TEN TOP IMMEDIATE REENTRY CHALLENGES
as rated by university students
There are lots of reasons to look forward to going home, but
there are also a number of psychological, social, and cultural
aspects which can prove difficult ... often because they are
unanticipated. The following list was generated by interviewing
students like you who have been through the experience and survived
nicely. However, they say you should take the process seriously by
being realistic and thinking about it and your possible reactions.
They offer the following thoughts on reentry for your consideration
in the hope they will make your return both more enjoyable and more
productive.
- BOREDOM After all the newness and
stimulation of your time abroad, a return to family, friends, and
old routines (however nice and comforting) can seem very dull. It
is natural to miss the excitement and challenges which
characterize study in a foreign country, but it is up to you to
find ways to overcome such negative reactions ... remember a
bored person is also boring.
- "NO ONE WANTS TO HEAR" One thing you can
count on upon your return: no one will be as interested in
hearing about your adventures and triumphs as you will be in
sharing those experiences. This is not a rejection of you or your
achieve-ments, but simply the fact that once they have heard the
highlights, any further interest on your audience's part is
probably unlikely. Be realistic in your expectations of how
fascinating your journey is going to be for everyone else. Be
brief.
- YOU CAN'T EXPLAIN Even when given a chance
to explain all the sights you saw and feelings you had while
studying abroad, it is likely to be at least a bit frustrating to
relay them coherently. It is very difficult to convey this kind
of experience to people who do not have similar frames of
reference or travel backgrounds, no matter how sympathetic they
are as listeners. You can tell people about your trip, but you
may fail to make them understand exactly how or why you felt a
particular way. It's okay.
- REVERSE "HOMESICKNESS" Just as you probably
missed home for a time after arriving overseas, it is just as
natural to experience some reverse homesickness for the people,
places, and things that you grew accustomed to as a student
overseas. To an extent it can be reduced by writing letters,
telephoning, and generally keeping in contact, but feelings of
loss are an integral part of international sojourns and must be
anticipated and accepted as a natural result of study
abroad.
- RELATIONSHIPS HAVE CHANGED It is inevitable
that when you return you will notice that some relationships with
friends and family will have changed. Just as you have altered
some of your ideas and attitudes while abroad, the people at home
are likely to have experienced some changes. These changes may be
positive or negative, but expecting that no change will have
occurred is unrealistic. The best preparation is flexibility,
openness, minimal preconceptions, and tempered optimism.
- PEOPLE SEE "WRONG" CHANGES Sometimes people
may concentrate on small alterations in your behavior or ideas
and seem threatened or upset by them. Others may ascribe "bad"
traits to the influence of your time abroad. These incidents may
by motivated by jealousy, fear, or feelings or superiority or
inferiority. To avoid or minimize them it is necessary to monitor
yourself and be aware of the reactions of those around you,
especially in the first few weeks following your return. This
phase normally passes quickly if you do nothing to confirm their
stereotypes.
- PEOPLE MISUNDERSTAND A few people will
misinterpret your words or actions in such a way that
communication is difficult. For example, what you may have come
to think of as humor (particularly sarcasm, banter, etc.) and
ways to show affection or establish conversation may not be seen
as wit, but aggression or "showing off." Conversely, a silence
that was seen as simply polite overseas might be interpreted at
home, incorrectly, as signaling agreement or opposition. New
clothing styles or mannerisms may be viewed as provocative,
inappropriate, or as an affectation. Continually using references
to foreign places or sprinkling foreign language expressions or
words into an English conversation is often considered boasting.
Be aware of how you may look to others and how your behavior is
likely to be interpreted.
- FEELINGS OF ALIENATION Sometimes the reality
of being back "home" is not as natural or enjoyable as the place
you had constructed as your mental image. When real daily life is
less enjoyable or more demanding than you remembered, it is
natural to feel some alienation. Many returnees develop "critical
eyes", a tendency to see faults in the society you never noticed
before. Some even become quite critical of everyone and
everything for a time. This is no different than when you first
left home. Mental comparisons are fine, but keep them to yourself
until you regain both your cultural balance and a balanced
perspective.
- INABLILITY TO APPLY NEW KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS
Many returnees are frustrated by the lack of opportunity to apply
newly gained social, technical, linguistic, and practical coping
skills that appear to be unnecessary or irrelevant at home. To
avoid ongoing annoyance: adjust to reality as necessary, change
what is possible, be creative, be patient, and above all use the
cross-cultural adjustment skills you acquired abroad to assist
your own reentry.
- LOSS/COMPARTMENTALIZATION OF EXPERIENCE
(SHOEBOXING) Being home, coupled with the pressures of
job, family, and friends, often combine to make returnees worried
that somehow they will "lose" the experience. Many fear that it
will somehow become compartmentalized like souvenirs or photo
albums kept in a box and only occasionally taken out and looked
at. You do not have to let that happen: maintain your contacts
abroad; seek out and talk to people who have had experiences
similar to yours; practice your cross-cultural skills; continue
language learning. Remember and honor both your hard work and the
fun you had while abroad.
© Dr. Bruce La Brack, School of International Studies,
University of the Pacific
These challenges might seem daunting, but the most important thing
to realize is that this is totally normal, and the ups and downs
you're experiencing constitute what is frequently called "reverse
culture shock". It actually often gets mapped just like the U-curve
describing cultural adjustment in a foreign culture.
The best way to be ready for reverse culture shock is to expect
it, and to realize that most of it is caused not by changes in home,
but changes in you. You won't know how far you've come until you can
reflect on the journey from the place you call(ed) home. This is
actually a great time to not only learn about yourself and how you've
grown while abroad, it's also a great time to learn about home from a
far more objective perspective than you've ever had before. Lots of
students come back saying that they never felt more American than
when they were abroad, and never more foreign than when they were
back in the U.S.
The first thing to do is relax. Like culture shock the first time
around, you'll get through this, and end up stronger for the
experience. You'll have your ups and downs, good days and bad. Some
of the same coping skills you used to get yourself through the low
points while abroad will serve you well here-reflect in your
journals, keep active, rest and eat well, explore your surroundings
with new eyes. Soon you will have adjusted, though we hope that
you're never quite the same as you were before your experience
abroad.
Some Advice...
Suggestions on coming "home", from University of the Pacific
students (Stockton, CA)
- Talk with others who have come back from abroad and share
your experiences, frustration, and joys. These are the people who
can help you through it. Almost everyone agrees.
- Accept that you have changed and that things are not going to
be the same as when you left and that that's a good thing.
- Exercise. Endorphins kill reentry sadness.
- Read a lot about everything. It will get your brain
working.
- Don't isolate.
- Don't brood. Self-pity is unattractive.
- Try new things. If you return to the same place a different
person, redefine the place. Take up a new hobby, residence,
sport, mode of transport.
- Don't dwell on the past.
- Keep your memories alive - don't store them away in a shoe
box. It wasn't a dream and it was important.
- Find local physical supports. Go to the World Market and get
German chocolate if you miss Germany, Japanese tea if you miss
Japan. And everything is available on the Internet.
- Use your cross-cultural study-abroad skills to observe your
own culture.
- Stay spontaneous.
- Don't let failures in your home culture be any less a
learning experience than they would have been while you were
abroad.
- Continue to reflect on what you learned abroad.
- Focus on how you are now better off from the experiences you
have had.
- Look for the good in the present situation.
- Don't be upset if people seem indifferent to your experience
abroad.
- Recognize that things at home have changed while you were
away and respect those changes. No one's life went on hold just
because you were gone, and their experiences are important to
them.
- Don't talk about what happened abroad unless your listener
wants to hear it. But find a confidant if you can.
- Rekindle the spirit of adventure you had abroad. Explore
home.
- Go out of your way to make new friends, just as you did
abroad.
- Try to apply what you learned abroad to your life here. What
can be saved? What is useful?
- You will need to "rebuild" relationships, not merely "resume"
them.
- Don't jump off a cliff: like culture shock, reentry shock
passes in time
3. Opening New Doors
While the last section dealt with things you needed to address
while still abroad and with your immediate reentry concerns, this
section examines your (new) life at home and back on campus. And
while we encouraged you to put some closure on your experience
abroad, now we're going to suggest you take the next step-figuring
out what doors have opened to you as a result of your
experiences.
Now's the time to think about what your experiences might mean for
your future. Now's the time to think about how you've changed-while
you were away, and since you've been back. Now's the time to reflect,
reminisce, stay in touch with your friends from the program, organize
your photographs, renew old friendships, start new ones. Your first
semester back can be dynamic, difficult, exciting, depressing...a lot
like your semester abroad!
This is what opening new doors is about. There might be
possibilities open to you now that you never would have dreamed of
before you went away. Most of all, now's the time to start applying
your experience. Don't let it fade to the point where it seems like
that whole episode in your life is a disconnected, surreal bubble. As
one study abroad expert said, don't put your time away into a
"shoe-box". Keep it real to you.
There's many ways to do this, and we've only space to cover a few.
We've posed a series of questions below with some information as well
as suggestions where you can find out more.
3.1 Questions and Opportunities
Do you want to Stay INVOLVED WITH STUDY
ABROAD?
Get involved. Talk about your semester abroad in your classes. Make a
zine about it. Come to Away Café and tell a story that crosses
borders. The students who continue their international experiences
often go on to international careers, or exciting opportunities like
Peace Corps or the Fulbright Program. To start with, consider
becoming a Global Ambassador. Ambassadors help the CGE
represent programs to prospective students at admissions events,
general information sessions for study abroad programs, and general
and program-specific orientations, as well as tabling, and talking to
classes. Contact Jennifer O’Neil.
Do you want to know more about the country you studied
in?
Talk to your adviser, the faculty director of the program or anyone
at the CGE; we'll help you find courses that may build upon your
experiences. You can also consider an independent study; talk to your
academic adviser to find out more. Some students focus their honor's
thesis on their country of study as well.
Do you want to learn more about international
careers?
Maybe you think you'd like to make travel a part of the rest of your
life. Maybe you'd like to spend a few years after graduation
traveling or working abroad before settling down. Career Services and
the Center for Global Education present an International Career
Workshop every semester. In addition, please visit Career Services
and the CGE and learn about some of the many options!
Do you want to publish your writing, art or
photography?
There are several opportunities available to you. There's a yearly
photo contest, usually held in the Spring semester, and the CGE
curates a gallery space on the third floor of Trinity Hall called the
Global Visions Gallery. GVG hosts individual and group
shows, with the goal of opening a new show each semester. If you have
an idea for a show, see Jennifer O’Neil. There's also The Aleph: a
journal of global perspectives, published every Spring by the
Center for Global Education and an editorial board of students just
like you. To submit your work to the Aleph or learn more about the
editorial board, email Jennifer O’Neil.
Do you want to share your experiences with fellow
students?
Learn about becoming a paid Programming Assistant (PA) with the CGE
and help orient other students going abroad, help the CGE develop
on-campus programs aimed at making HWS a more culturally-diverse
place, and help us out with programs like the photo contest, The
Aleph, and International Week.
Do you want to Make a film about your experience
abroad?
Jennifer O’Neil at The Center for Global Education has been regularly
offering a Reader's College on digital storytelling. Students meet
each week to eat, tell stories, learn about making films, and
actually make their own three-minute digital story. This is a great
way to both process your experience and also create a statement about
it that you can share widely. Contact Jennifer O’Neil.
Do you want to talk about your reentry
experience?
The staff of the CGE love to talk about study abroad. Most of us have
studied abroad ourselves - that's why we do the work we do today.
Make an appointment with one of us or just drop in - if we're
available, we'd be more than happy to hear about your experiences. It
helps us learn how students perceive our programs, and it gives you a
chance to talk to someone who understands.
Our hope is that you'll take advantage of one or more of these
opportunities. Like us, you might find that everything you do from
this point on will be informed by your experience abroad.