Many who have had to adjust to a new life abroad will
relate to the loneliness, confusion, and alienation felt by Bob
Harris, the American businessman in Tokyo played by actor Bill
Murray in the movieLost in Translation. For some people,
adjusting to a new culture is a minor inconvenience, soon overcome;
for others, like the fictional Harris, the experience can become a
source of profound psychological distress. Experts call it culture
shock.
On the move
The challenges are both logistical and emotional, and if
training and productivity are compromised, scientific careers can
be derailed.
Last year, more than half a million international students,
mainly from Asia, enrolled in higher education institutions in the
United States, according to the Open Doors Report from
the Institute of International
Education . In Europe, in 2003, 21.6% of the science and
engineering students in Cyprus came from abroad, along with 20.7%
in Switzerland, 15.5 % in the United Kingdom, 13.2% in Denmark, and
12.9% in Austria, according to
Eurostat . Countries and regions around the world are
developing new schemes to attract more foreign students to their
institutions, so these numbers will only increase.
Trainees who come to study in a foreign country are more
vulnerable than people who come to take a high-level job or to
reunite with families because they often are less experienced, have
fewer economic means, and lack local social support. The challenges
are both logistical and emotional, and if training and productivity
are compromised, scientific careers can be derailed. On the other
hand, wide experience and international contacts have become almost
compulsory in science, so scientists need to be willing to take on
these challenges. If you're well-prepared and flexible, the
experience should be positive.
The hurdles of moving abroad
Louise Brandes M. Ferreira left her native Brazil in 2004 to do
graduate work in science education at Montclair State University in New
Jersey. Ferreira passed the tests of English required by the
university, but she had difficulties using the new language. "I
couldn't understand people who spoke very fast or used slang," she
says. With the help of her professors and the tincture of
time--about 6 months--she came to understand even the subtle
meanings and colloquialisms of spoken English.
Ferreira also found that American faculty members took a
different approach to written assignments. "My difficulties weren't
so much the language but the length," she says. Brazilians are used
to writing at length to express themselves, she says. "I was
trained to write extensive literature reviews because this is what
our social science scholars are used to doing." In the United
States, her professors taught her how to "prune" her writing. She
now feels competent to publish research in both Portuguese- and
English-language journals.
Ferreira says that personal relationships buoyed her spirits
during tough times. "It is hard to be far away from family and
friends, and sometimes things just don't go as you expect them to
when you are carrying out research," she says. "At these moments,
it is really comforting to know--both by words and deeds--that your
doctoral committee is backing you up."
Outside the academic environment, newcomers are faced with other
adjustments that may not be obvious to supervisors. Trainees may
have to grapple with obtaining a social security card, getting a
driver's license, and purchasing a car. Sometimes even seemingly
simple issues, such as converting from 220 to 110 volts, can be a
headache, says Harold Myron, director of educational programs for
Argonne National Laboratory in
Chicago, Illinois. And trainees often bring families who need to
find a place to live and decide where to school their children. A
partner may need language lessons or a job.
The matter of relationships
"Foreign students or workers in the U.S.A. for the first time
are frequently disarmed by the informality of research and teaching
laboratories," says Mel Schiavelli, an organic chemist and founding
president of Harrisburg
University of Science and Technology in Pennsylvania. "In
Japan, some South American countries, and in Germany, the
interaction between these two individuals is very structured in
terms of formal meetings and terms of address," Schiavelli says.
Consequently, students are more likely to withhold data until they
are considered "wine to be served at the right time," he says.
"Likewise, a U.S. grad student or postdoc studying in Europe may be
accustomed to an informality that leads to discomfort or complaints
on the part of the non-U.S. adviser."
Understanding the nuances of relationships is crucial when
dealing with your peers, too. When chemical engineering student Zhe
Loy arrived at Rice University
in Houston, Texas, from his native Singapore, he was surprised at
the heterogeneity of American culture. "Hanging out with someone
from New York is a big contrast to hanging out with someone who
grew up on the ranches in Texas," he says. Loy chose to adopt the
local customs. Singapore is such a busy and dense city that it is
impossible to greet every passerby, he says. "Here, however, a lot
of people greet you and ask how you're doing." Although he found it
awkward at first, he realized that if he didn't respond, he risked
alienating other students.
How can cultural divides be avoided or overcome? "I think that
the strategies are quite simple: communication, communication, and
communication," Myron says.
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Resources
For students:
For advisers:
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The phases of culture shock
"Culture shock is precipitated by the anxiety that results from
losing all familiar signs and symbols of social intercourse,"
Kalervo Oberg, the Canadian anthropologist who first coined the
term almost a half-century ago, once said in a talk. "These signs
are the thousand and one ways in which we orient ourselves to the
situation of daily life: when to shake hands and what to say when
we meet people, ... when to accept and when to refuse invitations,
when to take statements seriously and when not."
Oberg outlined five phases of culture shock:
Honeymoon--At first, everything is new and exciting.
Hosts, too--faculty, other students, colleagues--are especially
gracious.
Crisis/rejection--When the honeymoon wears off, people
tend to focus on inconveniences and annoying differences. This
stage is critical because the individual either adjusts or
succumbs--by going home.
Regression--People remember only the good things about
home, opt out of learning a new language or trying new foods, and
socialize with people from their own country or culture.
Adjustment--People achieve balance, are less anxious
about differences, and grow more accustomed to their new
environment. They develop a new sense of belonging.
Reverse culture shock--Some people find that, after a
long visit abroad, they have difficulty reacclimating when they
return to their home country.
When going home again is tough
Sarah Meek spent three and a half years as a postdoc in the
United States before returning to the United Kingdom. Her
transition to the United States was relatively smooth. But then she
went home.
She felt a loss of identity, having moved on from being the
person she once was in the United Kingdom and no longer being the
person who lived in the United States either. Most of her friends
in the United Kingdom had moved on too, either in their
relationships or their living or work situations. "I returned to
take another postdoc in the U.K., knowing that I would feel
uprooted from the life I had built in the U.S. and miss my friends,
but I never expected the transition to be as hard as it was," Meek
says. Few people recognized that her homecoming might be a source
of loneliness and depression. When someone at work introduced her
to the concept of "third culture kids"--people who no longer fit in
any culture because they've been raised in several--the idea
resonated. She found solace and practical advice in the book
Homeward Bound by Robin Pascoe. "It was comforting to know
that others experience similar feelings," she says. After 18
months, she was able to recoup her losses and move forward.
Grounding yourself in a new culture
Many institutions have programs designed to help foreign
trainees adjust, so one of the first things to do upon arrival is
to find out what resources are available. Argonne National
Laboratory, for example, has a Newcomers Assistance
Office for its visitors from abroad. The office sponsors social
events and provides welcome packages with practical information,
assistance in finding housing, and English as a Second Language
(ESL) classes.
Trainees may also improve their chances of adaptation by
choosing the right lab. Lab heads can help by providing a workplace
culture that values diversity. All have everything to gain, both
inside and outside the lab, believes Michael Summers, a biochemist
at the University of Maryland,
Baltimore County . "People who initially join the lab are often
surprised by the frank and open discussions that center on race,
culture, politics, and religion," says Summers. "Differences are a
source of constant discussion, which actually brings people
together."
"The foreign students and postdocs that have joined my
lab--including those from such places as Iran, Palestine, Japan,
Korea, and China--have not struggled in our environment," says
Summers. He eases their passage by sponsoring off-campus
events--picnics, weekend ski trips, and mountain-bike
outings--designed to facilitate intragroup communication and
cross-cultural understanding. "The beauty of science is that, when
practiced properly, it revolves around facts and truth, principles
that are easily understood and shared among people with different
backgrounds," he says.
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A place of your own: The importance of workspace to
productivity
Most research settings don't have enough real estate to meet the
office and laboratory needs of scientists and science trainees. How
much physical and mental space does a trainee need? How has ample
space or lack of space affected your productivity in the lab? What
suggestions would you make to supervisors or trainees to make
better use of the space available? Please send your thoughts for an
upcoming Mind Matters column to me at Irene.MindMatters@gmail.com
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Irene S. Levine is a freelance journalist whose work has
appeared in many of America's leading newspapers and magazines.
Trained as a psychologist, she works part-time as a research
scientist at the Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research in
Orangeburg, New York, and she holds a faculty appointment as a
professor of psychiatry at the New York University School of
Medicine. She resides in Chappaqua, New York.
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Comments, suggestions? Please send your feedback to our editor .
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DOI: 10.1126/science.caredit.a0700054