8 — 
Reflection and re-adjustment

So your study abroad adventure is coming to a close. Whether you’ve been gone for just a couple of weeks, or even up to a year, it can often feel like you’ve only just settled in before the time is already up. But just because it’s time to go home, doesn’t mean your international experience is over! Right now it’s as important as ever to reflect on your experience, and start taking the necessary steps towards continuing your linguistic and cultural development. A good place to start (or hopefully continue) this process is your journal. If you haven’t already, document your experiences and your feelings as your time abroad draws to a close. Think about what lies ahead, and what you’d like your next step to be.

Going back home can often be as daunting as going abroad in the first place. While you probably heard about culture shock before you left, you may not have heard of reverse culture shock, which may be even more difficult to deal with (Kramer, Muilenberg & Saiki, 2001). This term has been around since 1963 (only two years after the term culture shock was first coined), and refers to both the idealizations and the expectations that individuals create when returning home. First, there’s a tendency to think only about the good things back home, whether it’s the home cooking, the weather or the people, and to create a flawless, idealized version of your home life. Next, being away for a while, we often expect things to be right where we left them when we get back. However, in reality, life does indeed go on without us and life back home may be quite different to how it was when you left. Just as you prepared yourself for the culture shock of your host country, so you must prepare yourself for the re-entry into your home country. Most importantly, don’t expect yourself to be able to simply slot back into your old position, as it may be a very “square peg, round hole” situation. Make sure to allow yourself time to transition, just as you did upon arriving in your host country.

The following ten tips for transitioning back to your life back home come from Berdan, Goodman and Taylor (2013):

• Learn to tell a good story.
• Recognize that you’ve changed.
• Prepare for reverse culture shock.
• Deal with reverse culture shock.
• Keep in touch with friends, old and new.
• Attend program reorientations, including re-entry conferences.
• Seek out others on campus who have recently returned from studying abroad.
• Maintain your language proficiency.
• Document your memories.
• Advocate for study abroad.