Nasser Rashidi - Shiraz University
Mojan Etemadi - Shiraz University

This paper investigated the second stage of acculturation, culture shock. Cultural shock is related to students’ perception of the new culture. It deals with negative social connectedness and lifestyle balance and to feelings of depression, anxiety and stress. To conduct the study, a group of 35 Japanese freshmen, studying international relationship at Kyoto University were selected. They went to Australia during their summer vacation to take their English course. These subjects completed a mail-back questionnaire, the items of which were derived from the literature on culture shock. Data-analysis revealed that with regard to this stage, a large number of participants reported high degrees of culture shock when they were exposed to the second culture. The findings suggest that there are several points which can assist students adapt to their new cultural setting

Acculturation, depression, culture shock, recovery, perception