WHEN YOU CROSS CULTURES - World Evangelical Alliance

RECOGNISING CROSS-CULTURAL STRESS
The language was a difficult one. A slight change of intonation could
either offend someone or cause laughter.
Questions for Discussion
135
1. What stresses were experienced by this couple? Were any stresses
avoidable? Or were they inevitable? Would you have lived differently from
them? Why or why not?
2. What attitudes could be helpful when facing stress?
3. If you were their supervisor providing pastoral care, how would you
encourage or advise them?
TWO KINDS OF CULTURAL STRESS
Generally speaking, the cross-cultural worker faces two kinds of cultural
stress.
A “Culture Shock” – When You First Arrive
Firstly, there is the stress that comes from the loss of familiar cultural
cues - what is termed “culture shock”. Anxiety is experienced whenever the
familiar is lost, confusion follows and there is a degree of “shock”. When
workers first arrive in their new field, they face a host of adjustments which
produce cultural stress.
No worker, no matter how thorough his orientation and preparation,
will be able to grasp all the cultural norms of behaviour and communication
patterns of a different people. Every culture has thousands of subtle cultural
cues, some of which can only be learned over a long period of cultural exposure.
Until they are learned, the worker will be culturally disorientated. He will
experience uneasiness, tension and even emotional maladjustments because
familiar props have been removed.
In many parts of Asia, where people are polite and hospitable, you are
never too sure when to accept an invitation to stay and join the family for a
meal. You do not accept an offer the first time it is made. Usually, you do not
accept the offer even on the second time it is made. You will have to discern by
subtle signs (the enthusiasm of the person and his family members, facial
expressions, other comments being made) as to how you should ultimately