[originaltext] The process of adjusting to life in a new country is often ca

The process of adjusting to life in a new country is often called "culture shock". The word culture as used here has a different meaning rather than it usually does. Frequently, the word culture pertains to music, literature, art, and higher education. Here, though, culture means the customs of a society and the way in which people interact with each other.
    Every culture has certain basic ideas on which it is built and which everyone accepts as true. These are learned in childhood and are automatic to the people who live in that culture. They include everything from the common courtesies and details of daily life to the deeper issues of a person’s place in society, of family, of life and death, and even of the attitude toward time and space.
    When a person enters a new culture, the basic customs and ideas that he or she automatically accepted may no longer be true. There is a new set of customs and attitudes to learn about and try to understand. During this period of adjustment a person feels a great range of emotions, from happiness and excitement to loneliness, anger, discouragement, and depression. This period of "culture shock" has been described as having approximately seven stages.