 Most people have heard of ‘Culture Shock,’ a term which was first introduced by Finnish anthropologist Kalervo Oberg. You go to new a country, you start of thinking it's great; but soon you can’t stand it and it seems to always compare badly to home. But when you’ve lived abroad for a long time and then go home you can also experience ‘Reverse Culture Shock’. According to some research ‘reverse culture shock’ is actually much harder to deal with than 'culture shock' and is more likely to lead to depression.
‘When I went home for three weeks from Finland, I just couldn’t wait to get back!’ said one British immigrant. ‘Being in England felt like being in a third world country.’ After returning home after a long period abroad, many people realise that they have changed. Maybe they’re more international or open-minded and they are able to look at their home country as outsiders and notice things that they wouldn’t have noticed before. Even I felt that after living in Oulu for a couple of years my home city, Ljubljana, felt dirty and crowded. I suddenly saw Slovenian people as surprisingly impatient and pushy beggars disrupted my peace on every corner. Many also expect that they will come back to the same point they left from. What they do not realise is that life went on and people have been doing the same old things. After a five month exchange in Oulu, a Slovenian exchange student returned home to notice that people are not as direct and honest as Finns. She also became aware of Slovenian people caring a lot for titles like ‘Doctor’ or ‘Professor’ and that they were much more competitive than Finns. A Finnish-British degree student who has lived most of her life abroad gives her thoughts about Finland: ‘I like a lot of the no-nonsense, practical attitude to life and politics. But I do get annoyed if people aren't polite on the bus or don't make an effort to speak to and help foreigners.’ Kaisa, who has lived in Thailand with her family for over eight years, shares her experience of re-entering Finland after all that time. They originally left for Bangkok because her husband got a job there and they always wanted to live somewhere abroad so this was a perfect opportunity. At that time the youngest son was four and the oldest seven years so they did not have any problems adjusting to the new country. In 2005, the office where the husband worked was closed and he was positioned back to Espoo. But the family did not want to live in the southern Finland so Kaisa and the kids moved to Oulu. The husband joined them after a year and for that time Kaisa also had a job at the Oulu International School. She recognized that at the beginning they were in the honeymoon phase because it was summertime and they got to see their friends and family. But soon that was over and problems started to appear.
“It was really difficult for my oldest son (17) to come back but it was hard for all three boys to leave their friends and their life in Bangkok and come to Oulu. For them Finland was just a holiday place, not a home.” Kaisa says that reverse culture shock in her case had to do with her identity. Work is very important to her as it makes her feel appreciated and needed in the community. After one year at the International school she sent application everywhere but simply could not find any suitable work. “I felt like I was nobody and no one cared if I’m here or not.”She comments that she was prepared for things to be different but she was not prepared for that feeling at all. She calls it an identity shock. While working in the Oulu International School, she noticed that the school was different from the New International School of Bangkok where she worked for many years. Her personal and educational values and goals were so different that she found it very challenging to work with the values and goals present in Finnish education today. One thing she noticed right away after coming back was that it is clean here and you can actually breathe the air. But what has changed even more since 1995 was that people did not have time anymore. She knows that today everyone is busy and those who have work are working all the time. She felt like a loser because she did not have a job and her friends and family were working 24/7 and had no time for her. “People didn’t visit homes anymore or meet in the cafes. Instead they were just working or staying with their family.” Kaisa has noticed what huge progress Oulu has made. The city and the buildings look much better. But she says that Oulu is like a Thai cake: pretty on the outside but when you eat it, it is not too delicious. And this is how she feels about Oulu at the moment. She also feels there are not that many free cultural activities and if you don’t have enough money it is difficult to enjoy the culture Oulu has to offer. Luckily Kaisa got a chance to live a normal family and working life and that is why she’s moving back to Thailand. She already has a job waiting for her and her husband is already working there. As the kids don’t feel comfortable in the Finnish school, which according to Kaisa cares more about the little details than about the big picture, they are also very happy to go back. “Finland is a very expensive country to live in unemployed but Oulu is still a great city to visit,” she adds.
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