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If you travel, or spend an extended period of time overseas, then there is a good chance that you might encounter reverse culture shock upon your return home. Reverse culture shock is a funny phenomenon and if you have not experienced it, can be difficult to explain. As a means to prepare students’ who have been abroad the University of Iowa’s International Programs website has this description, “Reverse culture shock basically consists of feeling out of place in your own country, or experiencing a sense of disorientation. While everything is familiar, you feel different. Even walking through the airport and hearing American English spoken can be a very surreal experience.” I can still remember leaving Papua New Guinea and American Samoa and arriving in the United States and everything seemed foreign to me. Specifically, from the way people greeted each other to how people passed others in a crowded grocery store aisle is tremendously different depending on where you are. Sometimes reverse culture shock can be extremely overwhelming and the University of Iowa site goes on to further explain that, “Fitting your new life into your old one can be frustrating. Since every country has a unique approach to life, it can be difficult if you’re used to operating within cultural mode, or have made that approach to life a part of you, to return to the U.S. where the rules are different.”

We have spent so little time in the states recently that this post was actually brought to life when I received an email from Henkel Smith, of Water’s Edge Realty, who just returned home to San Diego from Nicaragua. He wrote in his message that he had a heck of a time at a self serve gas station in California because in Nicaragua, “you never pump your own gas.” After we returned home from the Peace Corps and the jungles of New Guinea we had to deal with the sometimes uneasy reverse culture shock feelings for about a year. Currently, we can still be effected when we go to the states. It starts from the moment you get on the plane because the cultural norms of the place we have lived in the Caribbean for the past five years (e.g. everyone knows you, you ALWAYS say good morning to everyone, etc) are not necessarily practiced in the states.

If you have recently returned home, here are five simple tips to help you deal with reverse culture shock:

• Talk about your experiences.
• Realize and keep in mind that your friends and family really have no idea what it means to take a bus for ten hours so you can buy a bag of rice.
• Meet up with other travelers and if possible nationals from the country you have just visited.
• Allow yourself some time and ease into the transition.
• Just like when you were traveling, remain flexible and keep a sense of humor.

If you would like further reading on this subject have a look at the following websites:

International Center: Study Abroad - Reverse Culture Shock

Safety Abroad Handbook — How to Get There… and Back

Homecoming or Reverse Culture Shock? | nomad4ever