Foreigners in their own homeland
In her article, “My reverse culture shock: returning from a year abroad is tough,” Frances Carruthers states that readjusting at home is harder than living outside the country for the first time. After studying in Canada, Carruthers felt what she called a “reverse culture shock”, an uneasy experience that marked her return to the homeland. In her perspective, this feeling of strangeness is, to some degree, a result of unrealistic expectations about people, places, and experiences as if they do not change across time. Also, our own perceptions and worldview are affected by new learnings, and our identity and sense of belonging became different. How do we resolve it? She argues that time, effort to acclimatize to the new setting, and good relationships are part of the way to a normal life. I could confirm by myself the tremendous challenge of crossing cultural borders by living far from my home country. But I would say that the annoying perception of not fitting, socially speaking, is also a possible experience within home, that is, without never leaving the city or the country where somebody is born.
In my view, when Carruthers talks about cultural shock, she illuminates a reality even more significant, profound, and increasingly common in the current urban life. However, by associating the sense of inadequacy with the concept of place, in a binary comparison, she does not note that the personal, social, and emotional setting might be the most important factor. It is not about geography, but psychology. No matter where we are, our minds will filter and interpret experiences. Our well-being depends mainly on this, more than locations. Even so, it is a truth that after all both experiences and places, these both things will stay inevitably mixed and connected in our memories and feelings.
For instance, my job has been a bridge for many experiences I had had abroad. Because of my work as an interpreter, I had the “reverse culture shock” several times. Thus, I can do my own comparisons. In fact, living in Latin America is absolutely different than in Europe or in the United States. I lived in these three regions of the world. Every country that I have visited – almost ten – made me see, very clearly, that Ortega y Gasset was probably right when he said, “I am myself and my circumstances”. As a fish out of the water cannot survive, so do we, without any feeling of belonging and naturalness. Our identity and self-esteem depend on it. When abroad or experimenting our home as a strange land, we note that being accepted and fitting is not an adolescent and mayfly emotional need. It seems to be something ingrained in the human soul. For this reason, current social and political issues like inclusion, racism, and prejudice are so critical. It is hard to understand how a person can feel a strange without having never left his homeland or city, but it is surprisingly possible when there are no shared beliefs, values, and ways of life. Because of this, many feel “uncomfortable at home”, like aliens.
Sometimes this problem is reduced to a merely linguistic issue, need for religious tolerance or economic and ethnicity integration theme. However, these aspects are only the tip of the iceberg. Just as a good friendship, sufficient time, and effort to acclimatize relieve the weight of a home return after a period of study abroad, we need more. Apart from the laws, NGOs, politics, and social programs, we need to find ways to help people not live or feel as strangers in their homeland, a problem similar to the “reverse culture shock”, but obviously more frequent, wider, and serious. Do not you think so?
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Work Cited
Carruthers, Frances. “My reverse culture shock: returning from a year abroad is though.” The
Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 20 July 2017,
www.theguardian.com/education /2017/ jul/20/reverse-culture-shock-tough-adjusting-home-studying-abroad
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