Culture Shock

" Many students - including Native Americans -are confronted with the task of functioning in a society that they don't understand. There is a mismatch between our culture and theirs. Their own culture has a different set of norms for simple things we take for granted, such as how to address the teacher, how close to stand to the person they are talking to, how loud to talk. Many times what they see and hear in North America is in direct conflict with their own set of cultural values: people sitting with their legs crossed so that the soles of their feet are showing, dating, displaying affection in public, openly questioning a teacher's point of view. They often feel confusion, conflict, and helplessness over the wide disparity between what they experience in everyday North American life. These feelings are defined as culture shock."

Barbara Law and Mary Eckes, The More-Than-Just-Surviving Handbook: ESL for Every Classroom Teacher. (Winnipeg, Manitoba: Portage & Main Press, 2000), p. 67. Copyright © 2000 by Barbara Law and Mark Eckes. Used by permission of Portage & Main Press.