It’s not easy studying abroad in another country but, for some students, coming home might be the hardest part.

Chris Klein, publications and marketing coordinator in the Office of Programs for Study Abroad, said reverse culture shock occurs when people return from studying abroad and find some of the things about their home culture to be “uncomfortable.”

It’s much like the process of getting used to a new culture, but accelerated, he said.

Klein, who was a Peace Corps volunteer in Sierra Leone, has experienced this phenomenon firsthand.

“I was there for about two years,” he said. “When I came back to the States, I was very angry at times about how much things cost and people wasting food or throwing it away.”

Sierra Leone, he said, is a poor country where many people have little to eat.

“It’s a jarring experience; there isn’t enough (food) to go around,” Klein said. “The idea of people wasting it was very disturbing.”

More than 10 years have passed since his time in Sierra Leone, but these things still bother him, he said.

Now, Klein dedicates a lot of his time to helping returning students readjust to American culture.

Culture shock is somewhat uncomfortable in both directions, he said, but students should be aware that it’s important to be conscious of the differences between countries and to try not to be judgmental about them.

When students return after being away for a long time, their environment may be the same but the students often have changed, he said.

“These changes are subtle and hard to explain,” Klein said. “It’s hard to explain the feeling that people get from sitting in a cafe in Paris for a couple of hours and just watching people go by. Impressions like that stick with people their whole lives but it’s very hard to put those things into words.”

Tristan Poehler, a junior in the School of Management, knew just the words to describe his recent experience in London.

“When I got back, American food didn’t agree with me for the first couple of weeks I was back; I ate pretty healthy in England,” he said.

Reverse culture shock, however, is not limited to students.

Andrew Buckser, associate professor of anthropology, has made several trips to Denmark, one of which lasted more than a year.

“When you live some place for an extended amount of time, there’s a process of adjustment where you have to force yourself to make the other culture normal for you,” Buckser said. “When you come back to a world where you used to feel comfortable in, it’s strange to see it from outside eyes; sometimes you see things you don’t really like.”

But the strangeness of culture shock does wear off, he said, although sometimes people may not want to go back to their old selves.

“You have a different view of your culture and that really never changes,” he said. “You can see things, both good and bad, about your culture and, to me, that’s one of the great things about studying abroad.”

This entry was posted on Friday, January 19th, 2007 at 3:39 pm and is filed under Education, Study Abroad. Tags: Student, Study, Study Abroad. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.