Reverse Culture Shock

I always thought reverse culture shock was a myth, or at the very most a phenomenon only experienced by people unused to travelling. Well, I must amend that statement now. Despite having spent my first week back in the Czech Republic holed up at home, I experienced culture shock not just once, but twice.

The first culture shock came when I was watching the news. On Taiwanese channels, much of the news coverage revolves around the coronavirus pandemic, and every commercial break contains at least one segment dedicated to coronavirus PSAs. Consequently, I was truly shocked when, after watching half an hour of Czech news, I realised that I had not seen a single report on the skyrocketing cases. Not only that, but all the people interviewed (with neither the interviewers nor the interviewees wearing facemasks) were going about their lives as though nothing were happening.

The second moment of culture shock (this time against the foil of American culture) was a more positive one. I was watching a general knowledge quiz show in which the contestants included a bus driver and a carpenter – and they were stellar. I don’t want to overstate the difference here, but I can’t imagine ever seeing the same thing in the USA, where I think I would expect the contestants to be university graduates.

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