Culture shock

I think I'm going through something significant, and I feel like sharing this experience. I'm starting to understand more, what is a culture shock. Even though I’ve heard about it so many times, and I thought I know what is it, I was wrong, or maybe rather – my understanding of this experience was too flat, because I’ve never went through it myself.

AIESEC traineeships are minimum 2 months. I’ve heard that it is a necessary duration to let the person experience “a culture shock”, because it doesn’t happen immediately, it needs time, etc. And I was accepting this idea, and waiting for it. But I didn’t know exactly how it is supposed to be. Now I’m starting to realize, that it’s what I’m going through after almost 2 months in Morocco. But the feeling is very different and strange, other than I’ve expected.

When you think “culture” most probably you imagine people having different habits, clothes, cuisine, religion, etc. So when arriving in a different country you expect to see all of this. It’s what we call in a common language “cultural differences”. Everyday you meet people looking different, speaking other language, doing things in their own way. But it’s not really shocking immediately. I was rather appreciating all these differences, trying to get to know everything better, observe, be a part of it and “understand”. Seeing a man praying on the street on his little carpet, or eating cuscus with hands from a common plate with other people was exciting for me and I was open to everything that people do here, trying to adapt to their customs.

But these things are just a surface and they are not really shocking as I said. You may appreciate them, be curious, accept, and it feels really good. The difficult part starts after a longer period of time, on a deeper level. Because it’s not that easy to understand sometimes, it’s not so easy to adapt. Going from the phase of being amazed by all “oriental”, unknown things, discovering another country and it’s culture to actually living in it, cooperating with people, and working – this is where the real challenge begins.

The feeling I had recently is really difficult to describe. I rather give an example of a situation to picture it better. I just came back from 3 days conference, where I was working as a member of organizing committee. So we had to prepare all the logistics, delegate’s servicing, entertainment, etc. I was working in one team with Moroccan people only. We faced many crisis situations, the circumstances were changing rapidly, so we had to act immediately, overcome various problems, and think about solutions… When being in such a situation, people don’t pay attention to someone who is not from their country. And what I’m trying to say is absolutely not that anyone treated me badly, or anything like this. Everybody has been veeery nice to me here, it hasn’t changed since I arrived! :o) The problem starts when people go emotional, and they can’t handle the situation themselves. When they have problems, they don’t think, that if they are lost and don’t know what to do – what about the person, who doesn’t even speak the language?! Because obviously it’s not easy to act under such a pressure and to think about communicating in English, when there’s so little time. So being a foreigner in such an environment is really challenging. This feeling of being lost and confused is overwhelming. It is like being in the eye of a cyclone, but at the same time feeling completely disconnected, not able to make any difference, or change your situation.

I took an example of a conference, because thanks to this experience it became much clearer for me, what is the nature of a culture shock. It was an intense feeling, all condensed in 3 days – and because of this, so much easier to capture and to name. Before I had this feeling of being confused and lost, but due to the fact that some things were happening to me just occasionally, I didn’t pay enough attention to them. I felt kind of tired recently, because I realized that there’s sort of a barrier between me and other people. And as I said, even everybody was treating me extremely kindly and friendly, there was still something making me feel uneasy. But I couldn’t understand what’s wrong and why I feel this way.

This time I think I captured it well. People react so differently here, organize their work in a completely different way. It made me stressed, because I never knew what to expect, how to react. It takes a lot of effort to cooperate in these conditions. It’s difficult to find your place and to know what to do. And on top of it, during the conference I felt being cut from all the information necessary to take the right decision – and it was really frustrating. It’s a little bit like being lonely, or in the dark. You just don’t know! All your confidence or enthusiasm may disappear, even you are trying your best, and having “a positive attitude”.

OK, one particular situation from the conference now :o) I was responsible for organizing some competitions for the party. And everything was well prepared, and ready for the evening, so I felt really optimistic and happy. Problems begun as soon as we started running these games. When people compete, they are really excited; they go emotional, shout, etc. And of course they don’t speak English anymore. It’s not natural for them, and it’s so much easier to express themselves in their mother tongue. So first of all, I was supposed to run these competitions, but it was not really possible, because of this language barrier. If there was any issue that they wanted to solve immediately, they were simply ignoring me, and communicating with other Moroccans in French or Arabic. It feels so odd to stand in the middle of a room full of people, being supposed to lead something, but at the same time having no real possibility to make an impact on the situation... Another thing is that here people very quickly go emotional, start to shout, and the level of noise and excitement is soooo much higher than in Poland. And as long as they were yelling at each other I was able to handle it ;o) But when suddenly I was “accused” of making a mistake in counting points – OMG! That was something that put me under such a huge pressure, I felt all the tension concentrated on me, and I really couldn’t handle it… It’s not that anyone had any bad intentions, or was particularly against me. But the level of emotions was so high for me, that I felt smashed by it. All the noise, everyone cutting everyone… It made me feel lost, it was too much for me at that time. I didn’t know how to react, because in Poland when someone shouts at you, it means that he is angry at you, doesn’t like you. Here it’s not like this. And when I’m writing it now, I’m fully aware of this difference, and I knew it before too. But it’s different to “know” and to find yourself in the middle of this kind of situation and accept it.

It was just one of the examples... But this is why I wrote that I was trying to “understand”. It’s not possible this way; how I though about it was wrong. You have to live it, go through it. And I don’t know how to adapt yet, because for the moment I just realized, where the problem lies, but haven’t figured out the solution yet. The only thing I know is that I don’t want to give up, and I will do my best to handle all these difficulties and my feelings. They make me stronger, and more aware of my boundaries. Inshallah I will find my way through it ;o)

This moment and the "little thing" that made me crazy ;o)