I have been discussing with another PhD student about research methodology, research proposals etc. She is also doing an exploratory study where she wishes to capture the richness of her participants’ stories, so she is also looking at Narrative Inquiry as methodological paradigm. she has shared with me by email some of her writngs about it, which i wish to record here, to inform my thinking. Thanks to V. Here they are: … Read more »

On Friday, 2nd March, I wrote the following emai to some of my friends who also live abroad, the sojourners that battle with cultural identity, the cultural adaptation, the dilemmas around going back to what used to feel like ‘home’ but not anymore etc…:

“Dear friends,

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well….as i write about ‘not having a sense of at-homeness’, not feeling at home anywhere…I am experiencing deep grief…pain….i want to give up, go and curl up somewhere…..but

just to add a bit of humour here…i find it interesting that everytime i write something in this blog, i then have to click the ‘home’ button to go back to the front page…!

What a powerful read that is! Although it actually made me feel more ‘normal’ about the way i feel whenever i go back to my home country, it actually made me very anxious around how would i manage experiencing the ‘re-entry cultural shock’ and continuing with the stress of the PhD at the same time…will it all, me included, fall apart? what can i do to look after myself in that or prevent any ‘disaster’ or breakdown? I do not feel at home anywhere at present and this takes a lot out of me, it creates an emotional turmoil, it often affects my health. I have changed so much since living abroad and when i go back, it feels like goingback to a foreign land. Nothing is the same, not only i have changed, everybody else has changed, my family,my friends, the natural environment…we dont know how to be, how to relate. This is expected to be happening cause life is constantly brining changes…but we havent been ‘witnessing’ each other cause we have been far away etc…that’s normalas well…..but i do wonder how i will bear all that process, emotionally and practically … Read more »

This is a rather ‘old’ book i discovered but it does give some useful information around concepts I am looking at…my first reaction is that the study and research around cultural adaptation is vast and multidisciplinary that I can easily get ‘lost’ in it (as the author says is the preface: “the field of cross-cultural adaptation can be overwhelming to many researchers due to its vastness, complexity and disjointedness”). However, recording in this blog does help me digest the concepts, ground my understanding and come back to it whenever i want. The full reference of the book is:

K. Y.Y. (1988) Communication and Cross-Cultural Adaptation. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd

I am keeping below some useful notes, quotes, definitions from this book: … Read more »