Job Discussion Forums

Sonnet · Joined: 10 Mar 2004 Posts: 235 Location: South of the river

I got pretty strong reverse culture shock when I came back from China. I'm going to make sure that next time I leave, it's going to be for a much longer time. I'm almost scared of doing another short-term stint because I know what coming back again would be like, if that makes any sense?

Not that there's loads wrong with England, there are places I'd much less like to live in. I guess it's true that we all leave 'home' for a reason or two though, right?

-s

colin · Joined: 14 Apr 2003 Posts: 45 Location: You mean right now?

I have 4 more years statue of limitations expires

Tonester · Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2004 10:56 pm Post subject:

Well it all depends on your background. You could be overseas to
A: escape family
B: get chicks (because you have no hope of getting any in your home country)
C:enjoy another part of the world
D:be interested in a certain country's culture
E:just for adventure
F: other reasons

If you fit in bracket B no wonder you'd be scared to go back home because you'd lose your status. If you are in bracket A you'd never want to go because you'd be miserable. If you are in the C-F brackets you love the country so much you never want to leave (assuming that bracket F people have good reasons).

For the record I'm in brackets C and D.

lucy k · Joined: 06 May 2003 Posts: 82 Location: istanbul, turkey

Cleopatra · Posted: Fri Mar 26, 2004 11:56 am Post subject:

I'm at home at the moment after more than a decade here, there and everywhere.

I absolutely dreaded coming back- but felt I had to get my Masters sooner or later, and it might as well be sooner. Since returning home last year, I haven't "got used" to life at home, nor have I lost the desire to go abroad again. If anything, the opposite is true - the more time I spend here, the more I am convinced that it's not where I want to be.

I don't know if other people have this experience, but I have to admit that there are times when I feel almost smug and superior to those around me. Sometimes I am irritated by how parochial and trivila their concerns are. Then, of course, I instantly remind myself that my concerns are just as trivial as theirs, just thay they are about life in aother country rather than here. Also, it is of course wrong to expect people to take a huge interest in places they have never visited and probably never will. However, I do find that, after so long away, I have very little in common with my peers here, many of whom are now married or at least thinking about it.

I also find that I take very little interest in domestic news issues which get people here so hot and bothered. I always skip to the foreign news pages in papers and the local celebs don't really interest me. I think my home country has become just another country. And seeing as it's one that I know a lot about, it's not all that interesting.

icollin · Joined: 05 Feb 2003 Posts: 39

I just came back 1 month ago and I am right in the reverse culture shock mode, and it's the worse thing ever. I remember having a smile on my face and looking forward to each day, now that I am back, all the smiles are gone. My mind and my heart are still in Asia, but my body is here. I cannot relate to anybody here, and it's just hard to stay positive. I am determined to live abroad again, more now than I ever was...I guess that's the only good thing about reversed culture shock.

Shaman · Joined: 06 Apr 2003 Posts: 446 Location: Hammertown

The good thing about culture/reverse culture shock is that neither lasts forever ---Whew!

When I returned from Japan, lots of things jumped out. The spaciousness, the smells - weird to say the least.

What really freaked me out was going to the mall early the next morning after my arrival to get photos developed. As I walked through the deserted department store, I felt as though I was trespassing. Shocked

Shaman

richard ame · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 319 Location: Republic of Turkey

The thought of going home to stay would be a sign of failure on my part to adapt to and adopt a new culture or new life . Before I went back home with my tail between my legs there are 101 other places I have yet to explore come to think of it going home is not so much an option ,its an impossibility . Life has only just begun .

juliebearjapan · Joined: 28 Mar 2004 Posts: 13

BEEN THERE.....DONE THAT.....NOW SEND ME BACK TO JAPAN!
Cool

I came home to America after teaching in Japan for 2 years. I loved the school and city that I worked at and didnt want to leave, but family circumstances lead me home. It is not as hard as you would imagine to re-acclimate, but it depends on you entirely. I adjusted well to being home, and really enjoyed somethings about america, but I found there were also a great deal of things I didnt like about america.
It only took me about 7 months before I decided that I needed to head back to Japan, and so i will be packing my bags and leaving again for my new school in June! I agree with the person who said it depends on what you come back to, I came back to work part-time and attend graduate classes and it wasnt enough for me. But coming back to a full-time job is a different story.
I am very excited to be going back and living in a new city! I look forward to the old things I missed in Japan, and the new things the city of Kobe will have to offer me. Whatever or whenever you decide to go back, just remember to be as objective as you can! Good luck to all!
I have a website about my time and future time in Japan, check it out, it is kind of fun!! Laughing

www.juliebearjapan.com

[url][/url][url][/url]

Irish Blood English Heart · Posted: Mon Mar 29, 2004 10:21 am Post subject:

Ive got major reverse culture shock just from moving back from 130 miles away at university in Manchester!! So god knows what i'd be like after a few years in China!!! Now that might sound stupid but thats Britain for you. It really is a totally different culture here in Geordie land than it is in Mancunia. The people look different, the city works on a different time, everything feels so small, the accent is impenetrable, the music tastes of the locals, the lack of transport options, the bars shutting earlier, everything feels totally different and for the worse. I guess kind of like a New Yorker moving back to live in Birmingham Alabama. Even after 10 months back here, everyday I think of Manchester and how much better things are there, when I go out with my friends and we cant find a place with good music, cheap drink or open late I tell them (yet again) how things are so much better in Manchester. When we have to get a taxi home which costs 8 pounds ($15) I remind them how in Manchester buses run all night. When we go to get a pizza after drinking and it costs us 6 pounds I remind them that in Manchester it would be 2 pounds, how in Manchester the curry houses stayed open all night. etc etc etc.... So if I suffered reverse culture shock just from 2 different places in the UK, imagine what i'll be like when I step off the plane back into Newcastle after several years away on the other side of the world.

Stephen Jones · Joined: 21 Feb 2003 Posts: 4124

Strange, the Newcastle you describe seems awfully like the Manchester I knew when I was growing up :)

MindTraveller · Joined: 13 Mar 2003 Posts: 89 Location: Oman

I'd like to be a local. I'd like to live in Chicago, my birthplace, a major city with a large and diverse population so I might be able to find friends again. (I'm too weird for small-town USA or small-town anywhere). But I hate Chicago's icy winters and humid summers.

In all my travels though, there have been only two places where I found the locals wonderful: Chicago and Seattle (excluding the California immigrants). Seattle is nice, but rainy and gray, but there are more jobs in Chicago.

Maybe I just need a city. I also need to return and work in the States to up my Social Security if that government department is still issuing checks after 2015. But if I stay overseas longer, I can put more in my pension plan, so I'm stuck in the middle again..... not sure what to do.

I used to come and go. Return home, bliss out for a month or more, then not find a good job and then go out again. I finally said, "Stay out and stop wasting your savings on trying to live in the USA." I've been 'out' nor for 8 years in a row, excluding a few vacations homes. America has always been crazy in some way or the other. I just need to save more money so I can join the middle-class and not be stuck at the bottom again.

Writing this makes me think I need a city - not these rural postings in Oman....

dmb · Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Posts: 8397

Mindtraveller, you need savings and a city. (Gulf experience?)Hhmmm... I hear Riyhad calling.

Belmont · Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2004 4:48 am Post subject: immigrants

Hello MindTraveler,

Your following comments caught my eye:

"In all my travels though, there have been only two places where I found the locals wonderful: Chicago and Seattle (excluding the California immigrants). Seattle is nice, but rainy and gray, but there are more jobs in Chicago."

I was wondering what you thought about the Illinois immigrants in Seattle. Were they OK? Also, just what are the locals like in Chicago? What sets them apart from the rest and makes them "wonderful"?

denise · Joined: 23 Apr 2003 Posts: 3419 Location: finally home-ish

And what's wrong with Californians?

Crying or Very sad

d