On the other hand frequent visitors have realized that however English is the first national language in the UK, one from every British is not English. This can be drawn back to the historical event of making Celts moving out from the territory that now is called England.
So, one can realize that English are proud of their history, the royal family and their money. This is why for example they did not join the Euro and did not become the members of t he Eurozone.
People and their attitudes and values may also create the starting point of culture shock. Depending on from which country someone is coming, one may find it difficult not to be late and how to behave in a typical English way. In England people mostly have good time management which means that they are rather punctual. Punctuality can be observed both in private and business life (in this case schools).
Moreover there exist unwritten rules and manners that are advantageous to be taken in granted. England as other countries as well has its own dos and don’ts.
Standing in line is the only appropriate way of waiting for a bus, going down to underground or waiting in museums. This rule may be shocking at the first sight and therefore it may lead us to feel something as culture shock.
Apologizing or saying “please” and “thank you” are also considered to show the manners of English. Moreover in England people always pay their orders immediately. This may be very uncommon in other cultures and may also be a breaking point to feel that something does not work as it should be.
Greeting people with a kiss without knowing them for years is completely unacceptable. English kiss each other only when they are close friends. This may be the reason why people from many cultures find them cold and rigid. Other issues to avoid are for example the loud talking in public or when somebody is staring at someone in public. This is due to the fact that English prefer privacy and they hardly let anyone foreign in. Naturally manners are the first that one usually gets to know. These are not hidden and by little observing one may find out the proper way of behaving in certain situations.
The attitudes of English to foreigners vary from generation to generation. The younger generation seems to accept foreigners more easily and therefore they can build close friendships and relationships more easily.
One may feel the differences between English and other people even by spending a few days in England. However English are reserved, they are very helpful and they always help foreigners by giving them the way to find the place they want to get to. They are also very tolerant up to a point when they get angry and they start referring to their rules one may not be completely aware of. Therefore it happened that people started complaining about foreign students not keeping the queuing customs. They turned to police and asked them to organize queuing lessons to foreign students. Therefore international schools and language schools in Devon and Cornwall work together with police and try to inform newcomers about queuing rules.
A study about English queuing custom was published and said that people spend in average 23 days in a year by queuing for various reasons. Queuing is expected in museums, bus stations, national offices, but also in cinemas. English wait silently and patiently until they get served. Therefore locals can easily tell of foreigners when they are pushy and they seem to jump the queue.
The next issue is a very popular setting point of a culture shock in England. Traveling as a foreign student we have to get used to the climate or the food a foreign country.
Rain is common component of everyday life in England. Therefore students traveling to the UK from relatively warm countries may have difficulties with getting used to it.
However the climate differs in almost all parts of the UK, it is always advantageous to have something that is protecting from rain. Despite the rain, the country has mild climate with lots of sunshine. There can be places found where snow for example is not a common issue.
Another important issue that may be a causing purpose of various symptoms of culture shock is the English food. Many foreign students face strong aversion to the English cuisine. Others on the other hand make huge debates whether there exist such thing as English cuisine.
Well one might know that English are popular for their wonderful breakfasts, what they call English breakfast. It consists of eggs, bacon, sausages, fried bread, mushrooms and baked beans. In spite of that, nowadays English seem to reduce their breakfast to an American style with cereals and toast with orange juice and coffee.
In England the traditional meal times are breakfast (7.00-9.00), lunch (12.00-1.30 pm) and dinner (6.30 pm-8.00 pm). English do not care too much about their lunch and therefore they usually eat their packed sandwiches with crisps that they carry in a plastic box. Eating habits are changing day to day and researchers have found out that English seem to prefer curry and meals with rice and pasta for dinners. When English take away food is mentioned the first thought that gets into the mind of people is “Fish and Chips”. Therefore it is often said that “Fish and Chips” is England’s national food. Among traditional dishes one can find for example Roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, Shepherds pie, Roast chicken, roast lamb and many others. Not only meats but also pies are very popular in England. The most favored ones are: pork pie or stake and kidney pie.
However England’s cuisine does not belong to most popular cuisines of the world, English stand out with their desserts and the tea. Thus, one can distinguish many types of biscuits (as Shrewsbury biscuit), cakes (as Lardy cake) and puddings (as Bakewell pudding).
Many people might know that England is a tea drinking society. They are reserved to their customs and therefore they comply with their customs. English have two main tea times. These are the Afternoon tea with other words, the 4 o’clock tea and the High tea which is also called the 6 o’clock tea.
Research methodology
Measuring the level of culture shock was helped by conducting a survey. A questionnaire was sent to students from various countries. I have chosen thus, 16 students from 11 countries. The eleven countries are the followings: Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Italy, Switzerland, Denmark, Germany, Colombia, Venezuela, U.A.E. and Japan.
The questionnaire contained 23 questions from which some related to general information about the interviewee and others were related to measure the level of culture shock the individual met while staying in England. Four people out of the 16 are still living and studying in England; all of them are in London. 2 people are spending their placements in 2 different firms and the other 2 are studying in 2 different universities in London.
The interviewees were chosen based on the fact that with most of them I spent some month in England in a language school in Swanage. The rest of the people being asked are good friends of mine. I know them for several years and therefore I can rely on their answer and take them for granted.
I have divided the whole process of research into 4 main parts. The first part was the most crucial one, because it was the most time consuming. It was the process of question designing. I needed to concentrate on culture related questions, because I did not want to hurt the interviewees by any of them. I have decided thus, to build my questionnaire on 2 parts. The first part is asking general questions about age, gender, nationality and about how long a person has been in England. The next part is more culture oriented and therefore concentrates on questions about language skill, local people, customs, family issues and others.
My next step was finding the appropriate people for being interviewees. After long research I decided to have 16 people from 11 different countries. I tried to concentrate on having equal numbers of both sexes. Finally I managed to ask 5 males and 11 females.
The questionnaire was conducted in most cases through e-mail, but people from Hungary were asked personally.
My third step was the evaluation of questionnaires. For the reason that 4 people are still living in England, I had to divide the evaluation into 2 parts. About the results of the questionnaire I will talk in the next section of this paper.
And the final step was the process of drawing a conclusion from results and comparing it to the hypothesis I set at the beginning of this essay.
Analysis of the questionnaire
Firstly I would like to analyze the answers of those 4 people who are still in England as students. They are all aged between 28 and 23, 28 is the oldest and 23 is the youngest. Out of the 4 people 2 are males and 2 are females. They are coming from 4 different countries such as: Colombia, U.A.E., Venezuela and Japan. To the questions, how long they studied English before they came to England they gave very exciting answers. 2 of them (the 2 males) said that they studied English at home for more than 3 years. The girls’ answer was a little surprising because it must be mentioned on them (the Venezuelan) is a daughter of one of the previous Venezuelan ambassadors in England. The other girl answered that she studied 2 years English before she come to England. All 4 students live in London for more than 3 years and they rate their English as excellent. The question asking them about their foreign language skills, they surprisingly still regard their English skills as foreign language. They live alone and they seem not wanting to change it in the near future. Questions about their home families and friends also created very interesting results. They said however they miss their parents and friends and talk with them quite often, they would not go home and in the long term 3 of them are planning to settle down in England. What they mostly found hard to accept belonged to English customs mostly. They said that it was strange for them to see people being undressed in spite of the cold weather and they also seemed to have problems with food and weather. I asked them a question about the queuing custom and I was keen on finding out how they managed to cope with it. I realized that for the first sight it was strange for them, except the Arabic guy and the Venezuelan girl, because they spent couple of month in England before moving there.
The next part of the evaluation was concentrating on people spending a year or less in England. Therefore I had 2 people form Hungary, 2 from Slovakia, 1 from Poland, 1 from Italy, 1 from Switzerland, 2 from Denmark, 1 from Japan, 1 from Venezuela and 1 from Germany. All interviewee is aged between 18 and 30, where 18 is the youngest (she is a girl from Slovakia) and 30 is the oldest (a girl from Italy). Unfortunately the data may not be reliable enough because I have managed to ask only 3 males about their experiences and the rest 9 are all women. They spent various periods of time in England; most of them in a language school in Swanage. Therefore there are people who spent half a year there and the rest of them staid approximately a year. All of the asked people answered that they have studied English for more than three years. Some of them also mentioned that however the studied English at high school, their skills were not enough to speak the language well. It was mostly due to the teaching methods they had at school (the two Slovakian girls were the ones having this comment)
The answer concerning the culture oriented questions covered very interesting thoughts. Due to the reason that most of these people were studying at the very same school, they faced many things in a similar way. For example they all hated the food because it was very fat and unhealthy. They had comments for example on McDonald’s and Pizza houses, because they found the food disgusting and oily. However the school tried to satisfy students by offering them their traditional meals, they hardly succeeded because the English variables were always there. None of the asked students lived alone. Some of them staid in the college of the school, others moved to host families in the town. Ones living in the college were satisfied with their accommodation, because the college offered mostly big rooms with 2 people sharing it. In spite of that many students staying in host families were treated not in the proper way. They had small rooms and strict rules.
Questions about the strangest things brought also interesting answers. Many students found it weird to have so many “Fish and Chips” bars in the town, because Swanage counts to small places with few thousand people. Another issue that many of them complained about was the weather. Some of them tried to cope with the weather however they came from relatively warm places. They said they like it and they will never forget it. Others on the other hand had completely different thoughts.
Among strange they also mentioned things as relationships in families (because children are brought up in a very free sense of mind), pubs and their weird closing times (because they close at 11 pm mostly), clothing, the huge number of pets or the friendly attitude of people.
About the queuing customs many of the asked people did not even know. Only those faced this rule who visited London or bigger cities in England.
So these were the main finding of the questionnaire. I tried to make it as colorful as I could and thus I have tried to ask people from different countries with different cultures. People from Europe usually answered the question in a similar way. They seemed to like and hate the similar things. People from Venezuela and Colombia were complaining about the time management of English, because they found it hard to accept the punctuality.
Conclusion
Culture shock at the first sight means something negative, but taking a deeper research and analyzing the thought of some people coping well with it may help to build a different view about it. Naturally culture shock cannot be avoided and it will always exist when one is living in another country that his own. Naturally it can be minimized by understanding people and their culture, habits and customs.
Therefore when traveling to a foreign country one should be prepared about the most important customs of the country. One can find relevant information on the internet or there are also hundreds of books published with topics discussing cultures and customs of various countries.
Another possibility to minimize culture shock is to build relationship with other foreigners as soon as possible. These people may help one by showing the most relevant things to pay attention to and what should be, when and how. One should try to look for the company of local people but should avoid the pushy attitude.
Concluding the main ideas of this essay, I would say that culture shock is needed in all cultures, because it may help people in developing their personals skills and may also help them in building new contacts with foreigners and the environment as well. One should on the other hand not forget about his own culture and customs, because after returning to his home country he may face the reverse form of culture shock.
Appendices
Appendix A
Annotated Bibliography
Books:
- Breaking through Culture Shock
Written by: Elisabeth Marx
Published: Nicholas Brealey Publishing
Date of Publishing: 2001
The book gives a deep study of culture shock by examining it in a scientific way and explaining terms with examples from business life.
The book consists of two parts; the first gives the definitions and explains the possible solutions how it should be taken. It gives a scientific study with examples, graphs and examples. The second part concentrates on business cultures. It explains the major thought about the culture in a business context. Various sections deal with management, leadership and effective organizing of career opportunities in a given country
- Culture Shock! Britain
Written by: Terry Tan
Published: Kuperard, London
Date of publishing: 2001
This book evaluates British culture by various sections. It shortly explains the country and its history, politics, parts, health care, way of living and other similar issues. It elaborates people and their habits in other sections. It gives not only an overview about customs, but it also shows many examples how English people live. One reading this book may found out interesting issues about English eating habits, traditions, historical celebrations or education. It is an interesting piece of reading because one can prepare well from British life when reading this book through.
- Britain in Close-up
Written by: David McDowall
Published: Pearson Education Limited
Date of Publishing: 2000
It is a good piece of writing because it gives answers to many questions about the UK. It has separate sections on Politics, Law, Working in Britain, Social life, Culture, Education, Media, Religion, Environment and many others. It has a relatively easy language, thus everyone can understand it quite easily.
Appendix A
Annotated Bibliography
Internet sources
The study explained the term of culture shock by giving a definition. It also mentioned the stages of it. It explained the symptoms of various stages and explained them by various examples
This site gave a short and brief overview about English customs. It explained what should be done and what should be avoided in certain situations. The basic dos and don’ts were examined.
It is the same site as the previous one with the difference that this one concentrates on food. It mentiones the eating habits of English people. It gives an overview about national dishes. And this site also offers some recipies of some dishes. One can find out when are the meals served in England.
This article deals with the queuing custom of English people. One reading this article may find out how angry they become when foreigners jump the queues. English turned to police and asked them to teach foreign students how to behave in a queue. From that moment police works together with some international schools and language schools in order to satisfy local people.
The article as the previous one also deals with the queuing custom. It explains why the habit is so important for English people and how much time they spend averagely in queues over their lives. It shows where queuing is necessary and how do English accept it.
The article shows how English weather changes over the country. It explains where Englend in terms of climate belongs. It also shows the hours of sun shining and raining over a year.
Appendix B
Questionnaire
Questionnaire for culture shock
1. Year of birth: dd/mm/yyyy ...../…../…………
2. Gender:
3. Age: ............................................
4. Nationality: ……………………………
5. Length of staying in England:
- Less than half year
- Half a year
- Less than one year but more than half
- More than one year
- Still living there
6. Years of studying English at home:
7. How do you rate you English now?
8. What did/ do you do in England: …………………………......
9. How many languages do you speak: ……………………………..
10. If you are not European, how many times have you been to Europe?
- Once
- 1-2
- 3-4
- More than 5 times
11. Where did/ do you live in England? ……………………………..
12. How many people did/ do you live with? ……………………………..
13. Did/ do you mind sharing a room with them?
- Yes
- No
- If yes please state why?
14. Did/ Do you miss your family?
- Yes a lot
- A little
- Not at all
15. Did/ Do you miss your friends at home?
- Yes a lot
- A little
- Not at all
16. How often do you talk to your friends at home?
- Once a week
- 2 Times a week
- Once a month
- 2 times a month
- ……………….
17. Did/ Do your parents visit you?
18. How much contact did/ do you have with local people?
- A lot. We are friends
- When it is necessary
- Trying to avoid them
- …………………
19. Would you like to have more contact with local people?
- Yes, because: ………………….
- No, because: …………………..
20. What are the things that you found the most difficult to get used to?
Please list at least 3: …………………………………….
…………………………………….
…………………………………….
21. Was/ Is the food acceptable for you?
- If yes why? …………………………………
- If no, why? …………………………………
22. How did/ do you cope with queuing custom?
- .......................................................................
23. If you have any other comments, please indicate them.
……………………………………………
Ref 1: http://edweb.sdsu.edu/people/CGuanipa/cultshok.htm
Ref 2: Elisabeth Marx, Breaking through Culture Shock, Nicholas Brealey Publishing-London, 2001
Ref 3: David McDowal, Britain in Close-Up, Pearson Education Limited, Essex, 2000
Ref 4: David McDowal, Britain in Close-Up, Pearson Education Limited, Essex, 2000
Ref 5: www.woodlands-kunior.kent.sch.uk/customs/behaviour.html
Ref 6: www.news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2169460.stm
Ref 7: www.news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/590856.stm
Ref 8: www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/questions/climate.html
Ref. 8:
Terry Tan, Culture shock Britain, London, 2001
