Cross Cultural Adjustment Essay

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2.3 Cross-cultural Readjustment Culture shock during cross-cultural adjustment in a foreign country has drawn attention for many years. Recently reverse culture shock in readjusting to one's own culture have been highly focused. The process of cross-cultural readjustment or reentry into home country is a process equally as cross-cultural adjustment in a host country (Shibuya, 2003; Tohyama, 2008). Researchers have characterized the reentry process similarly. According to Adler (1981), “cross-cultural readjustment is the transition from a foreign culture back into one’s home culture” (p. 343). Sojourners have to adjust to their familiar environments after spending a period of time abroad. Maybarduk (2008) defined the term reentry adjustment as “the re-adaptation to the home culture after an extended sojourn abroad”. While, Thomas (2009) described cross-cultural adjustment …show more content…

Sojourners commonly prepare to deal with adjustment difficulties in a host country, but they are unaware to face difficulties in adjusting into a familiar environment when returning home (p. 342).
Butcher (2002) described that reentry to home country is “a grieving process”. Sojourners grieve from the loss of relationship and experiences in the host country and at the same time they have to adjust to their home culture, societal expectations and reintegrate to the old relationship.
Adjustment is categorized into psychological and sociocultural. Psychological is associated with personality, identity, satisfaction level and the overall well-being, while sociocultural related to sojourners adjusting into host culture and interaction to host national (Mooradian (2004). Both types are used to describe entering new culture in the past studies. However, many researchers also applied psychological and sociocultural adjustment into the readjustment

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