Wide context

Complete PICLE corpus of essays by Polish advanced EFL students (330,000)

/^t/People who have lived abroad find that the adjustment to returning home is more difficult than their adjustment to the foreign culture. We usually expect to have some difficulties when we speak a different language, or learn the rules of a different culture. In a foreign country one may experience both psychological and physical discomfort due to one's mind and body's disorientation by an unfamiliar enviornment. But in their own culture, natives know the language, all the ways of doing things, non-verbal behaviour, people's values and ways of reasoning. They do many things automatically and understand what is happening around without thinking about it. Yet, after being gone for a period of time, people experience a re-entry culture shock. They do not realize that their expectations and views on familiar culture have changed. Therefore, their re-entry adjustment is more complex than their assimilation into another culture.