Content introduction

1. The degree of similarity or difference between cultures.
The results of numerous studies show that the degree of severity of cultural shock positively correlates with cultural distance. In other words, the more a new culture resembles its native one, the less traumatic the adaptation process turns out to be. To assess the degree of similarity of cultures, the index of cultural distance proposed by I. Babiker and co-authors is used, which includes language, religion, family structure, level of education, material comfort, climate, food, clothing, etc.
For example, the more successful adaptation of immigrants from the former USSR in Germany compared to Israel, among many other factors, is influenced by the fact that in Europe "the climatic discrepancy is not so acute. On the contrary, there are the same pines, birches, fields, squirrels, snow ..."
But it is also necessary to take into account that the perception of the degree of similarity between cultures is not always adequate. In addition to the objective cultural distance, it is influenced by many other factors:
the presence or absence of conflicts – wars, genocide, etc. – in the history of relations between the two peoples;
the degree of familiarity with the peculiarities of the culture of the host country and competence in a foreign language. So, a person with whom we can freely communicate is perceived as more like us;
equality or inequality of statuses and the presence or absence of common goals in cross - cultural contacts .
Naturally, the adaptation process will be less successful if cultures are perceived as less similar than they actually are. But difficulties in adapting can arise in the opposite case: a person is completely confused if a new culture seems very similar to his own, but his behavior looks strange in the eyes of local residents. So, Americans, despite the common language, fall into many "traps" in the UK. And many of our compatriots, having found themselves in America in the late 80s, during the period of the greatest rapprochement between the USSR and the USA, were amazed and annoyed when they discovered that the lifestyle and way of thinking of Americans was very different from the stereotypes that had developed, not without the help of mass media, about the similarity of the two "great peoples".