just john

Thursday and Friday of last week was a seminar on cultural integration for some of us expatriates. I thought we had a fairly mixed group with representatives from Turkey, Korea, Japan, Brazil, France, Mexico, England, and the U.S. All working in Germany for Bosch. Our teacher was a long-time German who had a PhD in inter-cultural interactions plus a couple of books under her belt and we all felt like  she knew what she was talking about. Oh, India was there too. India, in fact, was an atypical group in that they did not suffer much from culture shock. Culture shock, by the way, is not what is commonly thought of where travelers are shocked and embarassed by what they see in other lands. Clinical culture shock is written about in great detail in the first three months of this blog.

Most poeple I've spoken to have about a three month cycle that is essentially a wide open pit of dispair and frustration when moving to a foreign country. Not speaking the language, getting lost, ignored, short-changed, unable to deal with normally insignificant problems, separation, blah and blah. I think this aspect of internationalism is under-represented in the sales pitch. For me it is thankfully past and I've approached a sense of normalcy. Settling into a daily routine was my personal keystone. For others I'm sure it is different.

I thought our seminar was pretty good. We had lots of role playing and explanations for things we saw that frustrated us. Some could be mended by more communication and other things were simply "I'm sorry, that's how we Germans act." The same goes for everybody else too, I guess.

The biggest surprise for me is that, statistically, most people experience reverse culture shock upon returning home and it is usually worse that the previous culture shock. Again, a very strong under-sell, I think. This very nice woman explained to us that people who experience too much internationalsim, like Goethe Institute people, who must change to a new country every five years, actually end up somewhat insane because they have forgotten their cultural frame of reference. Creepy, no? No such chance here. I am really starting to enjoy Germany but unless fortunes change dramatically, like they drive a *literal* dump truck of money to my door, Germany will be a once in a lifetime experience. So, I hope not to be shocked when I get home. I think if enough of you embark on uncommon experiences of your own, we should all have plenty to talk about.