Cultural Re-Entry

More than likely, you will not fully recognize the cultural impact of your experience abroad until after you return from your study abroad program and begin to readjust to life at home. During this readjustment period, you will realize just how integrated you had become into your new culture abroad and you will probably start to view many aspects of your life at home in a new light.

Regardless of the amount of time you spent abroad, you will notice changes-both in yourself and in your surroundings and the people around you. After all, as your life was occurring and developing abroad, life back at home was also moving on and evolving. As you go through the cultural transition of adjusting to life back at home, you may experience some of the same feelings and attitudes that you went through when originally adjusting to your host culture abroad. This phenomenon, in which you experience culture shock in reverse, is known as reverse culture shock or re-entry.

There are many things that you can do to ease the transition of re-entry. The key is to achieve an ideal balance of reconnecting with your life back at home while at the same time staying in touch with your new experiences abroad. The Reverse Culture Shock pamphlet that you will receive upon completion of your program, as well as the ISA general study abroad orientation handbook, provide helpful tips and a recommended reading list to help you achieve a smooth re-entry transition.