Cross-Cultural Issues and Tips for Canadians Abroad

Canadians have studied in every country of the world, and every year thousands of new students either study or conduct research in another country. For each of them, it will become an adventure to discover new places, new people, new ideas and new experiences. At first, it might all seem quite foreign. The scenery, the sounds and the smells as well as the customs and traditions are all bound to lead new sensations.

If it's merely a vacation, the experience will generate fascinating memories and perhaps produce some awesome photographs to place in an album back at home. But if you plan to live there to study or work, you are bound to undergo the feelings associated with being a "stranger in a strange land."

All of us, regardless of who we are or where we have been, feel some culture shock when we leave behind the familiar to confront the unfamiliar. After a time, the fascination of being in new surroundings might lead to anxiety, an all-consuming nostalgia for the social and cultural cues from our place of origin, and perhaps some hostility and stereotyping directed toward our new home.

Eventually, the vast majority of us adjust to our environment. And it is possible to avoid some of the transitional stages before arriving at that point of comfort.

Several resources, in print and on the Web, are available to assist Canadians who plan to travel abroad to live.

Articles on the myths associated with study abroad as well as on culture shock can be found at www.petersons.com and http://www3.uop.edu/sis/culture/index.htm.

Other good sites are the comprehensive www.lonelyplanet.com; www.iagora.com, which has study-abroad reviews and contacts and travel information for international travelers; Transitions Abroad www.transitionsabroad.com, which provides online links to relevant publications, including its eponymous bimonthly magazine; and www.travel-library.com, which features travel news and information on destinations.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade's Consular Affairs Bureau (www.voyage.gc.ca) features a list of publications, with titles listed according to specific countries or on several subjects, such as the ominous-sounding "Imprisonment Abroad." The site also has a "before you go" seven-point Traveller's Checklist offering advice on the "essential things" required before leaving Canada, including a list of Canadian government offices in or near destination countries, as well as a section dealing with international exchange and work programs.

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