We all know that living abroad is not an easy task, and like everything in life, it is made up of moments of ups and downs. When we dive into the opportunity to live in a different country, we come face to face with the cultural clash between our culture of origin and the culture in which we begin to be inserted in.
Over such adaptation process, we can see the adaptation curve (U curve) materialize, which teaches us that adapting goes through four phases: the Honeymoon Stage, the Culture Shock Stage, the Adjustment Stage, and the Mastery Stage.
We cannot forget that each phase's intensity varies from person to person because, as human beings, we have different needs and perception about the world. To understand the process of adaptation and its phases more thoroughly, let's store them in a simplified way.
The Honeymoon Phase is the phase of enchantment, where everything in the new culture fascinates us. The experience in this phase, as we said before, varies from person to person and can last weeks or months. Oftentimes people move to another countries not because of an individual will, but because of a specific need, such as a wife who accompanies her husband for a professional assignment or vice versa.
In such circumstances, the partner in such adventure is commonly dissatisfied with the change, and keeps mind and heart closed to the new and the opportunities. In these cases, it may happen that the Honeymoon will not even occur or will be too short. As a consequence, feeling overwhelmed is an everyday feeling, causing the person to skip such phase and just undergo a culture shock.
In contrast, when that partner keeps mind and heart open to the new and opportunities, the Honeymoon can last long because everything new elicits curiosity and delight, compelling the person to learn more and more what that new culture has to offer.
When that Honeymoon is over, then comes the Culture Shock Phase, which happens when the person is exposed to the hardships of living as an immigrant. The challenges that arise range between communicating because of language barriers and ordinary everyday life issues such as: what is the best school for my children? Where should I live? How do I open a bank account? How can I rent a house? Is it better to live in the North or the South? How do I get a driver's license? What are my rights as a consumer? So, plenty of questions arise in this adaptation phase.
Another typical question coming out of that phase is about everything left behind when deciding upon living this adventure was made. Many people who accompany their spouses leave their jobs, family, friends, and social life behind. And now? Am I ready to stop being a doctor in my country and devote exclusively to home and family? When the assigned spouse holds a work visa, most likely the question is about a stable professional life left behind. And now it is time to start anew.
As time goes by, cultural differences become more visible, and now and then hardships might end up becoming an unbridgeable abyss. When it happens, the family dynamics is often tried, thus calling for a structure, preparedness, and assistance to go through so they can smoothly withstand any hurdles, strengthen their bonds and ensure self-sufficiency for each person impacted in such process.
Another critical aspect in that phase is the sensation of living in a limbo, where there is no feeling of belonging to that new location, as that person’s home country, his/her safe harbor, is so far away now.
Thus, you feel like a traveler in the new country, an immigrant, not yet sharing the same values, the world perspective of those for whom that place is home. What’s more, you are a human being filled with values, thoughts, a culture, but you are not in your home country.
In other words, you are coping with identity conflict. When you are in your own country, others see you as a professional in a specific area of expertise, you come from a certain family, live in that neighborhood, and love doing a lot of things and so on.
But now, who are you? You are just a guy, living as a foreigner in a country that is not yours. Everyone finds it hard to deal with a personal and professional status that is not the same one person used to have in his/her home country.
Nevertheless, when an individual manages to tackle this challenge, regardless of how traumatic it might be, then he / she moves to the Adjustment Phase. But stay alert because many give up on the adventure of living abroad when confronted with the culture shock phase hardships. And if they give up, they will not even make it to the Adjustment Phase.
When making a decision to live abroad, be it for a defined or undefined period of time, finding a professional assistance to help you smoothly go through those phases is critical.
The Adjustment Phase occurs when the individual begins to understand the meanings, values, and forms of behavior in the new culture. That is the stage when the person no longer feels like strangers in that new social environment. Thriving in this phase, as in all the others, will depend on each person. It is also worth noting that reality itself is ever-changing, meaning that crises are likely to arise in the adaptation process.
The Empowerment Phase takes place when the person feels self-reliant after all he/she went through before and demonstrates to be sufficiently independent and empowered to move through the new culture's diverse environments. What stands out in this phase is the person’s solid emotional balance.
Being independent does not mean that the person forgets about his / her own self to fit into the new environment. On the contrary, he / she can be who they are in essence, preserving their values and culture of origin, but now fitted with extensive knowledge and experiences that fuel them to live in a new environment, following the new culture’s standards, while preserving their own heritage and identity.
Embrace Cross-cultural Solutions LLC. is here to help those who decide to embark on this adventure of living abroad, by smoothing the way, minimizing hardships, and seizing the opportunities an experience of this magnitude can offer.