Adjustment to a New Life: Stages of Cultural Adjustment
3/30/2011
Adjustment to a New Life Got used to life in a new culture it is easy or simple? Most people who move to another country that has a completely different culture from their have a difficult time for a first several years. Some people adapt very easily, but some of them take much longer to do so. Definitely, everyone need for some time to go through changes and start a new life at a new place. I’m not an exception. I came to the United States three years ago to start a new life with new opportunity. I just had imagination about America from movies, not from real life. Like many other once I crossed the threshold of another country and left everything I went to a new culture. Based on Peter Gardner’s “stages of cultural adjustment” (38) I was supposed to pass through all steps of cultural adjustment. But not all of those stages worked in my situation. The first step according to Gardner is the “honeymoon period” (38). At this stage everything are supposed to seem “intriguing” and “exciting” (38). But I must skip this period because when I arrived in the U.S. I was really disappointed. All that I had seen on TV was not true when I came in Utica. I saw ugly houses, broken roads and no prospects in the future. I became sick. I was shocked. I did not expect to see “such America.” Probably my new life began with the second step. Gardner called that stage “culture shock” (38). I remember that time very well. I started to understand that I could not back home, and I should to adapt somehow to a new world. Normal at first glance, the problems haunted me every day such as language, transportation, and job. I thought that I was ready to be an ordinary American. But I realized reverse very quickly. I didn’t have enough English even to go to the store. I realized that I am a dependent person. I had to call one of my cousins every time I needed to go somewhere. My cousin found a job for me and I started working at a construction site. The boss
Adjustment to a New Life Got used to life in a new culture it is easy or simple? Most people who move to another country that has a completely different culture from their have a difficult time for a first several years. Some people adapt very easily, but some of them take much longer to do so. Definitely, everyone need for some time to go through changes and start a new life at a new place. I’m not an exception. I came to the United States three years ago to start a new life with new opportunity. I just had imagination about America from movies, not from real life. Like many other once I crossed the threshold of another country and left everything I went to a new culture. Based on Peter Gardner’s “stages of cultural adjustment” (38) I was supposed to pass through all steps of cultural adjustment. But not all of those stages worked in my situation. The first step according to Gardner is the “honeymoon period” (38). At this stage everything are supposed to seem “intriguing” and “exciting” (38). But I must skip this period because when I arrived in the U.S. I was really disappointed. All that I had seen on TV was not true when I came in Utica. I saw ugly houses, broken roads and no prospects in the future. I became sick. I was shocked. I did not expect to see “such America.” Probably my new life began with the second step. Gardner called that stage “culture shock” (38). I remember that time very well. I started to understand that I could not back home, and I should to adapt somehow to a new world. Normal at first glance, the problems haunted me every day such as language, transportation, and job. I thought that I was ready to be an ordinary American. But I realized reverse very quickly. I didn’t have enough English even to go to the store. I realized that I am a dependent person. I had to call one of my cousins every time I needed to go somewhere. My cousin found a job for me and I started working at a construction site. The boss