Culture Shock: Moving Halfway Across The World

Before I take you on the journey that was my culture shock, I think it’s important that I tell you I didn’t move to an English country as is the current trend amongst Nigerian youths. No, I moved to a quiet little region in Kazakhstan called Pavlodar where the language of Instruction is Russian or Kazakh.

With an area of 2,700,000 square kilometers (1,000,000 sq miles) — equivalent in size to Western Europe — Kazakhstan is the ninth-largest country and largest landlocked country in the world. When you take a road trip, all you can see for miles is just land and maybe animals grazing if it’s not winter. Major cities include Astana, Almaty, Karagandy, Shymkent, Atyrau, and Oskemen but I have only been to Astana and Almaty.

Though I have been to Astana twice, I have only been to Almaty once and the major reason is that Almaty is 25 hours away from Pavlodar by train and 24 hours by road. I know because my friends and I have attempted it before. Anyway, that’s not why we are here; we are here to discuss my culture shock.

The Weather

I arrived in February from the city of Lagos, Nigeria. Lagos at the time was super hot that I had taken to having several baths a day and then I arrived in Almaty, Kazakhstan after a 14-hour layover in Istanbul, Turkey at a temperature of -24 degrees Celsius.

I almost went into hypothermia but my partner who was meeting up with me had lovingly brought a winter jacket to the airport for me.

I doubt there’s a need to tell you that my first trip out of the hotel was to the mall to get me fitted for winter.

Travel Time

Eventually, we found our way home to Pavlodar and I was surprised how the trip from one region to another in the same country could take 25 hours! The longest journey I had undertaken prior to that had taken 15 hours and it was across west Africa. Needless to say, I slept and woke up countless times because there was little else to do, and was thoroughly fatigued by the time we made it home.

Unspoken Rules

A few days after arriving, I needed to go to the immigration office to sort out some registrations and my guide suggested we take a bus to get me familiar with the transport system.

We had to take a couple of buses that day but one thing stood out to me. Their bus system encourages standing which I don’t have a problem with but then I noticed that every time we got into a bus that only had standing space, someone stood up for me, and every time an elderly person or a child came onto the bus alone, someone stood up for them.

I asked my guide and she said it was normal in their culture to give your seat up for kids and the elderly.

That event made me realize that they might pride themselves on not being overly religious or as cultured as Africans are but they had a culture that respects its young and elderly.

The Food

When I came to this country, I came with some local Nigerian foods and spices, just enough to tide me over until I settled. I got here and realized that I would have to let go of some of my favorite foods and snacks as they don’t exist here.

Imagine my surprise when I found out they didn’t have a word for plantain or Dodo as Africans fondly call it. They don’t have a word because it doesn’t exist to them. I almost cried that day.

The Language

I think I can say I have spoken English and Yoruba which is my local language all my life and while both languages may be different, they use similar letters. So, imagine my surprise walking into my Russian foundation class and seeing letters that look like numbers and then seeing familiar letters but pronouncing them differently than I was used to.

I didn’t have so much of a hard time unlike some of my classmates because I had been learning Russian for months on Mondly and Duolingo.

The Food part 2

I come from a country where the sources of meat were mostly limited to; Cow, Goat, Chicken, Turkey, and Ram. I am a very picky person when it comes to what I eat so the first thing my partner told me about food was; don’t eat all of their meat, some are from horses, sheep, lambs, ducks, and other animals.

My eyes almost popped out of their sockets. I asked if Beef was available since I didn’t exactly like Chicken like that. Friends, when I saw the price for Beef, I had to develop that likeness I didn’t know I had for Chicken.

The Cost of Living

It won’t be a great article if I didn’t talk about the cost of living. Inflation is high all around the world right now so yes, there are occasional differences in prices here but when I had just arrived; I found out that Chicken was cheaper than beef, basically anything they could grow or rear within cities are cheaper than things they have to import or rear outside the cities like cows.

Holiday

In Nigeria, every parent and student knows that school holidays last between 3 to 6 weeks and 6 weeks is for a long break. Over here, I found out that a long break can last up to 3 months! that’s a whole school term or semester for Nigerian students.

During one of those long breaks, I would see children on the playground as early as 7 am and sometimes I wonder how their parents cope with the break since they have to go to work.

Traffic Rules

As a victim of a road accident, I sometimes look both ways even on a one-way street so when I got here, I would hurry and cross the road so that the drivers can be on their way safely but I noticed that the natives were never in a hurry to cross the road.

Just a few days ago, I saw two girls on the Zebra crossing line turn to feed each other. I once saw two men stop to talk to each other in the middle of the road.

Both times, I was concerned and wondered if they couldn’t just wait till they were safely on the other side of the road.

Forgive me, I came from Lagos, Nigeria’s busiest city where if you told the driver you were on the zebra crossing, he would ask you if you were a Zebra.

I could go on and on about my experience since I arrived here but we would have to do that in another article

Have you experienced culture shock too? share your experience with me in the comment or response section.

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Bye for now, kisses and hugs.