Placeholder Image

字幕列表 影片播放

  • Vanessa: Hi, I'm Vanessa from the website, SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.

  • Welcome to the sample conversation video lesson from the course The Fearless Fluency Club.

  • In this video, you'll see myself and my sister Cherise having a conversation, a natural,

  • real conversation about reverse culture shock.

  • If you don't know what this term is, watch the video.

  • If you'd like to hear natural conversations, I'm sure you'll enjoy it, and to analyze and

  • learn about the vocabulary, the grammar, the pronunciation that we use in this video, make

  • sure that you watch the other videos in this series.

  • That way you can more completely and fully understand the conversation and use the English

  • yourself.

  • To join The Fearless Fluency Club, you can click the link here in the description or

  • up here at the top, the little I in the corner.

  • Thanks so much and let's get started.

  • Hi everyone.

  • I want to introduce you to my sister, Charisse.

  • Charisse: Hi everyone.

  • Vanessa: Today we're going to talk about a cool topic, reverse culture shock, but first

  • I want to introduce my sister, because you probably don't know her.

  • Can you tell us first a little bit about where you've lived or different countries you've

  • lived in?

  • Cherise: Yeah, sure.

  • Well, I lived in France.

  • I lived in Argentina, and I recently returned from South Korea.

  • Vanessa: Cool, cool.

  • What were you doing in France?

  • Cherise: In France, I was an au pair.

  • In Argentina, I had multiple jobs actually.

  • First, I worked at a volunteer organization, then I taught English, every odd job.

  • Then, I moved directly to South Korea, where I also taught English.

  • Vanessa: Yeah, so you're also an English teacher or yo used to be an English teacher.

  • That's really cool.

  • We have something in common.

  • Cherise: Yeah.

  • Yeah, we do.

  • Vanessa: The topic for today is reverse culture shock, and maybe some people know about what

  • culture shock is, but how would you describe culture shock?

  • Cherise: Reverse culture shock is when you go from the country you've been living in,

  • a foreign country, let's say, South Korea, you come back to your home country, and then

  • all of a sudden everything feels foreign, as if you're returning to a foreign country

  • and not your home country.

  • You don't connect with people.

  • You feel very different from everything around you.

  • Vanessa: Yeah, you feel kind of disconnected from what used to be really normal for you.

  • Cherise: Exactly.

  • Vanessa: Yeah, and that's a terrible feeling because you feel like, "Oh, I should be going

  • home.

  • I should be really comfortable," and then you feel really weird.

  • Cherise: Exactly.

  • You don't expect it.

  • You hear of culture shock, but reverse culture shock is something you're not expecting.

  • Because you don't prepare for it, it hits you harder.

  • Vanessa: Yeah, that's a good point.

  • I don't know.

  • Have you ever felt culture shock, regular culture shock when you moved to Argentina

  • or France or Korea?

  • Did you feel like, "This is a new culture"?

  • Cherise: I definitely did to an extent, because you're preparing for it.

  • You know you're going to another country.

  • You're going to feel discomfort of some sort, and you're expecting to feel it, so I think

  • you prepare more for this culture shock, but reverse culture shock, you're not ready, you're

  • not prepared, and it just hits you.

  • Vanessa: Yeah, especially when you go to another country and you know you're going to live

  • there for a while, you probably do a lot of preparation.

  • I know when we moved to Korea, I was watching videos all the time about Korea and what's

  • life like, some of the language, some culture different stuff, but when we came back to

  • the US, I didn't think about that at all.

  • It's just like, "Oh, it's just the US.

  • It's my home country."

  • Cherise: Exactly, right.

  • It's definitely real.

  • It's definitely there and it's something that you don't think about.

  • Vanessa: Yeah, especially when you've been living away for a while.

  • How long were you living away from the US before you came back?

  • Cherise: Four years.

  • Vanessa: So Argentina, and then- Cherise: First Argentina for a year, then

  • South Korea for three years.

  • Vanessa: Yeah.

  • That's a long time.

  • Cherise: It had been a long time.

  • I hadn't made any trips, just to visit friends or family.

  • My friends weren't even American, I would say, so I wasn't even getting some culture

  • from my American friends.

  • Vanessa: Yeah, you're culturally disconnected.

  • Cherise: Most of my friends were foreign or from the country I was living in.

  • Vanessa: Yeah, so when you lived in Argentina and Korea, you didn't really have American

  • friends so much.

  • Maybe some.

  • Cherise: There were a few, but they weren't the majority, or I wasn't even looking to

  • make those connections with American people.

  • Vanessa: Yeah, you wanted to make friends that are from the country.

  • Cherise: I wanted to, yeah, acclimate to the country and to the culture.

  • Vanessa: Yeah.

  • I think a lot of people, at least a lot of my students, if they're living in an English-speaking

  • country, that's a huge question, "How can I meet people who are from the local culture?"

  • But you did it.

  • What do you think helped you?

  • That's kind of off topic, but what do you think helped you to make friends with people

  • who weren't American?

  • Was it your jobs or you just learned the language?

  • Cherise: I think what helped was going to events that weren't for foreigners.

  • I went to those types of things where you know you're going to meet locals who live

  • there, and then just connecting with them and then a lot of times, they're very receptive.

  • They want to be your friend, too, and then that brings you into their friend group.

  • Vanessa: Yeah.

  • You mean dances or concerts, or what kind of events did you go to?

  • Cherise: Yeah, concerts, a lot of concerts in Argentina mainly, and then in South Korea,

  • I would say it was with my work because I was the only foreigner at the school I worked

  • at.

  • Everyone I worked with was a local, was Korean, and that's how I connected with them.

  • Vanessa: Yeah, so if you wanted to learn more about the culture, they were already around

  • you.

  • That's really cool.

  • I think it takes a lot of guts, though, because when you are the only person who's American

  • or from your country in an area, maybe you would be more likely to seclude yourself or

  • be like, "I feel really uncomfortable talking to them.

  • Do they want to talk to me?"

  • Cherise: Yeah, but they were very nice.

  • I never felt that awkward situation where maybe they don't want me here.

  • I felt very welcomed, and this is in South Korea.

  • Vanessa: In Argentina, was it different?

  • Cherise: No, it wasn't different.

  • This is coming from the experience of working in South Korea.

  • In Argentina, as well, but definitely in South Korea because I was the only foreign teacher,

  • but luckily I was with my husband, Toddo.

  • Vanessa: Yeah, so can you tell us a little bit about Toddo because Cherise's husband

  • also plays an important role in I think this culture shock or acclimating to a new culture,

  • so can you tell us about him?

  • His name's Toddo, so if you hear Toddo, it's not an English word you don't know.

  • It's just his name.

  • Cherise: Sure.

  • He's Colombian and we met in Argentina.

  • We got married in Argentina and then together we moved to South Korea, so he's been with

  • me through basically- Vanessa: A lot of changes.

  • Cherise: ... everywhere, in Argentina, in Korea, and then back to the US right now.

  • I think he's really helped me acclimate better just because I have somebody who's been with

  • me through all these experiences, and if no one else connects with me, I know he will

  • and I know he'll understand what I've been through because he's been through it, too,

  • and we can kind of hash it out together.

  • That has helped a lot.

  • Vanessa: I think that makes a big difference too because I know when I've traveled alone

  • somewhere and then I came back to the US, no one understood what I'd seen or the cool

  • experiences, so I felt really lonely.

  • There's no one I can talk to about this, and if I said, "Oh, I went here and I went there

  • and this was really cool, and oh, in Germany, it's like this," they'd just be like, "Oh,

  • that's really cool."

  • Maybe they thought it was cool, but they just can't get it.

  • Cherise: Right.

  • Exactly.

  • Either I feel like I'm talking too much about Korea and they're like, "Oh shut up, please

  • stop."

  • Vanessa: That's hard because it's part of your past.

  • Cherise: I want someone to tell.

  • Yeah, I want someone to be able to appreciate or just even listen.

  • You've been somewhere and you want to be able to share what you've seen, what you've learned.

  • Vanessa: Yeah.

  • We're like grandmas.

  • We want to just tell our stories.

  • Cherise: Exactly.

  • It's really helped having Toddo around and being able to connect with him stronger just

  • because we've been everywhere together.

  • Vanessa: Yeah, you guys have a closer bond because you've been through a lot.

  • Cherise: Right, right.

  • Vanessa: I think there's something ... Oh, what was I going to say?

  • There's something cool about, oh, you guys' relationship that we haven't mentioned yet,

  • that part of that reverse culture shock that we'll talk about in just a second is a language

  • thing, going from not being in an English speaking country to being in the US, where

  • there's English everywhere.

  • You speak Spanish, so can you tell us a little bit about your language experience with him?

  • I think this is so cool.

  • Cherise: Okay, sure.

  • Well, before I was going to Argentina because I wanted to learn Spanish, and I met Toddo.

  • Well, when we met, we didn't speak Spanish immediately together.

  • We spoke English.

  • He also speaks perfect English, but then as time grew on I was getting more like, "I really

  • want to learn Spanish, and let's speak Spanish together," which is actually really hard,

  • especially with a couple, with a pair to be like, "Okay, we're going to speak only"-

  • Vanessa: And change languages in the middle of your relationship.

  • Cherise: Exactly, yeah, but we somehow managed to do that somewhat successfully I would say.

  • I would speak Spanish almost I would say 90% of the time.

  • Vanessa: That's awesome.

  • Cherise: Which is really good.

  • It's helped me a lot.

  • It's helped our relationship.

  • I don't know why.

  • Vanessa: Yeah.

  • That's part of his native language though, so maybe for him too, he can connect better.

  • Cherise: I agree.

  • I think it has to do something with that.

  • All around, it's been great, so yeah.

  • Vanessa: That's cool that you have that connection, but coming back to the US, if you didn't want

  • to speak English, you could speak Spanish together.

  • Cherise: Right.

  • Oh yeah, I didn't mention that.

  • When we came back to the US, I felt like everyone was listening to my conversations and it was

  • just uncomfortable.

  • I didn't want to speak out loud because I thought, "Everyone's listening to me."

  • Vanessa: Yeah, that's a really weird feeling.

  • Cherise: We would speak in Spanish everywhere, but then again also, there's a lot of people

  • who speak Spanish, so it doesn't work all the time.

  • Vanessa: Kind of an illusion.

  • Cherise: You feel like you're speaking a secret language.

  • Vanessa: Yeah.

  • I feel like that's a good segue to the next thing of when have you experienced reverse

  • culture shock?

  • Coming back from the Argentina Korea experience to the US, did you experience any of that?

  • Cherise: Definitely.

  • I felt a longing for the Argentinian lifestyle I had when I was in Korea for at least a few

  • months, like, "Oh, we can just go out to all these restaurants and they have a lot more

  • varieties of food," so that was hard.

  • Maybe public transportation, although Korea also has fantastic public transportation.

  • It just stops at a certain time so you have to know what your-

  • Vanessa: Oh, Argentinian transportation went longer?

  • Cherise: It's all night, all day, 24/7.

  • Vanessa: Whoa.

  • Cherise: You don't have to think, "Okay, I've got to go home now."

  • Vanessa: Yeah.

  • Cherise: There were some things that I missed about Argentinian life that-

  • Vanessa: Weren't in Korea.

  • Cherise: Yeah, that didn't exist in Korea, and also, at least in Argentina, I understood

  • what people were saying and I could communicate.

  • Even though it wasn't my first language, at least I could communicate with people.

  • Vanessa: That makes a huge difference, though, connecting with the culture, if you can understand

  • the language.

  • Cherise: I know.

  • It opened a lot of doors.

  • When I went to Korea, I felt very closed.

  • I couldn't communicate with anyone.

  • I didn't really know what was going on.

  • There was a lot of cultural differences, too.

  • Eventually, you adapt to any circumstance.

  • I was able to adapt to living in Korea, and then-

  • Vanessa: You probably learned some of the language, enough to read or enough to minimally

  • communicate.

  • Cherise: Right, I could read, and also, yes, communicate with the students, communicate

  • with my coworkers.

  • Sometimes some of them spoke English.

  • Anyway, when I went from Korea to the US, there was another level of culture shock just

  • because America was my home country and then all of a sudden, I felt like a foreigner in

  • my own country.

  • Vanessa: That's a really weird feeling.

  • Cherise: I still feel that way to an extent, not as strongly as when I first arrived.

  • Vanessa: Yeah, and how long have you been back now?

  • Sorry to interrupt you.

  • Cherise: I think it's been four months.

  • Vanessa: Four months.

  • That's not long.

  • Cherise: I came in March 1st of 2016.

  • Vanessa: Yeah, March, April, May, June, yeah, about four months.

  • It's still fresh.

  • Cherise: Yeah, it's still fresh, but it was definitely hard the first month.

  • Vanessa: Yeah.

  • What did you experience?

  • Tell us about that first month, if you don't mind rehashing those deep days.

  • Cherise: Sure.

  • I'm trying to think of some very good examples.

  • Well, when I first arrived, I arrived in Jackson Hartfield Airport, which is in Atlanta, which

  • is one of the biggest airports.

  • I just remember arriving there, and all of a sudden hearing everyone speaking English

  • and just the interactions between the workers in the airport and the interactions with them

  • with me and Toddo, and it just felt so strange.

  • I don't know how to explain it.

  • That's the thing about reverse culture shock.

  • Vanessa: Yeah, it's just a strange feeling.

  • Cherise: You can't explain it unless you've experienced it, and maybe you can prepare

  • for it, but some other examples, I remember going to get a cell phone in the US.

  • I wasn't prepared for so much social interaction.

  • Vanessa: In English, or just- Cherise: In English.

  • I think that's what it was.

  • There's so many people and I kept feeling like people were listening to me or watching

  • me strangely because in Korea, people would look at me at least, at least notice, "There's

  • a foreigner."

  • Vanessa: Because you're not Korean.

  • Cherise: Right, and so I guess I assumed that people were still doing that, although now

  • I'm not standing out as a foreigner, but I still felt like these eyes were watching me.

  • It just was a strange moment of life.

  • Vanessa: Yeah.

  • You realize you do look like other people here.

  • Cherise: Right.

  • I realized I'm not actually standing out like I was in Korea.

  • Vanessa: You're not special anymore.

  • Cherise: Not special.

  • That's okay.

  • Vanessa: Even though that's something negative, I think reverse culture shock in general is

  • something negative, for me, it's nit-picking small things about American culture because

  • that's our home culture that I didn't nit-pick about before.

  • A big thing that got me, I don't know why this was a big deal, but for some reason when

  • I came back from France, living in France for a year, for some reason it really bothered

  • me that people mowed their lawns.

  • When I saw people mowing their lawns, it's such a waste.

  • Why don't you just grow something else or why don't we have something else here?

  • Why are you mowing a lawn, or why are you using 100 grocery bags?

  • Just bring your own bag.

  • Don't use these plastic bags.

  • Cherise: That's something I don't understand, either.

  • Vanessa: Yeah.

  • It's just such a small thing that shouldn't bother me and I feel like I'm generally easygoing

  • or little things don't bother me like that, but I think it was reverse culture shock,

  • that comparing it to good things from the culture that I came from and being like, "Why

  • is my culture like this?

  • Ugh," so pissed off about it.

  • Cherise: Right, and you realize, well, they don't know that maybe it's better to bring

  • your own bag, bring a little cart.

  • It just isn't part of the American culture at this point.

  • Vanessa: Yeah.

  • Cherise: Another thing about grocery stores is there are so many options.

  • I realized, "This is why we have a problem with obesity maybe."

  • It could be the fact that you have 100 different types of cereal to choose from, or I don't

  • know how many types of cereal there are.

  • Vanessa: Hundreds.

  • Cherise: Too many.

  • I want to buy milk.

  • Why do I have to choose from 20 different types of milk?

  • Why are there so many options?

  • There shouldn't ... I don't know.

  • Vanessa: It's overwhelming.

  • Today we went to the store to look at coconut oil, and it's a small grocery store and there's

  • what, like 30 choices, 20 choices?

  • Cherise: Americans have a lot of options.

  • A lot of countries don't have that many options to choose from.

  • Vanessa: Yeah.

  • In a way, it's neither here nor there, but it's one of those things that when you come

  • back to your own culture and see that, you can feel overwhelmed.

  • I think that's a sign of reverse culture shock is being overwhelmed by something you thought

  • would be normal, like going to the grocery store, something really normal.

  • Cherise: Something you do all the time, and all of a sudden, it's something that is a

  • small struggle.

  • Vanessa: Yeah, yeah.

  • Cherise: Choosing what you want to eat.

  • Vanessa: Yeah.

  • Do you think that reverse culture shock is avoidable?

  • Is it possible to make it any better than it is?

  • This could apply to culture shock, too, but like we already said, I think we kind of prepare

  • for culture shock.

  • When you go to a foreign country, you prepare more, so reverse culture shock-

  • Cherise: Right, you're saying, "I don't need to prepare.

  • I'm going back to my home country."

  • I think there are certain things you can do to prepare for it.

  • I don't think you can completely avoid it, but at least know that these things are going

  • to be issues for me, so what can I do to ease the difficulty?

  • For example, public transportation in Korea is fantastic.

  • I never drove a car.

  • I biked, I took the bus or I took the subway.

  • I thought for me, it's going to be very important to live somewhere and be able to either walk,

  • bike, or drive a car minimally.

  • Vanessa: Yeah.

  • Oh, that sounds a lot like me.

  • Cherise: Buying a car, you have to get a car if you're in the US.

  • It's unavoidable.

  • Vanessa: Unless you live downtown New York, but that's not going to be many people.

  • Cherise: Right.

  • Vanessa: Unless you're a millionaire.

  • Cherise: I need to realize that this is going to be a problem for me and prepare for it

  • as best I can, although I'm still going to have to drive, I'm still going to have to

  • face this difficulty, you could say.

  • Vanessa: Yeah.

  • You're still going to have to do something you don't want to do.

  • Cherise: Right, that I'm not comfortable or used to doing, but it is the only way.

  • I guess you can prepare for it, but you can't avoid it.

  • Vanessa: Yeah.

  • I think for me coming back to the US, I had a lot of fears.

  • I don't think if they were irrational or not, but I knew that I had a great time living

  • abroad and in France and in Europe and in Korea.

  • It was so fun and really enjoyable.

  • Every day there's something different and new, and then coming back to the US, a big

  • thing was, is every day just going to be a daily routine?

  • Am I just going to feel like there's not new surprises around every corner?

  • When you're abroad, even if you're just traveling or visiting, you find a new market around

  • the corner or there's someone playing street music or just fun little things.

  • Cherise: There's always something new, right.

  • Vanessa: Yeah, so that was a big deal for us is finding somewhere where there is new

  • stuff going on or there's maybe some diversity or some new cultures or something more than

  • just a boxed lifestyle where you have franchises and suburban lifestyle.

  • You've got some city life.

  • Cherise: Right.

  • I think that would be very difficult to go from living in Korea to going and living in

  • suburbia, where you have to drive 20 minutes just to go to the supermarket and there's

  • nothing really going on around where you're living.

  • That would be really hard.

  • Vanessa: Yeah.

  • I think that's something that was a priority for us, it seems like for you guys, too-

  • Cherise: Right, definitely.

  • Vanessa: Live close to the city.

  • Cherise: Yes.

  • I think I realized I like living in bigger cities and it's going to be really difficult

  • to go and live in the countryside or live in a little neighborhood way far away from

  • everything.

  • Vanessa: Yeah.

  • Maybe that's something that could happen in the future.

  • I don't know.

  • I would like to have a garden or like to live ... It's maybe more idealistic, but at the

  • moment, it's not really something that I want, so maybe in the future, but I think that's

  • an important point, knowing what you want.

  • Cherise: Right.

  • Everyone wants something different.

  • They have their own ... What's important to you is different than what's important to

  • me, than somebody else, to know what you want.

  • Vanessa: And taking some time to analyze that, like, "Oh, what do I like about living where

  • I'm living now?"

  • In Korea, you really liked transportation, so how can I make that happen in my home country?

  • For me, I liked having little surprises around every corner.

  • It's not going to be exactly the same.

  • It's not a foreign country, but how can I make that happen somehow or find the right

  • place?

  • Cherise: Yeah.

  • Vanessa: At least for Americans, I don't know, maybe it's different for other countries,

  • but for us, it's not a big deal if you don't go back and live in your hometown.

  • Cherise: Yeah.

  • You can go [crosstalk 00:21:22].

  • Exactly.

  • Vanessa: I know some people, at least some people I've talked to who aren't American,

  • they're really surprised that maybe you've lived in California, like Dan, who's my husband.

  • Maybe some of you have met him.

  • Dan lived in California, then Colorado, then Pennsylvania, then he went to school in Tennessee.

  • That's all over the US, east, west, middle, south, everywhere, and it's totally normal.

  • Most people have lived in several places.

  • Even for us, we lived in the north and then the south and we have roots in both places.

  • Cherise: Yeah, so I feel like it's hard to come back and feel super connected immediately.

  • That's not going to happen.

  • Vanessa: Yeah, but that's okay.

  • I think knowing about it, that's probably the biggest thing to avoid it is being knowledgeable

  • that you might feel shocked about it and how to avoid that, or just have more patience

  • with yourself.

  • Cherise: Yeah.

  • You know it's going to get better.

  • You'll feel more connected and integrated as time goes on.

  • Vanessa: Yeah, or be more patient with your partner.

  • If I was upset at Dan about something, I'd be like, "Wait, this is probably just because

  • I'm adjusting.

  • I shouldn't get frustrated or snippy about little things because I'm adjusting, so sorry

  • to put this on you."

  • Cherise: At least you realize it.

  • Vanessa: Yeah, and you're not perfect, but I think that's something that just being aware

  • of it is a big deal.

  • Thanks so much for talking about reverse culture shock.

  • Cherise: Yeah.

  • No problem.

  • Vanessa: Thanks everyone for watching this conversation with Cherise, my sister.

  • If you'd like to see any more conversations with her in the future, let us know.

  • Bye.

  • Cherise: Bye.

  • Vanessa: Thanks so much for watching this sample conversation lesson for The Fearless

  • Fluency Club.

  • I hope you learned something new and if we were speaking too quickly, if there's some

  • grammar you would like to learn about, some vocabulary or pronunciation you want to improve

  • for yourself so that you can use it, I recommend watching the other videos in this series,

  • the sample videos for the course, The Fearless Fluency Club.

  • If this is a good fit for you, I recommend joining our club, where you can get lesson

  • sets like this every month.

  • You can click here to join the club.

  • Click up here.

  • There's a little I in the corner, or in the description below.

  • I'm really glad that you're here with me and I'll see you later.

  • Bye.

Vanessa: Hi, I'm Vanessa from the website, SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.

字幕與單字

單字即點即查 點擊單字可以查詢單字解釋

A2 初級 美國腔

關於旅遊的高級英語對話【無畏流利說俱樂部】。 (Advanced English Conversation About Travel [The Fearless Fluency Club])

  • 98 11
    Alan Wang 發佈於 2021 年 01 月 14 日
影片單字