The term "culture shock" originated in the 1950s. Basically it describes the physical and emotional discomforts that occur when someone moves from one cultural environment to another. There are several stages to culture shock.

Whether you're going to move abroad for a fixed amount of time for school education, business issues or simply for a better/new type of lifestyle, you're going to be hit by what most people call the "cultural shock". This involves hitting yourself to a new lifestyle, new ways of handling issues, sometimes a new type of currency, but most importantly, a new language. Actually, the biggest shock will be this language barrier, especially if you're moving to a country where the mother tongue is no where near your own language's lexical foundation. For example, switching from an Anglo-Saxon based language to a Slavic, or Latin one (or vice versa) can be extremely unpleasant, since you won't be able to understand any bits of a conversation. What this article will aim for, is try to give you a few tips and tricks on how to start learning this new language faster and how to adjust to the new culture through language.

Culture Shock can be difficult to deal with, and it can affect you at work and in your daily life. The best thing to do is to be aware of culture shock and how to deal with it. Try reading up on culture shock before leaving and understand how you can deal with it. If you're prepared for what to expect, it will make overcoming culture shock that much easier. Having pictures from home, talking to people in your native language, talking a walk in the park, or even sleeping can all help with culture shock.

Even for the students who are good in English might not know the slightest thing about the language when you move there, you will still be able to take out bits and pieces out of writings, conversations (well admittedly, maybe less from conversations, at least not until you get used to the local accent, talking speed, etc).

As you can see, this is a starting point for your cultural shock adjustment in what regards the language of the foreign country. And since language is such an important step in understanding a new culture and adjusting to it, it is advised that you start learning it even before you move abroad if possible. Even if you don't have time to take some local courses, the Internet can be a good source to start learning. There are several learning websites out there that can help you do so and some of them offer quality free online language courses that can give you a heads up on a language in a matter of days.