Cultural Integration 101

Mastering your move from a cultural adjustment standpoint.

In the picture: St.Petersburg

Whatever reasons bring you to Russia for a long-term stay, you need to consider a paramount of things to do, but one of the most important ones, whether you realize it or not, is cultural adjustment.

What is culture? In simple words, culture is a set of unconscious views, perceptions, values, and beliefs that are collectively shared by a group of people. On a country level, this is what is often called a national mentality or culture. From an early childhood, your mentality gets programmed with the national culture of the country you were born into or raised in. This programming comes from your peers, family, school, society in general. That is what makes you American, Japanese, Spanish, French, or Russian. This is what you share, in terms of mentality, with the majority of people in your country of birth. That said, a Russian child adopted by an American family will have zero Russian in them. Children of Russian immigrants living in America are half Russian, half American, and often they struggle to keep their Russian cultural identity. I am using America as an example here, because America and Russia are radically different in their culture, so it's a perfect example to demonstrate the cultural differences. This is one of the primary reasons people of different countries cannot understand one another, regardless of the language they speak.

It is important to understand that national culture and your personality are two different things, although throughout your life they get blended to a degree where you are no longer able to set them apart. Normally, you don’t need to. When you’re in your home country, cultural programming helps you navigate local life with ease. You know subconsciously how things work in your culture, and you seamlessly go through all the chores life brings to you.

In a host culture, your culture you bring from your home country stops working and does you a great disservice. It provides you with erroneous perceptions of what you see and experience. Our senses work the same regardless of our nationality, but culture is like a lens through which your perceptions go, and this is different for people of different cultures. Your logic and assumptions are no longer valid in a different cultural environment. Ordinary things you’re used to stop working in ways familiar to you, and things become not what you’re used to. You get the wrong image, which is responsible for making erroneous conclusions, decisions, and actions.

This explains why many newly relocated immigrants misinterpret Russia. Cultural distortions set you up for disappointments and failures, building up a condition we call culture shock. Culture shock pertains to your emotional reactions. Bumping into something unusual in terms of behavior of locals, you might think: This is strange, bizarre, uncomfortable, and so on. Over time, such things pile up, and you find yourself questioning your very decision to relocate and a plethora of other unpleasant symptoms, both psychological and physical.

To reduce or eliminate culture shock, be successful in your host culture, and enjoy it to its fullest potential, you need to culturally integrate. Integration takes time and deliberate effort. You can go about your cultural adjustment and integration in many different ways. Below are some strategic and practical recommendations for you.

Strategic priorities:

• You need to uncover your own culture. Single out the culture in you, this fine blend of your personality and cultural programming, so you can see it for what it is to contrast with your host culture. That means in every situation you have to clearly see exactly what drives your perceptions and behavior: be it your personality or the cultural norms of your home country.

• Study the culture of the host culture on a deeper level. Those deeper levers are responsible for how people of the culture see the world and act according to their views. Understanding the ins and outs of a local culture will allow you to develop a behavioral repertoire of your own to cope with the differences.

Practical approaches:

• Have a plan. Do not go with the flow, make a plan with actionable items of what and how you want to achieve with your cultural integration. It's okay to revise the plan, but it must be there.

• Learn the language. No matter how difficult Russian is, I have seen foreigners speak it perfectly. They still have an accent, but it doesn’t matter, because they speak so freely, you can hardly say they are not native speakers. Learn it individually and in groups. Go to public places, hear Russians speak, and try to understand them. Watch Russian movies with subtitles in your native language. Read local press.

• Read books by local and international authors, who can unravel cultural insights for you. Knowledge of the culture will help you to make cultural traits tangible, so you can approach the differences between you and nationals of Russia in a more conscious way. Subscribe to blogs and YouTube channels, but take their information with a pinch of salt because they are often produced by foreigners who did not do a good job of integration and spread false or misleading information.

• Make Russian friends. This is a tough one, but I’ll give you a hint: Offer a language exchange. You will help them with your native language; they will help you with Russian. In the process of this, you will socialize, and this is the way you learn about the culture. This will open a door to making new friends and having a social life outside an immigrant bubble.

• Use social networks to communicate with locals and make friends.

• Keep a journal. Write reflections on your own culture because in an unfamiliar environment, it will become surfacing, coming out of the depth of your psyche, big time. Notice things in your everyday life: jot down words, observations, situations, and your reactions, questions, and everything else that comes your way on a path of getting used to a new culture and lifestyle. Review your notes and reflect on them. Search for answers to questions and unresolved situations.

• Do what the locals do. Socialize as much as you can. Attend events and celebrate local festivities. Eat local food. Drink in local bars and talk to local people there. Go places. Learn about the locations you visit. Dress like locals do. Go to a local gym.

• Deliberately avoid local communities of people from your home country. You can use those communities, especially online ones, to get practical information, but do not hang out only with them. This shouldn’t prevent you from making friends from your home country, but those must not be the only friends that you hang out with regularly.

• Practice doing it like locals do. Adjust your behavior and habits so they would be aligned with how Russians go about things. Find your own ways that are comfortable for you to build bridges between who you are culturally and Russian culture and lifestyle. Develop routines and behavior that work for both: you and locals.

The time frame required for successful adjustment or integration depends on individual circumstances and your personality. There is much evidence that a person has integrated successfully, and one of the most indicative is them starting to think in the language of your host country.

When you achieve your integration, you will know it, because it will become so much easier and stress-free to live in a country of your choice. You’ll be able to utilize your talents, knowledge, and skills to get a job or build a business. You will extend your social network, and if you’re single, find a partner. You will live your life to its fullest, as opposed to dragging through days in a bubble of an alien stranded in a foreign country.

In addition, check out a previous article on a similar subject: into