16일 아티클이어요~ ^^ 오늘 뽑았어야 했는데.. 미처.. ㅠㅠ

[Hoya]

 

2007. 1. 16  by jim

 Culture Shock in a Digital World: Tips for Parents

 New technologies have had a major impact on the way the traditional stages of culture shock play out. Technology can, in fact, delay the process of working through these stages in order to come out the other side.

 In the early stages of your transition, the Internet and cell phones can be a lifesaver for parents. An American spouse living in Korea with young children told me she was grateful when, soon after arrival, her new caregiver, using her own cell phone, connected her with a local play group. A local chatroom helped this spouse discover the next meeting of a women's club as well as find information on much-needed goods and services. When used locally, digital connections can be immensely helpful.

 When the messaging goes global, though, a false sense of connection is enhanced. This can be especially true for children who are text messaging or chatting online with friends back home. Adults, too, with family and old friends just an easy click away, may falsely feel rooted in communities that are not nearby.

 These types of connections-as comforting as they may be-are nevertheless virtual. They are not happening in real time in a family's new real world. A lot of e-mail is done while wearing a bathrobe. Would anyone go out to meet new people wearing their pajamas? Distracting yourself by sitting at a computer "talking" with a friend thousands of miles away may fill the day, but it can create a dreamlike state that won't help you settle into your new locale.

 One longtime French expat spouse, a veteran of multiple overseas moves, wrote to me from Indonesia that while her family enjoys the expat network they have built and maintained via the Internet, she believes cautionary words about e-mail should be offered to any family moving abroad. "E-mail contact probably has some bad sides to it," she wrote. "The contact is great, but it can postpone the time when we actually feel settled. E-mail contact can be artificial and move us away from settling down where we are actually living."

 Barbara Schaetti agrees. In her work as a transition coach for expatriate families, she has seen the Internet become a hindrance rather than a facilitatior when people rely on absent friends and family to the exclusion of peers in the new locale. It is the crisis stage of culture shock that has the biggest potential to be affected, Schaetti says.

 "During the honeymoon phase, you're out in your new location checking things out, seeing all the commonalities. Your reports home are likely to be relatively happy ones, and you're not as likely to be glued to the computer waiting for a response as if you're feeling miserable and miserably misunderstood. But when people are in the crisis or flight stages, they're less likely to leap away from their computer, given the illusory appeal it offers of home community connection. Cultural learning won't happen, and they could get stuck in the crisis stage of culture shock. And without cultural learning," asks Schaetti, "why bother to have packed up your house and family in the first place? If there's no gain, it sure isn't worth the pain!"

 Children raised on text messaging, instant messaging, and cell phones may have a hard time breaking the digital umbilical cord with home or their last posting. As parents, you naturally want your children to breeze happily through the early days of relocation. If communicating with friends back home pacifies them, it's hard to take that away. But a friend over the computer or a cell phone is not a friend in the here and now.

 Take care to see that your children balance the old and the new. Don't let their technological toys prevent them from working through the stages of culture shock and, ultimately, from integrating into their new surroundings.

 Remember: cross-cultural experiences, growth, and the making of new friends simply won't happen in a cyber-bubble.

ⓒ 2006 by Robin Pascoe. All rights reserved.

- Words

° lifesaver      인명 구조자; 생명의 은인

° caregiver     간병인

° bathrobe      실내복

° expatriate     vt. 국외로 추방하다 n. 국외로 추방된[이주한] (사람)

° commonality  평민, 일반 시민.

° umbilical      연결하는 것, 연결물

° pacify        달래다, 진정시키다

 In this article, the writer says that New technologies interfere with cultural learning.

I think the problem is computer-addiction. During surfing the web, time goes very fast~! and I couldn't feel the need of other relation well..

 I want to talk about computer addiction , like playing PC game , chatting ...  watching movies~  So I want to discuss about this.

1. How much time do you spend with computer usually ??

2. Do you have experience that computer took your time to work , study ~??

3. Nowdays,, specially in Korea, There are so many student who are immersed in online games.  We must solve computer addiction.. Please suggest solution~~ ^ ^

[Cathy]

수고했삼 ㅋㅋㅋ

[Hoya]

어제 밤늦게 알아버려서 .. ㅋ 죄송해요~ ^^:

[Bob sapp]

알았다...그럴수도 있지뭐...사람이란 다 글타....ㅋㅋ 대신 낼 summarize는 니가 하면 되겠다...ㅋㅋㅋ 낼보삼!!

[김영아/Maureen]

괜찮아요~*^^*

[Stefano]

수고했어 ^^