I had to ask my Mom what "bling" meant.
Culture shock happens both ways. You get shocked by entering a new culture and then get shocked again coming home to your original culture. Although frustrating at the time, reverse culture shock can help you appreciate where you come from. Unlike the old saying, you CAN go home again.
Pimp My WHAT?
Although I didn’t spend years on another planet, I did spend over five years in England after the previous twenty-nine in America. It took about a year to get used to living in England. I eventually got to the point where I dreamt in pounds and pence rather than dollars and cents (or sense?) To this day, I still say "football" instead of (aarrgghh) "soccer". England is heavily influenced by American culture, but they still have their own spin on things.
And then I had to go back to America. It was entering a whole new world. I could barely recognize a THING. And all of these strange words, images, noises all came crashing before me so fast. My own Mother spoke a language I didn’t recognize half the time. And Mom said I was speaking a language she didn’t recognize the other half. Reporters on mainstream network news were using phrases like "Pimp my ride", "are you punking me" and "bling." I finally had to ask my Mom what "bling" meant. I still don’t know what "pimp my ride" means. And, quite frankly, I’m not sure I want to know.
I had reverse culture shock.
Weird Feeling!
Reverse culture shock feels even weirder than the initial culture shock. You expect to go through some sort of culture shock when entering new situations — new countries, new jobs, new life with a health problem, whatever — but you think you won’t go through reverse culture shock. This can hit someone going back to their home country, back to an old job, or an adult going back to college.
I thought I had stored in the old grey matter to get me through. Actually, this little bit of knowledge got me into several scrapes in my first year back in America. For example, I wanted to attend a job fair. I was positive I knew where it was and declined anyone’s offer of directions. I wound up walking about ten miles in circles along a highway until I found a bus to take me home.
"Ya Gottar Larf"
In England, when someone was in deep trouble, the usual comforting response by anyone was "You gotta laugh." Well, I stayed in Southern England, so it sounded more like "Ya gottar larf." But no matter how you pronounce it, the advice is golden. So, your homeland looks, talks and sounds different than you remember (or don’t remember). Reverse culture shock is a way to look at your home with new eyes, as if you were seeing it for the first time. Just stick with the moment. Free it of past associations. And "larf".
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[...] Yesterday, I talked about the reverse culture shock you can get when traveling from one country to another, and then back again. But there are many aspects to culture, and many things can throw you into reverse culture shock. Not only had I traveled from America to England to America and back, I had also traveled from homed to homelessness to being homed again. That’s another kind of reverse culture shock that takes a while to adjust to. [...]