8.7 Intercultural adaptation 2数字时代的商务英语写作.pdf

Intercultural Adaptation 8.7 Intercultural adaptation 2 Hi, there. Welcome back to our course. In the previous section, we mentioned four stages in the process of cultural adaptation. Now, let’s discuss them in detail. The honeymoon is the first phase of intercultural adaptation. In this stage, we are fascinated by all the new things we encounter in the host culture. We love the food, the scenery, and the people, and we are interested in seeing and doing as much as possible. We are still viewing the new environment from our own cultural perspective, just like tourists. That’s why this stage is also referred to as the tourist phase. Our curiosity in this stage often provides us with a feeling of excitement when we detect similarities and differences between the home culture and the new culture. We tend to neglect differences and keep our cultural status and identity by focusing on the similarities between the host culture and our own culture. We usually take positive reaction to stress we felt when encountering cultural differences. This is the stage usually experienced by people who stay only briefly in other cultures, whether for leisure travel or for business. Gradually, however, these positive feelings begin to change. Then, we enter the second stage, the crisis period. It is also called the hostility or frustration stage. During this stage, we experience what is called culture shock. We must directly face the challenges of the new culture on a day-to-day basis. We begin to feel overwhelmed and confounded by the values, beliefs, behaviors, and lifestyles of the new culture. Activities that we take for granted suddenly become problems we cannot understand or overcome. For example, a Chinese student in America Li Ming experienced a case of mild culture clash the first time he needed medical services in