Pros And Cons Of Culture Shock In An Idiot Abroad

Culture Shock Culture shock, according to Ting-Toomey, “refers to a stressful transitional period when individuals move from a familiar environment into an unfamiliar one” (pg. 93). This experience for anyone is hard to go through. It’s an emotional roller coaster ride of the unknown. Culture shock has its pros and cons. Both influenced by numerous underlying factors. In this episode of “An Idiot Abroad,” Karl experiences life in China. Having never left England, he had very little knowledge and experience when it comes to other cultures besides his own. Throughout episode, Karl experiences culture shock on many levels. Mainly bad, but he eventually learns, accepts, and adapts with the Chinese culture. As mentioned above, Karl experienced …show more content…
For example, when he first arrives in China. He noticed every time he said hello and smiled at someone, there was no reaction. Compared to Karl’s culture, he’s used to receiving a friendly response. Another example is the restrooms. During Karl’s whole stay in China, all public restrooms had no doors on the stalls. For anyone living in a culture like our society and Karl’s, this could be quite a shock. Following these two examples are diet and overall lifestyle. The food in China seemed to be by far Karl’s hardest thing to accept. The Chinese diet consists mainly of frogs and insects. Both of which, never sounded appetizing to Karl. It wasn’t in his norm to eat stuff like it. Religion and beliefs is another major difference Karl had to overcome. While visiting China, he visited a fortune teller to predict his future. He never believed in practices like this until he received his reading. He followed the teller’s advice all throughout the episode. What …show more content…
In any new culture, everyone is going to experience loneliness at some point. It’s part of the process. He would often find himself out of the norm. He ultimately felt like an outsider who didn’t belong. Out of the many underlying factors that associate with the loneliness culture shock produces, culture distance and personal expectations, in my opinion, apply best in Karl’s case. Personal expectations “refer to the anticipatory process and predictive outcome of an upcoming situation” (pg. 95). Before coming into this, Karl held negative expectations about China, some of which happened to come true. As for culture distance, “factors include cultural values, language, verbal styles, nonverbal gestures, religion, and economic systems” (pg. 96). All these factors further influenced Karl