This document aims to identify the main causes of culture shock experienced by Latin American nationals who visited South Korea. A brief literature review on the subject of culture shock and cultural adaptation is included. The revised Socio-Cultural ...
This document aims to identify the main causes of culture shock experienced by Latin American nationals who visited South Korea. A brief literature review on the subject of culture shock and cultural adaptation is included. The revised Socio-Cultural Adjustment Scale (SCAS-R) developed by Wilson (2013) was turned into an online survey and used as data gathering instrument.
(N=64) Sixty-four respondents answered the 21-question survey sent through a specific group in a major social networking site. Four major categories were surveyed; social interactions, language barriers, religion and traditions and personal issues.
According to the data gathered in the sample, and some findings discussed in the theory reviewed, the main causes of culture shock among Latin American nationals who visited South Korea were related to self-reported host country language abilities: understanding and speaking Korean language (M=2.36); reading and writing Korean language (M=2.28); varying the rate of speaking in a culturally appropriate manner (M=2.31).