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Re-Entry and Culture Shock

Recommendations for Navigating Culture Shock

Based on our experience working with students returning to Mac, we offer the following tips for navigating the re-entry process:

Accept Frustration

  • The real key to re-entry is anticipating that there may be some frustration with adjusting to life in the U.S. and at Mac – that the frustrations are a normal part of the total learning process and an ongoing part of the entire cross-cultural experience.

Go Slow

  • Be patient with yourself. Remember that you adjusted to your host country and you can re-adjust here. Use the same coping skills and activities that helped while you were away. Get as involved as you can in campus life. Be kind to yourself in your re-adjustment as well as to others who are re-adjusting to you. Suspend judgment until a later, more settled time and keep your sense of humor.

Reconnect

  • Return to the habits, activities, and places that you love and missed—and experience them anew. Take friends with you and let them know what you missed about them while you were away.

Be Involved

  • Spend time with people who care about what has happened to you and who have common experiences. Find or re-engage with groups, departments, or people that are building community in a way that feels meaningful to you.

Communicate

  • Engage your friends in your experience by showing pictures, cooking foods, sharing objects and stories, or watching movies from your host country.
  • Ask your friends about their experiences on study away or semester on campus.
  • Remember that your experience is your own and be aware of your impact when you share your perceptions or experiences of/with your host country/community/culture.
  • Write about your experience for campus or other publications. You can talk with the Community Engagement Center to explore ways to connect your experience away with the local community through engagement.
  • Continuing to update a journal to document important memories and as a means of reflection can be very helpful. You can visit the Library to talk with an archivist to get ideas for how to document your study away experience.

Keep in touch

  • Remember to keep in contact with your host family and the friends you’ve made while studying away. This will not only help with homesickness for your host country but also keep those connections alive for future visits.