Expat “Culture Shock”? Nonsense!
Uh, gee Toto, these folks look mighty different…
Last month I entered a bit of a “contest” on an expat site under the theme of “Expat Culture Shock” (hey, first prize was a $200 Amazon voucher!) But honestly? It wasn’t the prize money that prompted me to pen 500+ words of blather, so much as the – imho, somewhat presumptuous notion of “Expat Culture Shock”.
I mean, after all, surely when one chooses to live in some strange new far-away corner of the globe, one must naturally expect to find things a tad different than in their native land, no? Indeed, one would think “different” would be one of the things that drew you to opt for expatting in the first place. So what’s with all this “Shock” talk? In short, I entered the contest, simply as a feeble attempt to somewhat temper all this “Expat Culture Shock” bandwagon nonsense. To wit, my entry:
Expat “Culture Shock”? Nonsense!
Hmmm… Expat Culture Shock? I suppose. But I honestly can’t say much has shocked me in the year and a half I’ve now been living in Vietnam – if anything, I’m amazed at how easily life has unfolded here. I mean, if I expected everything here in Asia to be as it was back in Seattle, then… I might just as well have stayed there, yes? Truth is – I dumped everything I owned and bought a one-way ticket to Hanoi precisely to experience a bit of so-called “culture shock”. So naturally, little seems overly startling to me here – just (happily) D.I.F.F.E.R.E.N.T.
Sure, the traffic in Ho Chi Minh City is undeniably nutso, with no fewer than 3 MILLION motorbikes perpetually whizzing to ‘n fro with seemingly no rhyme nor reason to the bedlam. But even that insanity I’ve grown serenely accustomed to, and now think nothing of hopping on the back of a xe om (motorbike taxi, “ôm ” means “hug” in Vietnamese) or stepping blithely off the curb into the sea of motorbike chaos and… well whaddya know, they all simply divert gracefully around me – like a waltzing school of (noisy) fish.
Um, Toto – these hummers ain’t no chicken McNuggets
And the street food. O.k. probably best that I don’t look too very closely at the hygiene of the tiny kitchen tucked behind the tarp. And perhaps I’ll politely pass on the fried grubs and grasshoppers. But not the crickets – turns out those honeys have a most uniquely “smokey” flavor all their own (well o.k. delish, but for the nuisance of picking those bitty legs out of one’s teeth). But oh, the phở, and the crispy half-rounds of grilled “banh trang nuong” (Vietnamese “tacos” )! Nothing “shocking” there – just curbside cart after curbside cart offering all manner of deletable dishes for little more than the cost of a… come to think of it – is there ANYTHING you can buy in the States for under a buck? Each steamy, (Michelin-starred-NOT!) grill surrounded by the requisite jumble of elf-sized plastic red, blue, green and yellow plastic stools.
But yes, yes, of course the culture in Vietnam is arguably 180 degrees counter to that of my native U.S. of A. Everyone here living pretty much 24/7 along the edges of the streets, no privacy, everything and everybody one big diligent cooperative, busily bustling from dawn to dark.
Youngsters laugh openly as I lumber by – giggling at my gargantuan height, my blue eyes and my platinum hair. Nonetheless, I am not a freak, but rather, apparently a Rock Star – for they all clamor to my side to stammer the 8 words of English that every Vietnamese knows by heart: “Hello-how-are-you-I’m-fine-thank-you.” And don’t even get me started on the language. Those insufferable 6 “tones” that utterly elude me. 18 months, and still all I can manage to mumble is the vocabulary of a 4 yr. old: “Xin chào ” (Hello) along with the remarkable feat of counting from “một ” to “mười ” (1 to 10).
Even after months of living closely among the locals (for I swiftly escaped the backpacker scene and the high-rise expat enclaves in Saigon, in favor of ascending into the cool, green highlands of the small mountain town of Dalat), I’m still an amusing novelty. Indeed, precious few “Nguoi tay” (Westerners) up here (one of the reasons I like it), and there’s no hope in hell of snagging a Happy Meal in a fit of fast-food deprivation – sigh. Nonetheless, the dignity and playful spirit of the Vietnamese people continues to enchant me. And it is here that this expat shall blissfully call “home” for many days to come.
(btw, I didn’t win the $200 first place Amazon voucher. Indeed, not even the $50 “FB LIKE” prize. The latter likely ‘cuz I don’t play those silly social media “popularity” games, and I’m not willing to pester my family, friends and dear TL followers with such foolishness. No matter, leastwise my blather didn’t go to total waste – I can share it with all of you here.)
About the Author
Dyanne Off-the-beaten-path travel is my passion,and I’ve always lived life “like-a-kid-in-a-candy-store” – eager to sample as many flavors as I can. Indeed, my life motto has long been: This ain’t a dress rehearsal, folks!
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Off-the-beaten-path travel is my passion, and I’ve always lived life “like a kid in a candy store” – eager to sample as many flavors as I can. Indeed, my life motto has long been:
Hey Dyanne love your blog have added you to my blogroll.Your style of travel is like mine- no bucket list.People keep asking where we are going next and my reply is always” THe plan is we have no plan”.All the best for 2014.Welcome to stop by Xiamen,China.
Glad you’re enjoying my TL blather, Ruthi (and thanks for adding me to your blogroll).
Always good to “meet” a fellow NBL (NoBucketLister – hey I just coined that acronym!) 😉 Why have a “Plan” when leaving one’s options totally open invites such delicious serendipity, yes?
Not likely I’ll be near Xiamen anytime soon (headed for a whole ‘nuther continent), but thanks for the invite. Have only briefly visited China (many years ago) and would love someday to meander around her many corners for a couple few months.
“I mean, if I expected everything here in Asia to be as it was back in Seattle, then… I might just as well have stayed there, yes?”
Well said! This is a very excellent point. Why move abroad if you don’t want things to be different?
EXACTLY, Heather. I mean, what’s with all this “shock” drama?
Well, can’t believe it took me this long to find you. You are entirely correct of course. Travel is all about the culture shock. If the world was the same everywhere, then we’d live in tiny cubicles, wondering as to why we needed to go anywhere, in a sort of E.M Forster style machine powered land.
Well hey there – if it isn’t Msr. “Troll Banter”. 😉 Glad you managed to unearth me – I love, love, LOVED your blather on the Dell XPS 12. A bit spendy for my budget, but will surely save my dong and watch for updates.
And yes, “Travel is all about culture shock.” And I say… BRING.IT.ON!
I think reverse culture shock is a bigger issue. Man, that slapped the crap out of me when I went back home for the first time after moving to Costa Rica and Costa Rica really isn’t that different from the States lol!!
First time to your site – I love your tagline 🙂
Indeed Erin, even after but a year and a half here in Asia, I’m now a bit afraid to go “home” to Seattle, for fear it will all loom too much of a “culture shock”. 😉
The only other time in my life I wandered afar for so long was when I took my 2 young dd (then aged 8 and 11 yrs.) to study and wander in Europe for 6 months. Upon disembarking at JFK in New York upon our return, it was quite a (pleasant) “shock” to see row upon row of Hershey bars in vending machines. But otherwise we felt like aliens landing on a whole ‘nuther PLANET! 😉
I have trouble believing cultural differences are sufficiently unknown to be shocking this many decades into the ages of both television and the global economy. Maybe the contest site was just trying to stir up some attention or commotion. I figure the only shocked expats are the ones who scampered back home shortly after realizing how poorly suited they were to expat life.
My most intense cultural learning experience was not shock but a mixture of stunned disbelief accompanied by a stomach turn. I’ll spare y’all the details.
“I’ll spare y’all the details.”
Uh, I get the picture – thank you for that FLN. 😉
And yes, I think folks who toss around the “culture shock” line are either very naive or just want to be dramatic. Yes, there most surely are cultural DIFFERENCES between countries. Shoot, arguably there’s significant differences between the culture of Seattle and say… Los Angeles or Omaha, Nebraska. And of course if you toss a different language into the mix, it’s going to be a bit more challenging still.
But “shock”? I mean – did you really not expect the kindly folks of Japan to speak uh, JAPANESE? 😉
Yes, I agree that in this information age, there’s rarely reason to get culture shock. I didn’t experience any shock either, uprooting to Asia. Surprise, yes (first attempt to cross a road, that man has WHAT on his motorbike) but not shock as I’d read, seen travel documentaries and photos.
I think there could still be culture shock in a more intense environment, for example an extremely rural area or homestaying in a country with very different traditions or values. But for the large part, I’d agree!
Yes indeed Ruth – lots ‘n LOTS of surprises, and honestly? I must say that’s what I like best about living in a foreign land. Even after more than a year, each and every blessed day brings ever more amazing and peculiar surprises.
And yes, no doubt more so in an extremely rural area. But I guess I was (as usual) nit-picking the dramatic culture “shock” terminology. I mean, it just seems that the term “shock” connotes something negative and totally unexpected, when… as you say, in this digital day, when one (i.e. an “expat”) chooses to live as a guest in another land, cultural differences should hardly come as some traumatizing jolt out-of-the-blue.