Cultures

I’m doing alright, thanks for asking. Things are moving along. I don’t yet have work, I don’t yet have my own house and I haven’t yet handed in application for university, but all three are progressing. I was offered one house (I turned it down, it wouldn’t have worked out), updated my CV, sent it out, put it online, got registered in Amsterdam, got a bank account and got in contact with the department in the university that I want to attend (they responded very positively when I told them my situation).

Is it enough? No, not really. I really should be doing a great deal more; but I’m having a bit of trouble getting back into the swing of things. Why? (and this an explanation, not an excuse) I think it’s partially down to getting settled back into ‘normal’ life and partially Culture Shock.

Seven years is a long time. I really have been Asianised in the time I was gone. It’s so strange, when I went out to Asia there were a lot of occasions where people tried to explain to me that how I was behaving was, I'm not exactly sure how to put it, out of sync. I argued at length with them about the why and the what, trying to find out why they thought their way was better. Now I come here and I’m on the other side of the equation. I suddenly understand what those people were telling me when I came out to Asia.

But I’m speaking too abstractly, let me give an example. When I first went out to Asia I was all about honesty, straightforwardness, telling it as it was and speaking my mind (yes, they’re pretty much all the same thing, but it looks much more impressive this way) I was, at that time, confronted with an attitude of lies, half-truths and cowardice.

Now I come back with an attitude of live and let live, avoiding judgement, leaving people in their values and avoiding negative emotions. I am now confronted with an attitude of rudeness, intrustiveness, asocial behavior and holier than thou attitudes.

Two different ways of viewing the same thing; neither of them wrong, but both of them together can cause a lot of problems. Ultimately, of course, this will make me even better at interacting with different nationalities, cultures and peoples. It will give me the ability to manage situations that others can't even understand. For now, though, I'm left with a culture shock and having to adapt once again.