Culture Shock

The stages of culture shock as I recall them are as follows: 1)The honeymoon stage where the traveller thinks that everything about the new country is simply wonderful 2)The conflict stage where the person begins to despise the way people do things in the host culture and they wish they could just do things the "normal" way 3)The acceptance stage where the person no longer feels angry or depressed but accepts the culture for what it is 4)The adjustment stage where the person learns to live in the culture and adapts to a new way of life.

Despite what I've been told, I am beginning to suspect that those stages of culture shock are actually what is perceived from outside the traveller. I will now give you the emic perspective. Stage 1: The traveller, having freshly arrived, retains some sense of self and cherishes recent memories of home, thus producing an appearance of loving the new country. Stage 2: The traveller's patience with the foreigners and their foreign ways grows thin, but he is still vaguely remembers a place called home, thus arrousing fits of frustration followed by doubt and depression. Stage 3: Having been told that his reality is no longer valid, the traveller walks about in a comatose state of numbness. The cease of struggling is seen as "acceptance." Stage 4: The traveller's will to live being completely broken, he merely mimics the actions and copies the thoughts of those around him, thus perfectly achieving the desired state of "adjustment."