The Importance of the Human Factor in Coping with Culture Shock

This thesis deals with culture shock, ways it can be overcome and how its process is affected by presence or absence of human factor. In addition to culture shock, the work is also concerned with questions on what is culture, what is the experience of persons finding themselves in a new unknown culture, what are their emotions, what they feel. The thesis further discusses ways to aid a person experiencing culture shock and help him/her integrate into the new society. It discusses both professional and lay counselling, especially the qualities of a good listener. The practical part is conceived as a qualitative research using semistandardized questions. The research consists of witness accounts of several girls that have experi-enced culture shock. In a dialogue the witnesses describe their experiences shortly after coming to Czech Republic. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org