Culture Shock

When transitioning into new cultural contexts, many people experience what is known as "culture shock". Culture shock is a relatively short-term feeling of disorientation and discomfort due to the lack of familiar cues in the environment. Many people may feel this way when entering a new cultural situation. They also may experience symptoms like irritability, anxiousness, or even excessive hand washing. By becoming more comfortable with the new culture, like learning the language or making friends of that culture, culture shock can be reduced or "recovered". You can adapt to the new cultural situation and feel more comfortable.
Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I spend about an hour sitting in the Union. Here I have been observing people and noticing the different cultures. One particular group I have been observing is people who are or look to be Chinese. Although I don't interact with them or talk to them, I assume that most of them are of the Han culture considering Han is the most popular culture of the Chinese. I notice that most of them sit together and interact with only those who seem to be the same culture. Most of them don't seem to have culture shock, but I believe that is because they have been studying abroad here, or have lived here for awhile seems how it is the spring semester. I can only imagine that when they first arrived here to study abroad that they did experience some culture shock.
I was fortunate enough to have a foreign exchange student live with me my senior year of high school. Her name was Ping Ki and is from Hong Kong and of the Han culture. I know for a fact that she experienced culture shock. When she first arrived she explained how she missed one of her flights and she was very scared because she was in a place that she didn't know and knew nobody. Of course she made it alright but she said that was the first major situation where she experienced culture shock. I called her to talk to her about culture shock and the times she experienced it. It turned more into a conversation just to catch up but we did reminisce about some of the times she experienced when she was here. For her, walking on grass barefoot was a big culture shock. It is "not normal" to walk barefoot on grass. In Hong Kong, which is a huge city consisting of grass only in parks; the grass was roped off so no one could walk on it. My family took Ping outside to walk on the grass barefoot and I remember her smiling and saying how funny it felt on her feet. Ping told me that at first she experienced a lot of culture shock but our family was very welcoming which helped reduce the shock. Also she was very fluent in the English language so it was easy for her to communicate and make new friends. She said the culture shock didn't last long, but there was still many things that came new to her. She stated "it's like that one saying; you learn something every day."
In thinking about the time she spent with my family, she also brought a lot of her culture to our home. My family experienced maybe a little culture shock in some of the things she taught us. One night she made chicken and oranges and we thought that was very strange, but we tasted it and thought it was delicious. Back to the grass experience, I was shocked because I remember growing up running around outside with no shoes on all the time. I couldn't imagine not knowing what that was like. I was also fortunate enough to stay with some of her family in New York where I experienced some culture shock. Her culture is very different than ours in which every time I entered the house, I had to take off my shoes and wear house slippers. I wasn't allowed to walk around barefoot in their home. My culture shock most likely wasn't as great as hers and it didn't last long. I can only imagine how different her culture is over in Hong Kong and would have great culture shock if I were to ever go over there.
Culture shock is a feeling that most everyone gets when entering a new cultural situation. You may have symptoms but if treated properly, culture shock can be recovered. By learning the customs and languages of the new culture, you can become more comfortable and reduce the feeling of disorientation and discomfort. By adapting to your new surroundings and meeting new friends, culture shock can be short term. Culture shock is a normal feeling people may get but can be reduced, if not recovered.

References:
Martin, J.N., & Nakayama, T.K. (2009). Intercultural Communication in Contexts (5th. ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.