Job Discussion Forums

[norbdemn]

I am sure most of you experienced it when you go home. What have you done to minimize it, besides going back??!.......LOL

[william wallace]

It goes away, dependent on the proportion of how long being away to how long back. I new a young fellow who spent 3 years in Viet Nam after uni, he was 24 when he left for that locale.It took him about 4-6 months to feel comfortable again.

[Rooster_2006]

For some people, reverse culture shock doesn't go away. I'm the son of a diplomat and by the age of 14 had spent about six years overseas. I came back to the US (my home country) because our Hong Kong post had ended. I had to go through high school in the US, and then in order to get enough capital to get back to Asia and live there successfully, I needed to work for about a year after high school. Those were definitely the worst five years of my life. I've now been back in Asia for over one year and three months, and while life might not be perfect, it's better than the five years of reverse culture shock (except it isn't really reverse culture shock after five years). There's just something about Asia that you can't duplicate in the US, even if there's a Chinatown or K-town nearby.

I think the effects of this reverse culture shock are lessened if your first overseas experience (in Asia) was when you were either very young or a full-grown adult. It's the hardest on teens. My sister, who left Hong Kong after fifth grade, had no problems reintegrating, and appears to have no interest in living in Asia again or learning an Asian language. My parents weren't hit by it much, either, because they had first set foot in Asia as full-grown adults and seem to have considered it more of a long-term sightseeing trip than I did.