Culture Shock (chapel, loan, home)

[NightBazaar]

Have you ever experienced "culture shock"? Why? Did you ever resolve it?

[tonrob]

Originally Posted by NightBazaar

Have you ever experienced "culture shock"? Why? Did you ever resolve it?

I experienced this when I moved from the UK to the US. - I'm not sure whether this was in part because I expected everything to be a lot easier than it actually was (complacency on my part). I'd travelled extensively in the US beforehand and undertaken many business trips, so I'd kind of written off the concept of "culture shock" as something that wouldn't apply to me.

I think there are some fairly well defined and documented stages surrounding this phenomenom, and it's fair to say that I probably went through the whole laundry list from A to Z! It took a couple of years of working through it, rationalizing things, reminding myself of all the good things I'd miss if I were to give up and return home (and not just the things I missed from back home) before I came out the other end and everything started to look and feel, well, normal!

[Crew Chief]

Believe it or not, it was a bit of a "culture shock in reverse" returning to the U.S. after being stationed in Germany for 8 years. Keeping my right foot off of the gas pedal took some getting used to. I had gotten used to such things as being called by "Mr." and my last name instead of the easy familiarity we enjoy back here. While we have some good restaurants here, I feel like Europeans take their dining out more seriously. And little things like tv commercials that didn't feature people wearing military uniforms!

[FlourChild]

When I moved to China for a year, when I came back (my folks picked me up from the airport and took me to Cracker Barrel for lunch, where I promptly tried to hail a passing waitress as "Xiao Jie"). When we moved to Albany from Huntsville, as well. Albanians tend to be less educated (in general) than Huntsvillians.

[Paddington]

Originally Posted by FlourChild

When I moved to China for a year, when I came back (my folks picked me up from the airport and took me to Cracker Barrel for lunch, where I promptly tried to hail a passing waitress as "Xiao Jie"). When we moved to Albany from Huntsville, as well. Albanians tend to be less educated (in general) than Huntsvillians.

Isn't arguing about whose smarter in the South kind of like arguing about the tallest midget?

[The French Maid]

I have been to Europe several times... Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, France, Austria, Netherlands, Belgium and the list goes on...

I never suffered culture shock until I married my French husband and would stay in France for over a week (usually in the same place) out in the rural areas. His parents don't speak English and I hear 90 percent French when I am there. Except when my husband speaks to me.

After a few days I begin to get irritable, lose my appetite, don't want to get out of bed.. would rather retreat and read a book. Just overall withdrawing..

I couldn't figure it out but I have since learned this is a form of culture shock which is mostly related to my lack of being able to communicate. I have been through this twice now...

I think when I am vacationing, I am in that "oh everything is great mode" and not really interacting with the culture so much... so I don't get out of my bubble.

But when you start to live day to day life somewhere.. then yeah... that's when it kicks in for me...

[clongirl]

I had a bit of "reverse" culture shock when I moved back to the US from Ireland. I couldn't get over how massive the cars were. Hummers and Escalades etc were everywhere.

I also cried while driving around one of those new, huge, sprawling housing developments. I couldn't get over the size of everything!

I'm also getting used to the bad and rude drivers here. Everyone is on the mobile phone and cutting me off- not paying a bit of attention.

I can't say I'm "over it" yet, but I'm trying to appreciate the good things about the US- like vast choice in EVERYTHING and the weather.

[FlourChild]

Originally Posted by Paddington

Isn't arguing about whose smarter in the South kind of like arguing about the tallest midget?

People who believe your intelligence is based on your location are...well, lacking, and somewhat bigoted. And I didn't mention who was "smarter"; I said people in Albany are usually not as EDUCATED as those in Huntsvillians. BIG difference.

[Tama]

Paddington What's up with the regional flaming? Take a look at the tip of the iceberg--real dumb people in the South???

Some southern writers (not to mention Capote, Faulkner, Tennesse Williams)
Tina McElroy Ansa • William Baldwin • Madison Smartt Bell • Wendell Berry • Doris Betts • Roy Blount, Jr. • Sheila Bosworth • Larry Brown • James Lee Burke • Robert Olen Butler • Will Campbell • Fred Chappell • Pat Conroy • Patricia Cornwell • Harry Crews • Guy Davenport • Elizabeth Dewberry • James Dickey • Ellen Douglas • John Dufresne • Clyde Edgerton • Percival Everett • Shelby Foote • Richard Ford • Connie May Fowler • John Hope Franklin • Ernest J. Gaines • George Garrett • Kaye Gibbons • Gail Godwin • Shirley Ann Grau • Jim Grimsley • Winston Groom • Allan Gurganus • Barry Hannah • Carl Hiaasen • Josephine Humphreys • John Jakes • Robert Jordan • Terry Kay • Bret Lott • Bobbie Ann Mason • Ed McClanahan • Jill McCorkle • Tim McLaurin • Robert Morgan • Willie Morris • Lawrence Naumoff • Lewis Nordan • Padgett Powell • Reynolds Price • Anne Rice • Louis D. Rubin, Jr. • Ferrol Sams • Dori Sanders • Mary Lee Settle • Anne Rivers Siddons • Dave Smith • Julie Smith • Lee Smith • Elizabeth Spencer • Mickey Spillane • John Stone • William Styron • Margaret Walker • Eudora Welty • Michael Lee West • Bailey White • James Wilcox • Miller Williams • Christine Wiltz • C. Vann Woodward

Southern educational institutional institutions
James Madison University, University of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, Virginia Tech, University of Maryland, Georgetown University,UNC Chapel Hill, Florida International University, Florida State University, University of Florida, Furman University, University of Georgia, Emory University, Duke University, Wake Forest University, Medical College of Georgia, University of Miami, Medical University of South Carolina, North Carolina State University, Clemson University, University of South Carolina and Georgia Institute of Technology) exerting an influence beyond the region. Research Triangle Park, in the Raleigh-Durham urban area of North Carolina has emerged (over a nearly 50-year existence) as a major hub of technology, governmental and biotechnological research and development, as has the Virginia BioTechnology Research Park in Richmond. The Cummings Research Park in the Huntsville, Alabama area is another of the largest research complexes in the nation, and the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, Florida is the largest laboratory in the world devoted to the study of magnetism.

article from NY Sun online 6/9/08

The decision by Senator Kennedy to undergo brain surgery at Duke University Medical Center is illustrative of the strides some medical centers in the South have made in competing with hospitals in the Northeast as centers of excellence.

The proliferation of top-tier Southern hospitals has largely been driven by patient demand, and the result is often an increase in competition to recruit the best doctors and to offer the most cutting-edge treatments.

"The MD Andersons and the Sloan-Ketterings and the Dana-Farbers are the ones synonymous with cancer research, but so much research is being done in other places, obviously there are other places that will rise up in prestige and public awareness," the senior vice president of communications at the American Hospital Association, Richard Wade, said.

[FlourChild]

To say nothing of UAB, which is one of the best research hospitals in the country.

Welcome to 2008, Paddington. We've been waiting for you, but we've been busy.