- Nobody seems even remotely interested in your
experiences. In fact, their eyes kind of glaze over
when you begin to share with them and you realize
they’re not really listening
- You wonder if you’ll ever get to go back,
and you may even begin to make plans to return as
soon as possible
- You have newly-acquired skills (language, teaching,
leading, preaching, etc.) that no one seems to recognize,
want or need
- You now have a cultural sensitivity that makes
you very aware of the narrowness and provincial attitudes
of many people at home
- You may experience all kinds of negative emotions.
You may feel depressed, irritable, sad, and/or critical.
The reality of this stage is that you may actually
be pretty self-centered. Chances are, you probably
aren’t too much fun to be around!
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Stage 3: Entering–On some days it’s
okay to be home.
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- You still feel somewhat marginal at times, but
you’re beginning to see more light at the end
of the tunnel – it feels like you will fit
back in again
- You’ve found a few people who more or less
understand the new you and can appreciate who you
are now
- You’re learning to integrate the past and
the present
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Stage 4: Re-adjustment Stage. Home once
again feels like home.
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- You actually enjoy life again and on a regular
basis you’re really glad to be home
- You realize that you have some new attitudes and
a somewhat altered focus for your life, but you begin
to see ways to integrate that with parts of your “old
life” and let it guide your future
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The reality, of course, is that things
at home probably didn’t change all that much while
you were away. The big difference is that you are now
looking at them through different lenses. Your experience
of the last year or two has changed your field of comparison
and you therefore see things differently.
Some of the differences you may now find challenging. You may even catch
yourself determining that you certainly don’t want to be like “these
people.” The problem, of course, is that “these people” are
your people–this is your home. And a critical spirit really won’t
fly, so you may feel trapped. In the end, some of the differences may turn
out to be neutral, and you can adjust back to some of your former ways
of doing things, thinking, reacting, etc. without too much difficulty.
But some of the changes in you–how you see, think and feel--may be
significant and a permanent part of the new you.
Ultimately, the challenge is how to channel your new insights, new “lenses,” new
focus, and new attitudes into something positive rather than simply feeling
critical and frustrated.
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Help! What Can I Do? |
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