Taking into account the fact that some of the students might go abroad to continue their studies or; who knows, they will be hired to work in a foreign country, they will surely encounter different cultural values which they –as new comers- will have to deal with and as a result of this they are likely to endure culture shock.
In this activity, based essentially on Unit 6 of their text book "Ticket 2 English", the students are invited to discover some specific cultural values proper to other people apart from the universal values that all the people of the world agree upon like, tolerance and honesty among others. In the interaction with any unfamiliar values the students should be alert of the existence of something called Culture Shock and it has different stages. We’ll be able to identify and recognize them so as not to be frustrated from the first stage which is temporary like the others as well.
This activity consists of two major parts, a PowerPoint presentation and a workshop. The presentation is based on a reading in a very remarkable research paper by Dr. Kay Clifford from the University of Michigan (International Center, 1991), Indiana / USA. She did a great job trying to elucidate the fact that culture shock is inevitable whatsoever predisposition or tolerance to change or former experience we think we have. The workshop on the other hand is a review of the content of the presentation with reference to the textbook content, and a handout reinforcing the understanding of the stages of culture shock and the preparation to adopt a tolerant attitude towards change and difference.