Problems of moving - Keep Your Life, Family and Career Intact While Living Abroad - page 4

Given time and an open mind you will have few problems in making the transition to the
new land.
C ULTURE SHOCK
After selling or letting the house, shipping the furniture, and attending the farewell parties,
most people feel they are all ready to go. However, moving abroad requires more than just
physical preparations.
An individual or family relocating overseas is about to undergo tremendous changes in
their life. Besides the normal adjustments associated with moving—setting up house, find-
ing new friends, familiarizing themselves with new geography and climate—new expatri-
ates face a host of other changes.
They will be intrigued—and repelled—by new sights, sounds, smells, and ways of
thinking and living. Changes in cultural identity, social position and etiquette will all take
getting used to. Foreign languages, dress, food and customs are all part of the excitement
and challenge of moving to a new land.
An individual cannot help but react to all the new stimuli and influences in his or her
life. The reaction is not a single event, but a mixture and series of emotions, ranging from
elation to depression to infatuation to homesickness. This mixed bag of reactions is com-
monly known as “Culture Shock”.
Most people who move overseas expect to experience this phenomenon. Many believe
it is something like jetlag: an adjustment you go through and get over with within a short
period of time. In fact, the experience is better defined as acculturation, a process which
can last from six months to more than a year.
Anyone who moves to another country will inevitably go through acculturation. Immig-
rants expect to take on a new cultural identity and therefore are more willing to adjust and
adapt. However, expatriates planning to stay only a set period of time usually have no in-
tention to assimilate. For them, acculturation can be as unpleasant as it is unexpected.
“I've only been here four months, yet I just can't wait until my home leave in Decem-
ber!”
Benjamin, a marketing buyer, was transferred to Hong Kong on a two-year contract. A
few weeks ago he began to complain about the crowds, the weather, not being understood
by his staff, and so on. All he talks about is how much better things were back home. He is
homesick.
What Benjamin is going through is the normal process of acculturation. But like him,
many people are taken by surprise when it happens.