Dealing with Culture Shock: How to Survive Overseas

Traveling overseas, to a foreign country, be it for work, pleasure or study, can be a incredible experience. However, for those who have not left the United States before, and who are not prepared to interact and take part in a new culture, they may be totally overwhelmed and dissoriented by having to go though this unfamiliar chain of events. Why? This phenomenom is called culture shock, and is often encountered by those visiting a country for which they are not ready for. I recently traveled overseas, and saw this happening to others that traveled with me to a particular country, one that is not even too different from the United States. While a little feeling of disorientation and culture shock is probably going to happen to most people, one can avoid most of this and enjoy their trip more if they have taken precautions against such 'shock' in the first place.

First off, one must remember to prepare themselves through education for their visit. Do not just show up in some country like Mongolia with no idea about what to expect even in the least. Instead, take some time to read, research, and look up information on the specific country you are traveling to, through either the use of a library or bookstore, or through the wonderful resource that is the Internet, via the likes of websites like the Cia World Factbook, Wikipedia, Associated Content, About.Com, and other websites. There is a plethora of travel information wesites, and most countries have websites dedicated to tourism in their nation, all of which may be a valuable resource to the preparing traveler. I would earnestly recommend the Cia World Factbook, available at Cia.Gov, as an excellent place to learn a basic overview, through a lot of numbers and statistics, about a particular country or nation. A quick comparison of these stats with the information on the website about the USA will give one a general idea about the country. The added benefit of free websites like Wikipedia is that they offer a wealth of information, although it is important to beware of users adding faulty or false information that may mislead the reader.