Culture Shock In Cross-Cultural Communication

Culture shock is a phenomenon arising from cross-cultural communication. It happens when different cultures clash with each other. The term, culture shock described the anxiety produced when a person moves to a completely new environment. In fact, cross-cultural adjustment should be considered a continuum with at least two periods—entry to another culture and reentry to one's home culture.As globalization is deepening, communications among countries are increasingly frequent. From the time when the American "Peace Corp" soldiers who quartered at the foreign countries faced the culture shock until the present day when the members in multinationals or international chains, exchange students and officials all have to deal with the culture shock. In order to offer efficient ways for the communication within cross-cultural communication context, the studies in the field are necessary. In China, on the one hand, more and more people go abroad for further study, work, and doing business. On the other hand, many Chinese students come back home, known as "returnees". So the study of culture shock and reverse culture shock has become essential in providing them with some help and guidance. This article is also believed to be of significance in second language learning and teaching.The theoretical basis of this article is intercultural communicative competence. How to adjust to culture shock is a process to develop intercultural competence. This article is expected to enrich the way of strengthening intercultural communicative competence and to give a clear guidance for people who are involved in intercultural communication. Many foreign experts have collected many data; analyze many cases to prove that culture's mode ("high or low context", hierarchical or equalitarian, and collective or individual) will affect culture shock. Others focus on fixed or changeable personal characters' effect on culture shock. In China, cross-cultural communication was introduced in the 80s and most studies are conducted by English teachers. The field, however, involves many fields such as psychology, anthropology and sociology.