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Coming Home…

When you return home from your study abroad experience you probably feel very different, and you are. You have grown intellectually and gained a new understanding of the world. Studying and living abroad will often force you to wrestle with the questions: Who am I? Who am I going to be? Where am I? Where am I going? Exposure to another culture and to other ways of thinking and behaving lead to new ways of looking at one's own culture. Often, increased appreciation for the culture abroad is usually accompanied by more critical views of your home culture. Criticism of one's own home culture can often reflect a conflict between the new values and ideas that you adopted from the host country and those pre-existing values and ideas which you reevaluate upon returning home.

Reverse Culture Shock

Upon returning home from study abroad, many students, especially those who have been away for a semester or more, or those who have studied in a culture very different from our own, find re-adjustment back into the home culture and community to be challenging and sometimes even problematic. You may return to a campus where peers hardly missed you, and try as they may, some friends are not exceptionally interested in hearing every single detail about your experience abroad. This situation can leave you feeling estranged, as if you have no outlet to share your experiences from abroad and express how you have personally changed. This results in what is defined as reverse culture shock or re-entry syndrome.

Because you may not have expected changes to occur within yourself, "reverse culture shock" often becomes more difficult to deal with than the initial shock of adapting to a foreign culture abroad. When you return and immerse yourself back into your home cultures, you then become acutely aware that changes have occurred, and do not understand how to handle them. The problem is exacerbated when normal support systems in their home community are also ill prepared to deal with these changes. Many students experience alienation from family and close friends, who expect them to revert back to who they were prior to their experience abroad. Ideally, you should feel encouraged to incorporate your newly discovered personal growth into their your lives.

Transitioning back to life at AU

1. Work with other internationals students on campus. Serve as a mentor for incoming international students to your campus. Become involved with the international activities and issues on campus, or simply befriend an international student. You can be an “Abroad at AU Partner” and help out with the orientation we give to incoming international students here for the Abroad at AU program
   
   
2. Become a conversation partner. Another way to volunteer your time and help out visiting international students on campus is to become a conversation partner. Many exchange students need to practice their English speaking skills and would like a conversation partner. If you are interested in meeting international students, learning about their culture, and helping them practice their speaking skills, check with the international student services office.
   
   
3. Join an international interest club or organization. Spend time with people who have shared similar experiences.
   
   
4. Continue language learning. Take additional language courses; join language clubs, or language conversation nights. Find an exchange partner to meet with on a regular basis who speaks your second language. Subscribe to a newspaper or magazine in your second language.
   
   
5. Assist in the Study Abroad Office. Serve as an alumni contact, help conduct on-campus information sessions, speak at AU Abroad’s site-specific orientations for future students, assist with AU’s study abroad fair, and spread the study abroad vibe.
   
   
6. Share your experience. Give presentations to adults, children, and student groups. Write articles for the campus newspaper. Encourage others to go abroad!
   
   
7. Learn more about your host country. Use your firsthand knowledge of another country as a basis for taking related courses such as geography, history, and international relations. Build on your knowledge by reading newspapers and books viewing films, and basing research projects, papers, or an independent study on your host culture.
   
   
8. Investigate international careers. Visit AU’s Career Center and learn about the Foreign Service, international development agencies, overseas teaching, travel agencies, volunteer groups, or businesses that need bilingual employees.
   
   
9. Volunteer to work in the community. Help organizations that support community service and development. Look for groups working with immigrants, refugees, or the aged, that can use your skills of listening, patience, and empathy.
   
   
10. Keep in touch with your experience. Write your friends in your host country; address and stamp at least two envelopes so that you write at least twice per year! Keep up-to-date by sending photos. Write a letter to your institution explaining what the experience meant to you. Subscribe to a host country newspaper or read current issues in the library. Plan a return visit to your host country, or invite friends to come to the U.S.
    
    
11. Integrate the best of the two cultures. Don't feel as if you must live exclusively according to one at the expense of the other.

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