Reverse Culture Shock

Studying abroad is an exciting experience for any student. The independence, the new people, the new ideas, the culture shock of the new country. Oh yes, the culture shock is all too common in the study abroad adventure.

Stages of Reverse Culture Shock

If I’m going to be honest RCS is an emotional rollercoaster. The amount of emotions that come to the surface can be overwhelming so let me break down the stages you’ll feel.

Stage #1 Returning Home

You’ll feel excited and nervous to be returning home. The thought of seeing your friends, your family, the furry pet you left behind, makes you happy. You start to wonder what has changed and what everyone has been up too. Even if you kept in touch with everyone, not everything will be known.

Stage #2 The Honeymoon Phase

You’re home, you’re in the environment you’re used to. The joy of finally seeing your family and friends, eating your favorite foods, the comfort of being home again. It’s a great feeling and you think it’ll last forever.

Stage #3 Frustration

After some time passes and you have caught up with everything and everyone you missed, you might find yourself confused or frustrated by things that used to not bother you. You might wonder why people do something this way instead of that way. You start to notice the things that used to be comforting and convenient begin to bother you—because you saw a different side of things that you liked better for yourself while you were in a different country. This starts to trigger the next phase.

Stage #4 Nostalgia

You deeply miss your study abroad experience and the host country. You miss the friends you met, the activities you were able to do there that you can’t do at home, maybe even in the way the university taught their students was well suited for you.

You might find yourself missing all of it for weeks or even months. Replaying the memories you have and reflecting on how it has shaped you as a person. You start to analyze your home and your study abroad environment.

Stage #5 Acceptance

Everyone has different times when this will happen. Eventually, you’ll re-integrate to your life back home. Re-engaging with your favorite things, your home university, and the moments of longing for your studying abroad experience will shorten to those smaller nostalgic moments.

Stage #6 End of the Emotional Journey

This is the final stage of the RCS! When the rollercoaster of RCS comes to a stop you pass the worst parts of it and can look back your study abroad experience with joy and excitement. Everyone experiences RCS differently so don’t feel like you’ll be stuck in it forever.

What Studying Abroad and RCS Taught Me…

As an international student from California, the re-adjustment for me hit me harder than I expected. Mainly because I had to return due to COVID-19, my studying abroad experience was cut shorter than anticipated. Of course I was sad, and a lot of tears were shed in my last few days in Sweden. I was not ready to say goodbye to the life I created in Uppsala.

With RCS it was even harder for me when I returned. Since the U.S. was under quarantine I couldn’t do the things I loved to do like go to the beach, eat at my favorite restaurant, or see my best friend. After going through all the phases of RCS, I reflected a lot on who I was now that I had this opportunity. My experiences taught me things I never knew about myself and my mindset is different because of them. It taught me a resiliency I never knew I had.

After being in Uppsala I now know home is much more fluid than what I used to think.