Reverse/Re-entry Culture Shock

Most of you have heard of “Culture Shock” – the emotional ups and downs of living in and adapting to a foreign culture (I think it’s less about the culture itself and more about how you deal with a different lifestyle. There are phases and the lengths/severities vary by person and experience. If you weren’t aware of it before, you’re probably more familiar with it from reading this blog. I am a poster child for Culture Shock! I covered every little down-tick and up-tick, and every phase on the Culture Shock graph to a T. In fact, you could probably predict my current mental state based on the Culture Shock timeline (currently, I’m in the “I love Japan and don’t want to say goodbye!” phase).

However, I’ve found that, unless they’ve experienced living abroad and its after effects themselves, most people haven’t heard of Reverse Culture Shock (or Re-entry Shock), so I thought now might be a good time to fill you in.


-Nearly two-thirds of JET alumni say they experienced some kind of Re-entry Shock.-

...so, what is it? Responses vary, but...


[excerpt from Living Abroad by Cathy Tsang-Feign http://www.psychinternational.com/abroad/abroad10.htm]

Re-entry Shock – Fitting right in to the “home” circle and returning to “normal” life doesn’t happen overnight. The fact is, a returnee will feel very different from everyone around. This will make him or her feel delighted and special on one hand, but on the other hand it brings confusion and a sense of isolation.

For example, the returnee may be eager to point out that “I’ve just returned from a year in Japan!” By doing so, he or she knows s/he can draw others’ attention and reassures him/herself that s/he is unique, interesting, and different. It’s easy to overdo it, though. Excessive comments like, “I forgot that’s how they do things here! ha ha” to cashiers or servers, for example.

*In a questionnaire given by CLAIR [aka the organization that hires JETs] every year to JET alumni, many state they no longer feel they have a lot in common with people back home. This is a symptom of reverse culture shock. According to many JETs, everybody will inevitably ask, “So how was Japan?” That’s a difficult question. Can you encompass your entire JET experience in a 10-second reply?

*Many JETs say even close friends and family aren’t so interested in what happened “over there”. They often say, when asked about Japan, you get a half a minute into talking about it before the listeners eyes glaze over. Many listeners can’t relate, even if they’re really close. Most people want to hear, “It was great!” and then be done with it, while you want to share what you have been through and how you have grown.
[*credit to The After JET Preparation Guide, 2004 Edition, prepared by CLAIR]

Family and friends will demonstrate interest in the retunee’s adventures, anecdotes, and little comparative comments, but only for as long as their attention span can tolerate. At a family dinner, a returnee may find that the relatives are not nearly as fascinated at hearing about the temples in Kyoto, as they are in hearing Auntie Martha describe Uncle Joe’s hernia operation. To many returnees, this apparent disinterest is a great surprise. It is also a disappointment that leads to feeling disoriented and isolated.

In some cases, returned expatriates carry their feeling of being special too far. They may tend to pick on friends and people in general for being narrow-minded about the world, or unsophisticated. They will repeatedly draw comparisons between home and Japan. For example, saying at restaurants: “This isn’t real sushi,” or constantly remarking, “You know how cheap this would be in Japan?” Such commentary will eventually anoty and bore others, who will take it as showing off. These actions will keep people at a distance and make it difficult to readjust to the old circle.

Most people are oblivious to whatever changes may have on inside a person from living abroad. For the most part, friends and family believe that you still think and act the way they do, as if you’d never left. The returnee may therefore feel inhibited from saying or doing anything that could appear “show-off-y”. He or she may be reluctant to discuss any feelings of disappointment or disorientation at being back, for fear nobody will understand.

Faced with the day-to-day routine, they often begin to long for the favorable lifestyle once enjoyed in the foreign land. The travel, climate, cultural experiences, mingling with an international group of expatriates, as well as the social status and “special treatment” they usually received are missed. A returnee may begin to think back to “the good old days” or refuse/resent readjusting to the lifestyle of the home country.

Given time, returned expatriates will re-familiarize themselves with their home environment and appreciate what is there. They finally accept what they have given up in the foreign society and are happy to settle down. Remember, this will be a gradual process rather than a distinct stage that the person goes through.

A Few Ways to Reduce Re-entry Shock (what I’m doing)
-Expect and prepare for it. (that’s today’s blog)
-Keep family and friends informed while overseas so they have a frame of reference for your stories later. (I try to do that with this blog and posting lots of pictures, and I think I stay in pretty good touch with friends/family via phone, email, IM, Facebook, etc.)
-Keep busy, be active, get involved - don’t just sit around. (No matter what, I’m going to start school, so I’ll be busy with that, and I definitely plan to get back into karate and hopefully, yosakoi, too.)
-Find sympathetic friends who have returned from living abroad and can relate to your re-entry shock. (I’ve got a bunch of friends who have studied abroad, including Erin, who’s been doing the whole culture shock thing with me all year, and will be living close-by)
-Keep in touch with Japanese language/culture/food (That’s what I’ll be studying, plus I’ll be a skip away from Japan Town in SF, plus, thanks to my NSU days, I have plenty of friends to help me out with this)


Who knows how I will react when I return to California. I may be totally fine, or it may take me a while to adjust, so please be patient, and try to be aware that I may be going through this.

Oh, and you have two months, so PLEASE think of something other than “How was Japan?” to ask me when I get back. If you don’t, I’m telling you now, my answer will be, “It was a great experience.”