Essay On Cross Cultural Adaptation

Entering a new culture can be a difficult experience and individuals could find it very difficult to accept and adapt to a new culture. When individuals experience a new culture it is hard to adapt to the differences between their own culture and the culture of the host country. When an individual experience a new culture they go through different stages of process which are known as cross cultural adaptation.

Kim’s (2001) integrative theory of communication and cross cultural adaptation is based on the premise that an individual moves in as a temporary resident in a new and culturally unfamiliar environment and a transformation process occurs. This theory is suggesting that individuals search for some sort of stability in a new environment. It is said that individuals look for stability so that they can reduce the uncertainty of the environment and the anxiety that they may have in the new culturally unfamiliar environment. Cross cultural adaptation can occur when interacting with members of a host country. Kim’s (2001) theory defines cross cultural adaptation as “the dynamic process in which individuals, upon relocating to a new, unfamiliar, or changed cultural environments, establish or re-establish and maintain relatively stable, reciprocal, and functional relationships with those environments” (p. 31).

Cross cultural adaptation is seen as the process of an individual on when they enter a new culture and have to adapt and adjust to the host country. Cross cultural adaptation can be used for students who choose to study abroad. Students who choose to study abroad have to adapt and adjust to the host country and the culture of the country. They will have to interacted with the members of the host country therefore they will th...

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...iliation with the larger culture” (Ting-Toomey, 2005, p. 214). Both ethnic and cultural are used to identify flexibility or changes over time which an individual might go through in the adaptation process of Kim (2005). The way an individual views themselves has been known to affect their overall adjustment process while studying abroad. Students who have a strong believe in cultural identity will find it more difficult to adjust and students who have not got much believe in cultural identity will feel more comfortable and easy in adjusting.

Individuals will gain more experience of the host country through experiencing more of the host culture. This shows that being adjusting to another culture can have an impact on an individual’s ethnic and cultural identity because they spend a period of time in another country within a community who have a different culture.