I was happy to learn that spicy hot mexican food is the winner of this poll... not to toot my own horn but personally I think there's nothing as delicious as a good dish of home made enchiladas! Not to say that french quiche is not right up there in my top 5 favorite dishes (along with pizza and tacos)...
I guess, as CancunCanuck suggested, I should have allowed multiple responses as I am sure it was hard picking which one is the best!
Anyway... I tried to find a better idea for this week's poll and it was only after I read Mexico in UK's post concerning the difficulties of being an expat that I came across an interesting topic.
Most of you who read this blog are either living away from your home country or have probably done so at some point in your life. Personally I never really experienced culture shock when I first arrived in France, at least I didn't think so at the time.... but looking back I do recognize at least some of the symptoms...
Extract from Mexico in the UK's post :
The term, culture shock, was introduced for the first time in 1958 to describe the anxiety produced when a person moves to a completely new environment. This term expresses the lack of direction, the feeling of not knowing what to do or how to do things in a new environment, and not knowing what is appropriate or inappropriate. The feeling of culture shock generally sets in after the first few weeks of coming to a new place.
This week's poll : Did you or have you ever felt cuture shock living in a foreign country? (the function "post a poll" is currently out of order on Blogger, so I'll have to come back later, sorry guys)
Fned.
P.S. This time I made sure to let y'all have multiple choices ! :D
3 comments:
Culture shock seems to me to be a cyclical thing... it can sock in at any time! When you feel integrated because you're working, or your relationships are all on an even keel, or you've found something to get involved in, you feel right at home... as soon as thing gets off balance (like being reminded once too often that you're a foreigner), or if you go back to your original culture for a short visit, you start seeing the negative side of the new culture in comparison with your original one, or you get upset because you reach the inevitable truth that this culture will never be TRULY yours and it's unnerving and depressing... on the other side of the coin, when you go back to your original culture for a longer stay you may find that, after an initial feeling of "oh boy, I'm home!", you start to see things from the perspective of the person you've evolved into from living in the second culture, and you are stricken with the realization that you have lost (temporarily you hope) your roots! I'm not sure there's a permanent cure for this... like I said, I think it's cyclical; what's crucial is being able to put it all into perspective.
I am very honoured to be quoted in your blog. I have experienced culture shock many times here, but the really worst is the reverse culture shock I had when I went back toMexico for 7 months. Will tell you more about that later. Packing now while having all the mandarines I had. Happy Cthistmas!
I agree with minshap, it is cyclical and it can hit you even if you have been in another country for a while. I have only been back to Canada once in four years, so it's not really a direct comparison for me, it's more like having a sudden realization about the deep differences between the attitudes and ideals of the people of the country. Things like language and food and pace of life are superficial, but how a whole society views itself is a much deeper issue that takes a while to truly understand, in fact, I probably never will.
But I like the moments where my brain goes "Oooooooooh, I get it". :)
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