Expatriation Challenges and Opportunities

How to cope with the culture shock

Moving abroad is a challenge in itself, but possibly one of the most difficult parts of expat life is dealing with homesickness and loneliness. For a time you will feel excited, meeting new people and exploring your new home. But after a while, some expats become overcome with homesickness and question why they moved so far away from what they knew. This is what is usually known as the expat settlement/adjustment curve.

In short, the settlement curve is a way of describing how expats adjust to a new culture by going through different phases of excitement, adaptation, frustration, and even sometimes depression. We also call it the expat roller coaster. It consists in 4 phases: the honeymoon phase, the crisis/culture shock phase, the recovery/adjustment phase, and the integration phase.

The Oxford Dictionary defines culture shock as “the feeling of disorientation experienced by someone when they are suddenly subjected to an unfamiliar culture, way of life, or set of attitudes”.

Remember that everyone experiences some degree of culture shock when leaving their home country and starting a new chapter in a foreign country!

 

Read more about how to cope with the culture shock on this infosheet:

The Expatriation challenges and opportunities

 

Find out more about the Ups and Downs of the expat adjustment curve by watching this video: