The experts say that it generally takes an individual about six months to adjust and adapt to a new culture, and they generally go through some phases:
1. Honeymoon - Everything is new and exciting.
2. Anxiety - You start feeling irritable and bewildered. The newness is wearing off and reality is setting in. Things that were colorful and exotic now seem dirty, inconvenient or crowded. Everything seems to be going wrong.
3. Rejection - All your feelings and resentment are targeted at the new culture... everything at home is so much better and you look for things that remind you of home.
4. Regression - This occurs concurrently with rejection - you retreat as much as possible, avoiding contact with new culture/people.
5. Adaptation - Adjustment starts to occur when you start feeling comfortable in your new surroundings.
I think this is actually some really good stuff... I would say that I've been through stages 1, 2, 3, and probably even parts of #4.. and hopefully gradually will get to stage 5...
The reason I think it's fascinating is that there's this guy in the office that's in the process of moving from Singapore to San Ramon, and was just mouthing off about how awful America is, and how inconvenient everything is...
People in this part of the world are used to cheap help (maids, etc.) and in America, it's the country of protestant "self-reliance" where you do things yourself, and it costs an arm and a leg to get others to do stuff for you...
Plus, Asia is much smaller place (with more people more densely packed into an area than America), and so things tend to be quite convenient from the public transportation to corner 711 and other convenience stores that sell stuff. Granted not all of Asia is like this, but big developed cities such as Singapore and Hong Kong are like that... and so for people going from this to America where you have to do everything yourself, is probably a big change.
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