8.6 Intercultural adaptation 1数字时代的商务英语写作.pdf

Intercultural Adaptation 8.6 Intercultural adaptation 1 Hi, there. Welcome back to our course. In the previous sections, we have talked about culture shock. Generally, culture shock is a relatively short-term discomfort due to the unfamiliarity of surroundings and lack of familiar cues in the environment. Now let’s look at the long-term adaptation process into a new culture intercultural adaptation, which refers to the process of increasing our level of fitness to meet the demands of a new cultural environment. In other words, intercultural adaptation is a process of dealing with maladjustment within a host culture. Adjusting to new culture is an ongoing process with many ups and downs. We may experience different stages in the intercultural adaptation due to cultural differences. In order to better adapt to the new culture and overcome culture shock, it is necessary for us to have a detailed understanding of the process of intercultural adaptation. Let’s look at the story of Liu Yan a Chinese visiting scholar in America. I hope her story can provide a starting point for your understanding of intercultural adaptation. Liu Yan is a college teacher of Mathematics. Due to her hard work, she got a wonderful chance to be a visiting scholar at a university in the United States for a year. In the first month of arrival, she felt very excited about everything there. The university was located in a very small town with beautiful natural sceneries, which was quite different from the big city where she lived and worked in China. Most of the fellow teachers in the university were nice and friendly. People passing by in the street usually greeted her with a smile. She even made some successful purchases in the local grocery. Liu Yan thought it was such a right decision to work and