고등학교 영어Ⅰ (미래엔 김성연) 연계 글

Moving abroad can be thrilling, yet many newcomers soon feel lost in unexpected ways. Whatever brings them to a new country, simple tasks that once took no thought can suddenly demand real effort. Paying for a bus ride or answering an invitation may leave them unsure of what others expect.

This unsettling experience is known as culture shock. The phrase had appeared in print before the 1950s, but the anthropologist Kalervo Oberg was the first to build a model of it. In a talk in 1954 and an article in 1960, he traced culture shock to the loss of the familiar signs that guide social life. These subtle signs, such as when to shake hands or how to tip, are acquired in childhood without being noticed. He argued that however open-minded newcomers are, losing these signs fills them with anxiety and frustration.

Oberg also described four stages that newcomers pass through as they adjust. In the first, which he called the honeymoon stage, everything new seems fascinating. In the second, daily problems pile up, and frustration can make newcomers hostile toward the new country. In the third, they begin to recover as they learn some of the language and get around alone. In the fourth, they come to see local customs as simply a different way of life.

Oberg's stages are usually shown as a U-shaped curve: spirits start high, sink, and then rise again. Yet the curve has not always held up when researchers have followed newcomers over time. In a 1998 study, Colleen Ward and three colleagues tracked 35 students who had just moved abroad to study. After being surveyed within a day of their arrival, the students answered the same questions again four, six, and twelve months later. The questions measured both symptoms of depression and how much difficulty the students had in everyday social situations. No U-shaped curve emerged in either measure; instead, problems were greatest at the start and decreased over time.

Oberg himself noted that people differ greatly in how strongly culture shock affects them. Whatever stage a newcomer is in, Oberg's advice still applies: get to know local people, a task that requires learning their language. Taking part in their activities helps as well, and adopting new ways need not mean giving up one's own. As Oberg observed, a newcomer who can chat with a neighbor or shop without being helped gains confidence, and the new culture slowly begins to make sense. Culture shock, then, is less a fixed route than a passing challenge that eases as newcomers open up to the people around them.