When you are faced with a different climate, values, habits, languages, political and religious beliefs, it can be quite overwhelming. I personally believe that everyone who moves abroad or travels a lot will be faced with culture shock at one point. The longer you spend time in one country the more severe this culture shock will be, involving different stages: the honeymoon stage, the frustration stage, the adjustment stage and the acceptance stage.

I knew that visiting Bangladesh would be a culture shock to me, however I never knew that one could go through these different stages in such a short time. During the first days of my trip I was just amazed how different Bangladesh was compared to Finland. My eyes were observing all the things around me and my brain was busy processing this new information. My friend asked how I feel about people staring at me, which was a difficult question to answer since every time my eyes met with someone else’s I was already focusing on other things around me.

After we came back from our trip to Sylhet the culture shock hit me. I got frustrated about the traffic and not being able to go for a run. Sometimes the traffic was so bad that it took more than an hour to travel only a short distance in Dhaka. While we were stuck in a traffic, we saw people living on the streets and begging money which made me feel extremely sad. In situations like these, when I’m feeling sad or anxious, I usually go for a run. However, now running wasn’t an option since 1) the air was too dusty and polluted 2) there was too much traffic and people 3) it wasn’t safe to explore the city by myself.

After the first week in Bangladesh, I had gone through the honeymoon stage and I was facing the frustration stage. The last two stages were not that severe for me since I stayed only two weeks in Bangladesh. However, I did have to accept that there is no way that I could help everyone even though I would have wanted to. I also tried to adjust by respecting the culture for example by wearing appropriate clothes and by learning some local words. It’s always nice to learn a new language, but I know it was also one way how I tried to cope with the culture shock that I had.

Even though culture shock might be overwhelming there are many different ways how to cope with it, such as learning about the culture beforehand, finding healthy distraction and connecting with people who have had similar experiences. What helped me to cope with the culture shock that I had was definitely my friend and his family. They were extremely welcoming and made me feel like home from the day one. I got to eat amazing local food and experience many things such as attend a local wedding. When I caught a flu my friends sister watched movies with me and made me ginger tea. Little things like these can have a huge impact in the happiness of others.   

In my first blog post, I wrote how the only way we can truly understand the world and other cultures is by travelling and connecting with the locals. The time that I spent in Bangladesh strengthened this thought of mine even more and to be honest it’s difficult to put into words how much I learned. I guess some things just cannot be explained, they must be experienced. Traveling to Bangladesh made me also to realize that a short trip like this can cause a culture shock which can feel quite overwhelming. Thus, it’s important to be prepared with different ways which help you to cope with it.    

In Finland, we sometimes complain about trains being five minutes late, having to wait an hour before receiving a free healthcare, about the school food not being tasty enough… I’m not saying it’s not okay to complain but this trip in Bangladesh definitely brought my feet back down to the earth. Why not use our time helping people who truly need help and being grateful of small things in life. Practicing more gratitude will benefit you as well since it has been proven to bring many health benefits.

I’m grateful for having good friends which make me laugh when I need it the most, living in a place where it’s easy to go for a run and having my family living near me.

What are you grateful for today?  

Best,

Johanna

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