Jyoti Verma[1]
Verma, J. (2020). Personal narratives of culture shock. InterViews: An Interdisciplinary Journal in Social Sciences, 7(1), pp. 81-102. https://doi.org/10.36061/IV.7.1.20.81.102
Abstract
An Indian social psychologist, fairly well exposed to the Western world owing to her professional visits, academic interest in the field of culture, and willingness to observe and learn about people and societies as an avid traveler, narrates her experiences of culture shock. Despite being aware that cultural distance between the home society and the host society is expected and that beliefs, preferences, and practices of people from the East and the West may not be analogous, and irrespective of her intention to be an observant learner, the author submits that some of her experiences gave her culture shock. Her narratives are mainly from European countries but with one exception of the USA. On some occasions, the reason for culture shock lay in the positive character and goodness of what she witnessed. Whether she felt shaken, saddened, and insecure or was full of awe and admiration for the host society, the reasons were unfamiliarity, inimitability, and the scale of cultural distance. At least at one instance, the shock was due to her powerless position vis-a-vis that of the host culture. The culture shock narratives are discussed from the representational perspective of an Indian citizen.
Keywords: culture shock, Europe, Indian sojourner
[1] Jyoti Verma, PhD, is a former professor of psychology at Patna University, India. Correspondence regarding this article must be directed to: vermaj46@gmail.com