Reverse Culture Shock – The dark side of returning home...

It is usually when going abroad to study or work that people think about the culture shock they might experience when getting to their new “home”. However, most people forget that it is very likely that you will experience a culture shock after you return; the so-called reverse culture shock.

My one year volunteering project in Argentina is coming to an end and the possibility of this reverse culture shock keeps popping up in my mind. I have never been away for such a long time and I remember to well what I felt like when I returned after three months of backpacking in India. Seeing the poverty there and getting to appreciate the little comforts of life (like warm food or a hot shower, electricity, etc.) I felt really disgusted by the abundance of material things in Europe when there were so many people suffering at the other side of the world.

Now Argentina is not India, and I am very well aware of that. However, I have spent much more time in Argentina than I have in India and I realize that I have incorporated certain aspects of the local culture (e.g. solidarity, not seeing things too seriously – not everything going wrong is the end of the world, thinking outside the box, less strict rules, openness of the people, etc.). Now what will it feel like being back in Europe? Having recently watched a movie that was partly taking place in Germany, in a small town, I experienced something like a reverse culture shock – over the TV. Seeing “typical” German life, the kind of life I was used to, made me freak out. I could not imagine going back to that kind of life, continuing as if I had never experienced life in Argentina.

I am glad I found out about reverse culture shock while I am still in Argentina. This gives me the possibility to prepare myself – and family and friends back in Europe – for it. It also helps me that I am now aware of the different stages that you go through, namely: honeymoon phase (when you are happy of being back home and seeing family and friends), rejection phase (you start missing your life abroad), recovery and adaptation (you get over your “homesickness” and start to adapt to living back in your home country).

So all I can hope for now is that this shock will not last for too long.