Adapting to a New Culture
Adapting to a new culture is not easy. When you move abroad, especially when the culture is very different from your own, you will be frustrated. The best thing about living abroad and adapting to a new culture is what you make of it! It can be the best experience of your lifetime, or it can be unbearable and all you want to do is go home. Living abroad and experiencing a different culture is an adventure and a challenge, and most likely the most exiting time of your life. You have to become independent and adjust to this new culture and all this without the support and help of your friends and family. This is quite a big change.
Do not assume anything and jump to conclusions!
When you move abroad, whether it is for an internship abroad, study abroad or because you found a great job abroad, it will be a big change in your life, and you should be prepared for this change and accept it. When I moved to China, I thought: Well, I have a lot of experience living abroad, living in China will be a piece of cake! I can tell you that: It wasn’t like that.
Every country and culture is different and just because you lived abroad before and liked it, does not guarantee that you will like it this time. You have to learn a lot of things from scratch, understand the culture and most importantly: stop making assumptions. This was my biggest mistake, when I moved to China. I just assumed, things would work out, because similar things had worked out in Germany and the US. But people have a different perspective and do things differently in other cultures.
The biggest lesson I learned while I lived in China was: There is not better way of doing things, it is just a different way.
Of course I was frustrated, when I tried to travel in China, but a few days before my departure, I found out that I could not buy a return ticket right away. Instead, I had to hope that there would be return tickets available at my destination. But to be honest, who am I to judge the efficiency of this? I only lived in China for 6 months, I barely scratched the top of understanding their culture. So I am definitely not in a position to criticize their way of doing things, because I simply might not know the whole background of why they are doing it that way. So unless you have lived for a very long time in a certain culture, don’t judge the way things are done there.
Adapting to a new culture requires a new level of open mindedness
Yes, of course you are open minded, otherwise you would hardly consider living abroad, right? But living abroad requires a whole new level of open mindedness. Especially, when you move to a country that has a very different culture, it will be hard to get the idea out of your head: “How can they be so stupid? If we do it my way, it just makes so much more sense and is easier, quicker and more efficient.” To overcome these thoughts, you have to be more open minded than ever before. I struggled with this quite a lot, when I lived in China. It is also very normal and I do not believe any person that has lived abroad and says he or she has not had that thought in their heads. The only way you can overcome this, is to remind yourself constantly. When you have a frustrating experience, like I had with my train tickets, calm down and remind yourself, that you should be open to other ways of doing things. After all, you are a guest and, you are the foreigner.
How would you like it, if somebody walks into your home, and tells you that everything you do just doesn’t make sense and is stupid?
Learn to work with the culture not against it!
Instead of working against the culture, you are much better off, when you try to find its strengths and how to get the best results, even if the method of achieving these results are different. Try out different ways of asking your colleagues or friends and see, which approach brings you your desired results. When you know, that your friends will always be at least 45 minutes late, tell them to be there half an hour before you get there. The same is true for working abroad and dealing with your colleagues. If you have a deadline, give them a deadline that is 3 days before, so you have enough buffer time, in case something goes wrong. Instead of just criticizing the way people do things, try to find solutions, how you can get them to achieve the results that you want.
When you are adapting to a new culture, always keep in mind that you can also learn a lot from the other cultures. Every culture has unique approach on solving problems, communicating or dealing with life in general, so who not use this to your advantage and learn from it?
Have you lived in another country and experienced different cultures? Share your experience here. Or if you have any questions or problems adapting, let me know, and I will be happy to give you more advice!
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MariaAbroad is a Travel Blog to inspire you and show you cool places around the world. I'll share articles about travel, culture, and craft beer. Follow me along, as I adventure through the world, one beer at a time. Cheers!
Hi Maria,
Regina here, for ExpatWomen.com.
I would like to personally invite you to list your blog on our Expat Women Blog Directory (www.expatwomen.com/expatblog/) so that other women can read about and learn from your expat experiences.
Many thanks in advance for your contribution and keep up your great blog!
Regina
I live in Ecuador and it is a wondeful country. Its people are so nice and find, they will give the most charming welcome.I have put together a helpful fact sheet, and also an article on Ecuadorian manners and customs
Great article! I wish I had read it before I moved to Serbia. Great job on writing such great articles. I enjoyed reading this and others you have written.
🙂
Excellent article! I think you are 100% right that you should assume that living abroad is the same in all countries and just because something is different doesn’t mean it’s wrong. The most important thing you can do is keep an open mind and realize that people are doing something a certain way for a reason, not just to frustrate you! Try to see things from their point of view and study their culture a bit before you leave so you won’t be so shocked.
Did you befriend a lot of Chinese people while you were living abroad? I found that friendships with native people helps you understand the culture a lot better.
Hello JoAnne,
Thank you very much for your comment! Yes, I agree, keeping an open mind helps tremendously when dealing with a different culture. I tried to befriend some locals when I was living in China, but it was hard and sometimes not very successful. I was lucky though, as I was working in a 100% Chinese company, so I had no choice but dealing with locals and find a way to work with them. Did I sometimes want to kill them? Yes, very much so sometimes, but I am also so very grateful to them for taking such great care of me, showing me their incredibly interesting culture and their way of thinking.
Thanks again for your comment! It is always great when I feel my blog posts stirred something up and provoked a comment 🙂
Culture shock is something you have to handle really when going abroad… I have the same experience when I went abroad for my Masters. I was my first time to be away from home and it is such a difficult trial. But thanks to all my new friends that I met during my Masters that helped me feel at home.
I really like this article. New generation like me should know about difficulties about adapting. Actually I thought living abroad is not difficult but I’ve never been abroad so I don’t know… my meanings is changed.
adapting to a new culture, does’t mean that you could leave behind all of your cultural traditions,you keep them somewhere inside you when being outside ,but as you return home you can be your own culture.thank you miss Maria,you are so openminded:)
thank you for your information it helps me a lot in my research
informative article! this really helped me for my english exam i had about “challenges”
I’m glad you wrote this! Learning how to fit in with new cultures especially, like you said, those very different to your own, can be challenging. But once you’re in, once you’re accepted and become a part of people’s lives, what you learn about and experience in their world is so very different from what you think it would be. And their world can become your own, if you want it.
I’m all about the different cultures of the Middle East and have very close friends in different countries of this region. I’ve lived with them, worked for them, we’re constantly in touch when I’m back home in the US and I go back to live in their world with them again every year for a few months.
Living inside cultures very foreign to my own has changed me, educated me and enriched me immensely. Now when I travel to visit my friends, I step from my world right back into theirs. It is such a privilege to be a part of life inside their cultures.
I believe everyone who travels and lives abroad should try to limit time spent hanging out with other expats and travelers and make friends with the people of the region you’re in. It will definitely be very life changing.
I am doing my academic studies and these comments on adapting to new cultures help a lot. I agree that every culture is different and has its good and bad stuff. I travel a lot. It is fascinating to see other culture than your own.
Pramila
Hi! I’m happy to find this article. I had 3 years in the US, I moved from Mexico. It was a better option to move here because I got married. I had a success carrier in Mexico and I can’t adapt here. All it feels different, I always try to have a positive attitude working and I never got involve in problems between my coworkers. It make me feel alone and separated of them, even I was the neutral person there. I feel alone and I don’t know if I can’t adapt to have a professional carrier here. My friends are just for my husband who is American. Some parts of the US the people is so scared to here you with a strong accent. 🙁