Moving to a new country is hard. New customs, new food, a new routine. But what happens when you move back? Over 700 Northwestern students grapple with this question each year when returning from study abroad. Many are facing this challenge right now, as they adjust to Winter in Evanston after studying abroad Fall Quarter.
Laura Johnson: My name is Laura Johnson. I am the Marketing and Communications Manager at the Global Learning Office.
Laura defines reverse culture shock as:
Laura Johnson: becoming accustomed to another culture and then perhaps returning to your own and having to sort of realign your expectations and your lived experiences with ones you’re experiencing now.
Before getting into more of the details of reverse culture shock let’s fly back abroad to learn about a phrase you may be more familiar with: just plain culture shock.
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LJ: It is adjusting to a culture that is different or perceived to be different than your own, and feeling sort of, um, I mean underwater or sort of out of your typical environment.
To get a more personal account of culture shock and reverse culture shock, I spoke to Weinberg junior and GLO Ambassador Bryden Behrens.
Brynden Behrens: I studied abroad fall of 2023 in Barcelona, Spain.
BB: Some of the communication styles are a lot different. For example, professor-student relationships are a lot more direct and there’s more of a distinguished like superiority there than there is in the United States. So that can be kind of off putting at first and you kind of get offended when a professor sends you an email that might seem a little targeted or a little too on the nose compared to like the kind of beating around the bush that we do in the United States.
LJ: I could see students being maybe overwhelmed if they hadn’t done maybe some initial research, or perhaps there were things that they weren’t expecting when they arrived and that change kind of all at once might be. You know, resulting in that culture shock or that feeling of being a fish out of water.
Now, back to the US–where after several months abroad students may once again feel like a fish out of water, some without even realizing it.
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BB: I don’t think I’ve been, you know, anxious in the kind of sense of just like coming home. But I think maybe some things that I’ve gotten used to, and maybe I have actually, maybe, maybe some things that I got used to in Spain are quite different here.
LB: I think there’s that sense of community, especially if you’re studying abroad, perhaps the cohort or other, you know, smaller group of peers that you bond with, or new friends that you make while you’re abroad. And so returning home, sometimes that’s difficult to have those changes implemented so quickly.
Bryden elaborated on one of the major differences between Spanish and American society: restaurant culture.
BB: Well, actually, yeah, actually I did experience reverse, reverse culture shock. Now that I think about it, I think when I go to restaurants now, I see them as like social gathering places where you can just stay for hours on end, chatting it up, but servers don’t like that in the United States because you’re taking up a space that can be turned into like more income for them So, you know that kind of the the the barrier to entry of those social spaces is much higher here.
As Laura and Bryden expressed, the transition between cultures can be difficult, but there are ways to ease into these changes. How can students address symptoms they’re experiencing of reverse culture shock?
LJ: Our ambassador program is really great for returning students…The intention behind that is to be able to provide opportunities for students to speak with fellow Northwestern students and share their experiences, but also for a sense of community amongst ambassadors to share their experiences…We host events such as the returning dialogue, which is for all returning students to be able to reflect on their experiences abroad and share those stories and have that sense of community once they’ve returned back to the U. S.
BB: I think just give yourself grace, give yourself the time you need and, you know, just like with anything, it’ll take a little bit of time, but you’ll get back to where you were.
Both Laura and Bryden underscored that no matter the possibility of experiencing culture shock and/or reverse culture shock, studying abroad is absolutely worth it.
LJ: We love seeing how study abroad influences students and impacts them in positive ways and it can really be something that’s life changing. And so the more students, I think that kind of think ahead to, you know, where they might like to study abroad, but also what that experience will look like for them, and the more that they can kind of plan ahead I think the smoother that transition will be when we come to when it comes to talking about change.
BB: You’re actually doing yourself more of a service going abroad than you could ever do by just staying in the United States. Just like, being able to form that global mindset is learning in itself.
For WNUR News in Evanston, I’m Paz Baum.
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