On culture shock

Culture shock – sometimes referred to as “critical incident” (Cohen-Emerique) contrary to the general belief does not only strike the prejudiced and the narrow-minded. It can happen to the most aware and sensitive person and it is not even worth to try hard to avoid it: it is an exceptional learning opportunity, a privileged perspective on the other, but also on our own culture.Indeed our own culture is usually invisible to us, so much we are used to it. Most probably we don’t see it much better than the fish see the water they swim in. It is only in the encounter with the culturally different, through the contact that it becomes visible.
All in all, culture shock is not necessarily something bad, if we learn how to handle it. And it is surely not a sign of any personal shortcoming. If it has a bad connotation, it is because it si usually accompanied by feelings of stress, anxiety, anger, sometimes even physical pain. And while we can't do anything to avoid experiencing culture shock (merely because we are all cultural beings socialized into one or several cultures, but not all) we can do a lot to prevent its bad consequences.