Click here to go back to for over 2,500 more lesson plans!

Title - Culture Shock: A Fish Out Of Water
By - Liping Chen
Primary Subject - Language Arts
Secondary Subjects - Social Studies
Grade Level - 8th

Materials & Sources

• Culture Shock: A Fish Out Of Water by Duncan Mason. http://international.ouc.bc.ca/cultureshock/
  This literature lesson is based on the works of Kalvero Oberg who was one of the first writers to identify five distinct stages of culture shock. He found that all human beings experience the same feeling when they travel to or live in a different country or culture.
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_shock. This article describes the five stages of culture shock: honeymoon phase; rejection phase; regression phase; recovery phase/at ease phase; reverse culture shock/return culture shock. The author also explains the causes of them in the text.

• Vocabulary: distinct; aggressive; crisis; illusion; adjust
  
• Concept: culture shock; social cues; host country; honeymoon phase; rejection phase; regression phase; recovery phase/at ease phase; reverse culture shock/return culture shock
  
• Critical Thinking Skills: making predictions; self-questioning; formulating hypotheses; drawing conclusion

1. Apply appropriate strategies to materials across the curriculum to construct meaning through interpretation and evaluation: confirming intention and validity of message, using context clues, drawing conclusions determine sequence of events, identifying main idea and supporting details
6. Determine the author’s purpose: To persuade; To inform; To entertain; To evaluate
13. Use study processes to manage information: organizing; questioning, summarizing and retaining information

This text is appropriate for ESL Level 3 (intermediate) students. The reasons are:
a. ESL students in Level 3 have the equivalent English proficiency to 6-8th graders in U.S. schools. This text’s readability level is 8th graders.
b. ESL students in Auburn University are from various countries. They all have more or less experiences about culture shock and they have been in some or all of the stages of culture shock. That’s why I think they will definitely be interested in the text and benefit from it also.

SQP2RS; Interactive Groups
The reason why I use SQP2RS is the major comprehension strategies are all reinforced and practiced through the lesson.

1. Survey: help students activate and utilize their background knowledge and experience about the topic and to set the stage for what’s to come.

Let students read the passage on the transparency: Whenever someone travels overseas they are like "a fish out of water." Like the fish, they have been swimming in their own culture all their lives. A fish doesn't know what water is. Likewise, we often do not think too much about the culture we are raised in. Our culture helps to shape our identity. Many of the cues of interpersonal communication (body language, words, facial expressions, tone of voice, idioms, slang) are different in different cultures. One of the reasons that we feel like a fish out of water when we enter a new culture, is that we do not know all of the cues that are used in the new culture.

Questions for survey:
a. What’s going to happen to a fish if it lives out of water?
b. How did you feel when you first left your home country and came to U.S.?
c. What made you feel like "a fish out of water" at the very beginning when you came to Auburn?
d. After staying in Auburn for a while, how are you feeling now? Better or worse?

2. Brainstorming: ask students to read paragraph 1 & 3, then discuss with group members to brainstorm questions which they think will be answered by reading the text. List them on the board, put asterisk on those have been generated by more than one group.

3. Prediction: Based on the generated questions, ask students to predict two or three things they think they will learn as a result of reading the text.

Read paragraph 4-13, make a double-entry chart about five stages of culture shock. List the five stages of culture shock and people’s distinct reactions in these stages referred in this text on the left column. On the right column write down your own feeling and experiences in the first four stages while you stay in U.S.



Double-Entry Diary
Stage I - Honeymoon phase
Stage II - Rejection phase
Stage III - Regression phase
Stage IV - Recovery phase
Stage V - Reverse Culture Shock

Respond: go back to the questions generated before reading to see if they were found during the reading and to determine which predictions were confirmed or disconfirmed during the reading. For those haven’t been answered by the text, ask students to find answers through their own research.

Socratic Circle: Ask students to review the key concepts culture shock and its five stages in the text. Continue to talk about if an American student goes to your country, what kind of culture shock he/she will experience in different stages.

Questions for discussion:
What is culture shock?
What are the five stages of culture shock?
Suppose one of your American friends goes to your country and will stay there for a while, what kind of culture shock he/she will experience?

Student Assessment Rubric
	3 points	2 points	1 point
Vocabulary: distinct; aggressive; crisis; illusion; adjust	The student is able to understand and state all of these important words’ meanings with terms referred in this text	The student is able to understand most of these new words’ definition and also can make sense from them within the context although they can’t explain them with the terms mentioned in the text.	The student doesn’t really understand these words’ meanings clearly and they also can’t get clues from the context to help them make more sense
Concepts: culture shock; social cues; host country; honey moon phase; rejection phase; regression phase; recovery phase/at ease phase; reverse culture; shock/return culture shock	The student is able to explain these concepts with the terms referred in the test, also he/she can give correct examples and describe the causes and typical symptoms of different culture shock phase	The student can understand most of these key concepts in the text and they can give one or two symptoms of different culture shock phase	The student can’t understand culture shock and its distinct phases described in this text, also the cause and symptoms for these stages
Critical thinking skills: a. making predictions before reading; b. self-questioning; c. formulating hypotheses; d. drawing conclusion	The student can predict what the text will be about before starting his/her reading; the student also can remind his/her own experience about culture shock when finishing double-entry diary during reading; the student can summarize the phenomena culture shock and its distinct phases; typical reactions during these phases and their causes	The student can make a general prediction before reading; the student can connect his/her experience with part of the material he/she is reading; The student can briefly restate the main idea and the different stages in culture shock	The student can’t make useful predictions before reading; while reading he/she just jog down the information instead of including his/her own experience; after reading the student can’t make a complete summary about the reading.

1. Kalvero Oberg was one of the first writers to identify five distinct stages of culture shock. He found that all human beings experience the same feelings when they travel to or live in a different country or culture. He found that culture shock is almost like a disease: it has a cause, symptoms, and a cure.

2. Whenever someone travels overseas they are like "a fish out of water." Like the fish, they have been swimming in their own culture all their lives. A fish doesn't know what water is. Likewise, we often do not think too much about the culture we are raised in. Our culture helps to shape our identity. Many of the cues of interpersonal communication (body language, words, facial expressions, tone of voice, idioms, slang) are different in different cultures. One of the reasons that we feel like a fish out of water when we enter a new culture, is that we do not know all of the cues that are used in the new culture.

3. Psychologists tell us that there are five distinct phases (or stages) of culture shock. It is important to understand that culture shock happens to all people who travel abroad, but some people have much stronger reactions than others.

4. During the first few days of a person's stay in a new country, everything usually goes fairly smoothly. The newcomer is excited about being in a new place where there are new sights and sounds, new smells and tastes. The newcomer may have some problems, but usually accepts them as just part of the newness. They may find themselves staying in hotels or be with a homestay family that is excited to meet the foreign stranger. The newcomer may find that "the red carpet" has been rolled out and they may be taken to restaurants, movies and tours of the sights. The new acquaintances may want to take the newcomer out to many places and "show them off." This first stage of culture shock is called the "honeymoon phase."

5. Unfortunately, this honeymoon phase often comes to an end fairly soon. The newcomer has to deal with transportation problems (buses that don't come on time), shopping problems (can't buy favorite foods) or communication problems (just what does "Chill out, dude." mean?). It may start to seem like people no longer care about your problems. They may help, but they don't seem to understand your concern over what they see as small problems. You might even start to think that the people in the host country don't like foreigners.

6. This may lead to the second stage of culture shock, known as the "rejection phase." The newcomer may begin to feel aggressive and start to complain about the host culture/country. However, it is important to recognize that these feelings are real and can become serious. This phase is a kind of crisis in the 'disease' of culture shock. It is called the "rejection" phase because it is at this point that the newcomer starts to reject the host country, complaining about and noticing only the bad things that bother them. At this stage the newcomer either gets stronger and stays, or gets weaker and goes home (physically, or only mentally).

7. If you don't survive stage two successfully, you may find yourself moving into stage three: the "regression phase." The word "regression" means moving backward, and in this phase of culture shock, you spend much of your time speaking your own language, watching videos from your home country, eating food from home. You may also notice that you are moving around campus or around town with a group of students who speak your own language. You may spend most of this time complaining about the host country/culture.

8. Also in the regression phase, you may only remember the good things about your home country. Your homeland may suddenly seem marvelously wonderful; all the difficulties that you had there are forgotten and you may find yourself wondering why you ever left (hint: you left to learn English!). You may now only remember your home country as a wonderful place in which nothing ever went wrong for you. Of course, this is not true, but an illusion created by your culture shock 'disease.'

9. If you survive the third stage successfully (or miss it completely) you will move into the fourth stage of culture shock called the "recovery phase" or the "at-ease-at-last phase." In this stage you become more comfortable with the language and you also feel more comfortable with the customs of the host country. You can now move around without a feeling of anxiety. You still have problems with some of the social cues and you may still not understand everything people say (especially idioms). However, you are now 90% adjusted to the new culture and you start to realize that no country is that much better than another - it is just different lifestyles and different ways to deal with the problems of life.

10. With this complete adjustment, you accept the food, drinks, habits and customs of the host country, and you may even find yourself preferring some things in the host country to things at home. You have now understood that there are different ways to live your life and that no way is really better than another, just different. Finally you have become comfortable in the new place.

11. It is important to remember that not everyone experiences all the phases of culture shock. It is also important to know that you can experience all of them at different times: you might experience the regression phase before the rejection phase, etc. You might even experience the regression phase on Monday, the at ease phase on Tuesday, the honeymoon phase on Wednesday, and the rejection phase again on Thursday. "What will Friday be like?"

12. Much later, you may find yourself returning to your homeland and - guess what? - you may find yourself entering the fifth phase of culture shock. This is called "reverse culture shock" or "return culture shock" and occurs when you return home. You have been away for a long time, becoming comfortable with the habits and customs of a new lifestyle and you may find that you are no longer completely comfortable in your home country. Many things may have changed while you were away and - surprise! surprise! - it may take a little while to become at ease with the cues and signs and symbols of your home culture.

13. Reverse culture shock can be very difficult. There is a risk of sickness or emotional problems in many of the phases of culture shock. Remember to be kind to yourself all the time that you are overseas, and when you get home, give yourself time to adjust. Be your own best friend. If you do these things you will be a much stronger person. If you do these things, congratulations, you will be a citizen of the world!

E-Mail Liping Chen!