See below for an article on culture shock we were sent on the JET programme....

CULTURE SHOCK: A CLOSE UP
"Culture shock", which is usually manifested in the second stage of
the cultural adjustment cycle, is the "condition of emotional upset
and tension that becomes chronic for a period of varying duration.
It is experienced because you have been exposed to life in an
unfamiliar setting, so you react with anxiety, irritation and
frustration."

BUT WHY?

When people leave home they leave familiar, manageable surroundings,
routines and social patterns for a new environment completely
unfamiliar, without close friends. Everyday life now consists of new
customs and social/ethical standards that are very different from
your previous way of living. At first, it is difficult to adapt to
these new codes of living, regardless of effort made to do so
because adaptation to a new environment is a slow process.
Loneliness and frustration at not having control of the situation
wears the mind and body down emotionally. How emotional somebody is
by personality then effects the level of culture shock they
experience.
FACTORS INCREASING THE DURATION AND INTENSITY OF CULTURE SHOCK?
ENVIRONMENTAL/
CULTURAL DIFFERENCE: If Japanese culture, customs and ethical
standards are different from your "natural environment" of the same
elements.
VOLITION: If coming to Japan was not entirely your own decision.
Not as in, ?gmy mum made me go!?h but as in subconsciously running
away from something or doing it for financial gain.
FLEXIBILITY: How much previous experience you have had in adjusting
to new environments and situations, and how successful those
experiences were. No doubt this is why we were asked, when we
filled out the application form for JET ?gif we have ever lived
abroad for an extended period of time and what we have
learned /gained from such an experience?h (well, that was in the
British JET application form anyway!! - Sheila).
SECURITY: the degree to which you are emotionally secure with
yourself, based on old and/or existing relationships with family,
friends, peers, etc.
SUPPORT: the amount of emotional support you have received from your
friends and family back home and your new found friends in Japan.
MONEY: the degree of economic difficulty you encounter while you
live in Japan.
THERAPY: the availability of professional therapeutic services to
you in Japan.
PLAY: the availability of recreational facilities (Izakaya?fs,
parks, karaoke boxes, local cinemas, whatever you like to do in your
free time) where tensions can be released and steam let off.
SERVICE: the opportunity for you to do something outside of school,
that allows you to develop a higher sense of self-worth, usefulness
and self-respect.
CULTURAL ABSOLUTISM: the degree to which learned cultural and
religious patterns have encouraged a tendency to absolute certain
standards and judge everyone by them.
LINGUISTIC SKILLS: the degree of competence in your own language and
the Japanese language. Sudden inability to communicate with the
people around you (i.e. people at work, in your neighbourhood, at a
train station, restaurant) leads to discomfort, stress and can
aggravate any of the other factors mentioned above.

SIGNS THAT PEOPLE ARE EXPERIENCING CULTURE SHOCK:

*A free-floating anxiety that effects normal everyday behaviour.
Free floating anxiety means a person is anxious but they do not know
why. Something is bugging them.
*A lack of self-confidence
*A lack of energy or interest in life
*Panic attacks
*A loss of initiative and spontaneity
*excessive anger over small problems (delays) and minor frustrations
*Feelings of hopelessness
*A strong need to be with people of your own cultural background,
especially your own nationality.
*An excessive amount of time spent sleeping or reading, introverted
activities that do not involve exposure to the foreign environment.
*************
Robert Kohls states that culture shock is similar to frustration.
The same behaviours are exhibited for both, BUT they are
qualitatively different. The cause of a person?fs frustration can
be traced to a specific situation (i.e. I?fm frustrated with my
apartment because I have not been cleaning it) and the cause can be
remedied by removing the cause of the frustration (i.e. cleaning
your apartment).

Culture shock is qualitatively different form frustration
because:

?gIt does not result from a specific event or series of events. It
comes from the experience of encountering ways of doing, perceiving
and valuing things, which are different from yours and which
threaten your basic, unconscious belief that your (own) customs,
values and beliefs are ?eright.?f?h

?gIt does not strike suddenly or have a single principal cause. It
builds up slowly, from a series of small events, which are difficult
to identify.?h

These events include:

-Being separated from the cultures, in which we initially developed
as people and formed our ?gyardstick?h sense of the world. In
Japan, that yardstick disappears from the new environment. Japan
has its own yardstick which we, as people from other cultures, do
not know how to measure from.

-Having to function in situations where rules, objectives and goals
are not clear. This occurs frequently with non-Japanese people, who
are given a job to do but are told little about what the job
involves, or how to go about completing it. Ambiguity, in other
words.

-Having our own values challenged, by their being measured up
against a new set of values. The cultural values, which we once
thought existed as absolute, now exist in a comparative framework.
This framework is Japanese culture. And EVERYONE around us lives by
these rules!!! We are suddenly forced into evaluating our own
culture and thus OURSELVES, which threatens the validity of our own
cultures and contentment.

LIVING WITH IT:

Ignoring or dismissing culture shock is a bit like ignoring a hole
in the head. Not doing anything about it just makes it worse! My
point is, most people WILL EXPERIENCE CULTURE SHOCK OF SOME DEGREE,
AT SOME POINT. People need to admit to themselves that they are
experiencing culture shock and then go about alleviating the
problem. There are several effective ways of alleviating culture
shock:

-Eat well
-Exercise
-Get to know your local area
-Try some relaxation techniques (I can point you in the right
direction for some of these if you like! ...Elaine)
-Maintain contact with friends. Don?ft isolate yourself.
-Write down why you came to Japan. Refer to these points when you
feel frustrated.
-Learn to say ?gno?h to things that you do not want to do (i.e. go
to another enkai, meet up with people you are not
comfortable with). Do what is right for you.
-Talk to people. Friends, family, support lines. Don?ft keep
things bottled up inside!!! Get it all out of your system.
Friends/family will listen to you and so many people in Japan will
empathise with you.

Quotes taken from ?gSurvival Kit for Overseas Living,?h by L. Robert
Kohls (1984), Maine: Intercultural press, Inc.

i read them all. it's a good article!

yeh I have read the article to but personally I think that there is nothing like just going straight out into the coal face. Have your support crew there near by, but jump in head first. Respect the fact that nothing you think about or want will change the fact that things are indeed different so go on, get ya kit off and jump straight in the water butt naked is what I say !

I think there are many cultural traps that foreigners fall into here in Japan. Ala the deceitfulness, indirectness and rigidity of the people here. Then again, the customeer service, friendly nature and rockstar status afforded to foreigners is also a big plus.

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