Dealing with Culture Shock

Task 1:

Write a two-three paragraph essay describing your experience with culture shock, then list the ways you have personally done or will do or overcome it.

Task 2:

List some strategies/ways/activities you will use or advice a close friend or a family member to do or use in order to reverse

 any symptoms of culture shock.

Task 3:

Before publishing your experience on your blog, ask two of your peers to edit it for you, and then you can publish it 

on your blog then.

I think I have experienced big culture shocks When I landed in Toronto 2 and half years ago,  I just kept my excitement one week. Then, I realized there were a lots big differences form my own country in Canada. so, I felt the feeling of helpless and loneliness gripping me. 

I was pregnant just 2 months later , It was my lucky that I have my only baby at my age of 40, but still was not smoothly because I have been having too much healthy problems. So, a set of circumstances let me trapped in hard situation. Due to my English language just was level  2, It means that I couldn't express  my terrible pregnant feeling to doctors or nurses. I felt worried and anxious for my baby. Oh, Looking back now,  It was still painful memory. But fortunately, I met  many kindly and nice people from Christian Church at that time, they gave me a lot of great help.

I think my stage 2 of Culture Shock lasted too long period. I've got two bachelor degrees about arts of painting and Chinese, I still have master degree of art, I have almost 19 years teaching experience. I had professional  teaching job in a good college, and I had my own private schools, there are almost one thousand students in them, I  thought I was a prestigious teacher in my field when I was in my country. But now, I had to start from zero. I had no any relationship, friends, even health. I felt the best suffering was that I couldn't find my social values and  foothold in this new country, so I  had no sense of security from this new situation. There are the intrusion of so much huge differences emerging.  I spent almost one year to adjust my emotion . I sank in sad mood, the frustration was full of my heart. I couldn't stop my tears, I  got homesick. I was eager to escape from here, and desired to go back to my  motherland once. Then, such a situation brought about a lot of  health problems arising for me, I  almost couldn't sleep all day and all night,  the wrinkles and gray hair  appeared on my face and my head soon. My specialist  that I was waiting for more than 5 months in this different medical system told me you  might not keep your unborn baby  if you still fell into this sad mood. That was a wake-up call for me, I had to stick to my only baby.
 I am a typical person easily disoriented. There are  names of every stops on bus stop signs placing each bus stops in China, so I couldn't lost my way in my home country. But I always lost the directions here because there aren't bus stop signs  in Toronto, let me feel  inconvenience and dehumanized. 

Then, I have been going through my  stage 3 recently. I am accepting this situation, and I can begin to learn to understand more of culture, and adapt some of the customs and different systems surround me. I have a try my best to improve my English language skill and make more friends. I'm trying to continue to develop my teaching career in this new country. I tried to work for different private schools to know more about the educational system of North America, I found my path form this way and built up my self-confidence. Hereafter,  I fortunately got some internal job posting information of TDSB from my kindly neighbor at the end of last year. I went through many times interviews and intense competitions. I finally became a registered supply teacher in TDSB. I have been trying to show my advantages in workplaces.I also opened my own small arts studio, I have eventually found my sense of  happiness and presence when I get together with my students. I know, I can't stop my step and my efforts every single day, because a new chapter of my life has been opened  in this country.