By ANGIE EARP
When students venture into a foreign country with a new culture, they often experience what is known as culture shock. Some students take only a day or two to adjust, while others spend months trying to get use to the differences.
Alf Pratte, professor of communications, was the director of the media Study Abroad that just returned from Europe.
A student who experiences culture shock 'is exposed to another country and its language and its people and is not able to fully adapt because it's so different,' Pratte said.
Becca Oldroyd, a junior from Salt Lake City, majoring in social work, went to Jerusalem for Winter/Spring 1996.
'Everything was kind of new, and I felt really lost. The first day (we were there), they took us on a tour and it was kind of overwhelming because you have this huge city in front of you with all kinds of little streets,' she said.
'You still have jet lag, and everything was just kind of a blur. They kept saying, 'Go east to go to this place' or 'Turn here to get to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher,' and it was pretty much lost to me,' Oldroyd said.
The people were really nice, Oldroyd said, so it wasn't hard to get use to that. She said she spent the whole five months getting use to different things, but she saw a lot of differences in their culture that she admired.
One of the things she had a hard time getting use to was not looking a man in the eyes. 'They tell us (that) Americans in general are pretty outgoing, and I'm used to making eye contact and talking and being confident and friendly. That was one thing that took me the whole five months to get used to,' Oldroyd said.
Elizabeth Allison, a junior from Orem, majoring in family history, went to London during Winter Semester 1996. She said she didn't really go into culture shock, although some of her classmates did. She said there were a lot of differences between London and the United States.
'Over there, people don't wear white socks, so you learn quickly not to wear white socks. That's one of the ways they pick out Americans really fast -- Americans wear white socks,' Allison said.
'In England, people don't talk really loud, especially in the underground, so you have to get use to things like that. We're used to being really loud and really friendly and outgoing -- I don't know if that's a BYU thing or an American thing. But they're just more reserved, so that's kind of a culture shock -- getting use to the different ways they do things,' she said.
Allison said another difference between England and the United States is that England has a great deal more culture because they're built on such a history. They have so much heritage that they have a lot of traditions that don't exist in the United States.
'In London, culture shock wouldn't be as bad because you speak English and because when students stay at the center, the bathrooms are really modern compared to other places,' Allison said.
Pratte thinks the culture shock one might experience in Europe is not as strong as it would be in other countries, because Europe has been dominated by American culture and movies.
'I think there has been a globalization that has detracted from this culture shock. I don't think it's so much culture shock anymore,' Pratte said. He compares shock to walking from a warm room into a hot room, or going from black to white.
Courtney Glenn, a senior from Corvallis, Ore., majoring in family science, went to Vienna during Fall Semester 1996.
'You have to be really open,' Glenn said. 'I tried to blend in, be like them and learn everything that I could. Our director told us to expect the unexpected -- you're going to think you know what to expect and it won't be the same. If you were really close-minded and really felt like your way was the best, it would be hard to go anywhere,' Glenn said.
Pratte's advice to students to avoid culture shock is to learn as much as possible about a culture before they go.
'The more you can learn, the more you can bring to the wow; it means so much to the European people,' he said. 'Here's a little minor thing -- the people of the Netherlands don't like it to be referred to as Holland. And when a student talks about Holland, it's abrasive.'
Part of what students receive when they take the prerequisite class for their Study Abroad are Culturgrams -- summaries of a country that cover everything from government to how to shake hands with people.