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January Orientation for Visiting, Erasmus & Exchange Students

Week 3 - Culture Shock and Irish Communication

Cultural Adjustment Presentation

Culture Shock

What is it?

Most of you will experience some level of culture shock during your time in Ireland. Culture shock is a sense of disorientation or confusion when experiencing a new way of life in a new culture. It may have a large effect on you, or you might not even register it. It can come from frustrations with language, procedures, social interactions and more.

Some of the symptoms of culture shock include:

  • boredom
  • withdrawal (e.g. spending excessive amounts of time reading; avoiding contact with host nationals)
  • feeling isolated or helpless
  • irritation over delays and other minor frustrations
  • homesickness
  • unduly criticizing local customs or ways of doing things

The four stages of culture shock

  1. The Honeymoon Stage

    2. The Honeymoon Stage is at the start of your experience abroad. It is an exciting time, when everything about Ireland seems great. You're meeting new people, exploring your new home and finding the differences between home and here charming.

  2. The Frustration Stage

    3. The Frustration Stage will happen as you begin to settle into your routine in your new country. The shine of the honeymoon stage has worn off and you are finding the differences frustrating. Language challenges and feeling that you can't make yourself understood easily (even for those of you who come from English-speaking countries), trying to get administrative requirements sorted out, not being able to find your favourite food, or a host of other differences, will frustrate you. This is when you will start feeling homesick, missing your family and friends and wishing for the familiarity of home.

    But don't worry, this is temporary, and next up is...

  3. The Adjustment Stage

    4. You will gradually adjust to your host culture during this stage. You are feeling more comfortable with the language, the food, the people, the customs, transportation, and all of the things that frustrated you before. This is your life now, and it's getting better as you feel more a part of a community.

  4. Adaptation

    5. You will adapt to your host culture. This does not mean that you are assimilated into it, rather that you are comfortable with the things that you don't know and don't understand. Your new normal is different to home, but not necessarily better or worse.

Tips to deal with culture shock

Culture shock will affect you all differently, and with different severity. If you find yourself feeling homesick or irritable with life here there are a lot of things you can do to help get through it.

  • Get into a routine here
  • Take care of yourself, eat well and exercise
  • Learn to cook a few favourite dishes from home to treat yourself when you miss it
  • Decorate your room to make it feel as homely as you can
  • Take the initiative - Go out and meet Irish people - Join college clubs and societies
  • Get support from home… but not too much – live in Ireland’s time zone, not the one back home
  • Immerse yourself in Irish life & culture to adjust to accents - watch Irish TV (RTÉ 1, RTE 2, TV3, TG4) and listen to local radio. We recommend watching First Dates Ireland or Gogglebox Ireland to see how we interact with each other
  • Be patient with yourself and with little day to day frustrations of adapting to a new place
  • You will get lost, you will be confused and that’s ok
  • Remind yourself that you came here for a new experience and that you are learning new things every day
  • Set goals for yourself and acknowledge your success - goals could be something as small as going grocery shopping or as large as attending an event where you don't know anyone.
  • Breathe…

Don't forget about going home

Now that you have adjusted to life in Ireland and you've gotten used to everything here, don't forget that going back home will present its own challenges. You may experience 'reverse culture shock' on going home. You will have changed as a person while you are here, and people at home can change too. Even if everything at home is exactly the same, it may seem different to you now, with your new perspectives and experiences.

Remember the tips above for learning to adjust to life in Ireland, and apply them again at home.

Irish Communication

Irish Communication Style

Irish communication tends to be quite informal, indirect and incorporates a lot of storytelling.

Informal communication: Although there are clear hierarchies in most places in Ireland, our communication style does not require huge formality no matter who you are talking to. You may find your lecturers asking you to call them by their first names, or seeming quite relaxed whil lecturing. You may also notice that Irish people swear quite often in casual conversation, and sometimes in more formal situations as well.

Indirect communication: Irish people typically try to avoid saying 'no' directly to people. Politeness is considered important in our communication and we will often give variations of 'maybe' to avoid outright saying no. Think of it like a parent telling a child that 'maybe later' they will go to McDonalds.

Storytelling: Storytelling is a large part of communication, you may find people frequently using anecdotes to illustrate points, and embellishing a story to make it more engaging can be a part of that too.

Irish Slang

Irish slang is extensive. You may have felt when you arrived in Dublin that your English was good, but talking to your taxi or bus driver may have given you a shock. Irish people tend to speak quite quickly, with a vast vocabulary of particulary Irish words and phrases, and the way we construct some sentences will seem strange to you. Some common slang (nothing rude!) and their meanings are below to get you started!

Howaya: 'How are you?'
However, Irish people use 'Howaya' as a greeting, rather than an inquiry into your well-being. The correct response is either 'Howaya' or 'Grand'. The person who said it will likely have continued walking, they were just saying hello!

Grand: 'Fine'.
Grand is a catch-all description in Ireland. If someone asked how you are, you say 'grand', if they ask how was class this morning, you say 'grand', if they ask how a film was, you say 'grand'. If something was particularly good or particularly bad, we have different words to describe it, grand just means it was fine or ok.

Not too bad: 'Fine'.
Like 'grand', not too bad is a catch-all response. Although it sounds negative, it actually isn't.

Deadly: 'Really good' or 'Brilliant'.
Although it sounds bad, if something is deadly it means it's really good.

Brutal: 'Really bad' or 'Terrible'.
Brutal is the opposite of deadly.

Craic: 'Fun'.
You will hear Irish people talking about events or people being 'great craic' (pronounced 'crack'). This has nothing to do with drugs, it means fun.

Gas: 'Fun' or 'Funny'.
If you met a funny person, you could say 'He was gas', or if a film was funny you can say 'It was gas'. A really good night out might have been 'Gas craic'

Bold: 'Naughty'/
Either used to describe a person or an activity.

Yoke: 'Thing' or 'Object'.
If we can't think of the name for something, or don't know the name for something, we will call it a 'yoke'. You will hear Irish people asking others to 'Pass me that yoke'. They will nearly always also point at what they are asking for so that should help you out a bit!

Your man / Your one: 'That man' / 'That woman'.
Although the phrase 'your man' implies ownership, it just means a man that we are referring to. If someone said 'your man at the reception desk' they are not implying that he is your boyfriend, they just don't know his name. The female equivalent is 'Your one'.

Come here to me / Come here till I tell you: 'Listen'.
You do not have to approach the person, they just want to tell you something (probably some pretty good gossip!)

Scarlet: 'Embarrassed'.
If someone is 'scarlet' it means they are embarrassed (from the red colour of your face when you blush). We also use it to imply that someone should be embarrassed by their actions.

Fair play: 'Well done'.
If someone tells you they ran a marathon or got a first in their assignment, an appropriate response is 'Fair play!'

Giving out: 'Telling off' or 'scolding'
If someone is giving out to you, you are in trouble and are being disciplined. Hopefully it won't happen to you!

Ye / Youse / Yis: Plural of 'you'.
Like the American 'y'all', Irish people use ye, yis or youse (depending on what part of Ireland you're from) to address a group. Although it's fine to say 'Are youse going to the Buttery?', don't write it in your academic work!

Sound: 'Decent'.
If someone is 'sound', it means they're a decent person. You probably want to be friends with them.

Scabby: 'Miserly'.
If a person is scabby it means that they're cheap or miserly. A dreadful insult in Ireland.

Knackered: 'Really tired'.
If you've dragged yourself into College at 9 after a night out, you will tell people that you're knackered.

Gaff: 'House'

More Irish Slang Trinity Slang
Irish English on Wikipedia