Metaphors

"Cultural identity is like a tapestry. Each of us pulls threads from multiple cultural contexts (school, church, neighborhood, country) to weave our cultural identities. People within one culture are not all the same; they each have a unique sense of cultural identity."

Culture shock is more than just differences between where you’re from and where you arrived. It has its origins in our childhood environment, in the social groups we’ve been surrounded by and a part of, in our everyday life that we have been leading until the moment of moving abroad.

Iceberg metaphor

You might have heard about the iceberg metaphor before as it can be used to describe numerous multi-dimensional concepts. It has also been widely used to talk about the concept of culture or in coaching to help people understand their behaviours and find the best ways forward. The main point is that what you see in behaviours is not the whole picture, it is driven by various values and attitudes that are under the surface. So in the context of culture, it would mean that the behaviours you notice in people from various cultures can’t be judged just as they are without any relation to where they derive from. And to be honest, I don’t think there is anything really fundamentally wrong with this metaphor. It puts vague concepts in a more tangible framework that is just much easier to grasp.

But because I personally am in favour of thinking forward in terms of development and growth, instead of using a metaphor with a fixed piece of ice I’d rather use a metaphor of a tree to talk about how where we come from influences our experiences abroad. Here it comes!

Tree metaphor

The tree is a living thing. When it’s small and is just being planted the roots are thin and weak, the trunk is also thin, the whole tree is small and vulnerable. At the beginning it is easy to pull out of the ground and plant somewhere else and it will grow well in that new place.

As it keeps growing the roots start to grow deeper and wider, become more attached to the ground, they get stronger and harder to replant. It grows the branches and leaves, it blossoms, it feels safe, it knows when it will rain, it knows that this is its place, its ground. What would happen if someone was persistent enough to actually dig out the tree with the roots and try to plant it somewhere else, expecting it to grow equally well and healthy?

The tree would be resisting, it would hold its roots on to the ground very hard. If the person actually managed to replant the tree, it would maybe stop its growth for a while (it’s not THE ground. It’s not THE place. It’s not THE home.). Maybe it would stop blossomingforever and would just sadly stand there with its old roots in the new ground waiting for someone to cut it and make new furniture out of it. Or maybe it would see the opportunity to grow even bigger in this new place and adjust the roots to the new ground, adjust to the new weather conditions, try to fit in the new scenery by growing new and better leaves or flowers.

Which of the two trees would you be if you were moved to a new place?

Would you stand sadly in one place, remembering the memories from your old home and putting yourself down? Or would you get over the loss and try to adjust to the new home by exploring the opportunities, checking the ground, fighting the stones which block your way to growing new roots and using your previous experiences to succeed?

What’s behind the culture shock?

Culture shock is more than just the country you’re from. It is of course connected, but you need to understand which aspects of the environment you were brought up in, which people you spent time with, what social aspects of your life have made you the person you are now.

Following the tree metaphor, before actually moving abroad it’s worth understanding what roots (beliefs, attitudes, values, worldview) you are holding, what ground (communication style, social rules) do your roots fit and were always surrounded by, what kind of branches and leaves (holidays, customs, arts, language) are you growing. When you know all of the above, it’s easier to recognize the discrepancies between what you think is ‘right’ or ‘weird’ or ‘funny’ versus what you see in the new country after you’ve just moved.