Moving is never easy: Cross cultural theory

Hello everybody,


I will share some truth about travelling to a different country and adapting to a different way of living.

Infact, does not really metter who you are or from where do you come from, everytime you travel or move away from the place you were born and grown up, you will go trought some inevitable and necessary steps before you get to fully accept a different culture.

Today I will go throught this points using  the cross culture theory main points.

Denial: Is usually the very first stage. That is the phase during which you will litterarly refuse the interaction with the other culture and show no interest towards it.
During this stage it is easy to feel unconfortable with the situation and the people around you.

Defense: In this stage, you will consider your culture as superior to the others and you may have the tendency to  criticise behaviour or thoughts by someone from another culture.

Minimisation: Here is where you finally start believing that all cultures share commom values.

Acceptance: At this stage, you may still not fully understand the other culture but you will finally tend to recognise that differences can exist and you may even be curious about them.

Adaptation: During this stage you will feel like something is changing inside you. You will adapt behaviour more easily by intentionally changing your own behaviour or communication style.

Integration: This is the final and hardest step to achieve.
You will not achieve this point everytime you travel for Holiday or vacation.
It takes time and motivation!
In this stage, individuals instinctively change their behaviour and communication style when interacting with other cultures.
At this point you would be ready to live and work in your new country.

Overall, I want to remind you that, the process takes time and everybody can have different reactions when facing new situation so, the final result.... it is going to be a surprise.

Moving and living in Finland for a semester, I can say that I think that the model is true. I totally went from step to step.

I had hard time at the beginning of my experience. I started comparing everything and everyone to the things I am used to and people I know from my hometown, refusing the differences I met here. Then, I gradually decreased this kind of behavior, accepting and being more open minded. I think I am now in my adaptation moment.

I like and appriciate many points of the finnish culture like their honesty in the working and friendship relationship and I am amazed by the respect people have for the enviroment and the common areas.

At the same time, I still struggle when it comes to the strictness od deadlines and  rules about schedules (bus, school,dates...) and the looooooong time people need before opening up with you and be your friend.
I guess it will take still sometimes to achieve the integration but, unfortunately I have not enough time here for that.

I hope this summary will help you understanding that, moving is never easy and everyone who moves for work, love or whatever struggles a bit.

Ciao!