Culture shock strikes back for returning students

Author: Eric Bartolloti

Everyone knows about culture shock.

In a nutshell: 1. You travel somewhere. 2. You stay there awhile. 3. You start to feel weird.

This is a very watered down version - a version that may belittle the trials of any currently abroad students reading The Campus online in internet cafes* - but I think it will suffice.

After all, everyone knows about culture shock. There are advisory pamphlets. There are culture classes. There is a Wikipedia article (in nineteen different languages, no less). While culture shock still looms over any prospective study abroad student, this is precisely why it is a beatable enemy: we expect it. We have resources to fight it. To flip a cliche on its side, "what you do know can't hurt you."

So, writing about "return" culture shock, I feel the need to clarify. Return culture shock is classic culture shock's dark cousin, the kind that strikes after re-entering the borders of the homeland. I had never thought about the idea. As I myself am nearing my own year-long study in Egypt, it is certainly something that concerns me. To better understand the nature of the beast, I visited the Center for Health and Wellness, whose staff has experience counseling troubled returning juniors and seniors.

In our discussion, Counselor Virginia Logan and I uncovered a few big ideas. The first was that studying abroad is a leap forward in maturity. Students may live in their own apartments, cook their own meals and interact with strangers and authorities without backup. After all that, dorms and dining halls seem almost childish. The second was the common complaint that life at Middlebury had gone on while they were away. People had morphed. Protocols had melded. Proctor had been sacked.

It is obvious to us here that things will keep happening back in Vermont - albeit at a charming "Vermontly" pace - but why could not that be obvious on the other side of the ocean? The answer is that overseas students will often glorify their memories of homeland as a coping mechanism while abroad. They expect their glorified version to be there when they return, but often, it is not. When searching for reasons for the change, one's own personal maturity and development often deserve the blame just as much as the homeland itself.

Then I asked the obvious question: about how many students come in for counseling on return culture shock? The answer - not many, even during peak times like Winter Term and the following September. The Center has excellent resources and staff, but if students are not coming to them, they cannot be of much help. By contrast, counseling resources overseas are utilized by students much more frequently. You are even allowed to break the language pledge for support, meaning regular culture shock counseling is taken pretty seriously.

Still, just because the Center has few reports of this return culture shock phenomenon, it does not mean that its effects are insignificant.

"For reasons I don't quite understand, my English is a little clumsy," admitted Andrew McDonald '10, who spent time abroad in Russia. "Earlier today I called a bottle of ketchup a bottle of toothpaste, and later mixed up the words 'revolution' and 'evolution.' And now, whenever I walk into a restaurant, the first thing I do is look around for a place to hang my coat - as is custom in Russia."

Kristen Faiferlick '10 recalled different difficulties with the language change.

"I will miss the really bad English. In China, clothing with English is really popular, but unfortunately, the companies that deisgn the shirts don't use the best translators," Faiferlick said. "Some examples of shirts that I saw were 'Short and Stubby,' 'Little miss jail bait,' 'I love your muscle, your power. Very very much. Catch me!' and 'Just like a clear glass purity hatchet. Why do you think so far?'

According to an article on the College's Study Abroad Website, return culture shock is significantly more harmful than its classic counterpart. This article, titled "Coming Home: Life After Study Abroad," offers a detailed explanation of the phenomenon and how to cope with it. Unfortunately, this useful resource is buried in a corner of the site under the obscure "Returning Students" label.

"I was really really reluctant to leave, and it was hard to wrap my head around the fact that abroad was over, and

I had to move on the next semester," Faiferlick said.

Students need to expect return culture shock so that they don't expect something else: namely, their homeland as a shelter and refuge from their foreign location.

*If you are studying abroad and are still loyal enough to keep up with The Campus' happenings, then you win ten points for Gryffindor.