also called cultural shock
The disorientation and stress of adjusting to an unfamiliar culture.
The disorientation and strain of adjusting to a culture that is not your own, once the first rush of novelty wears off. It tends to arrive on a predictable arc rather than all at once, and knowing its stages helps you sit through the low patch instead of bolting to the next place. Reverse culture shock is the flip side: the jolt of readjusting to your own country after a long time away.
Someone arrives somewhere new full of excitement, and a few weeks in finds themselves irritated by everything, the noise, the bureaucracy, the food, and homesick for no clear reason. Recognising that dip as a normal stage, not a sign the place is wrong, is what keeps them from cutting the stay short.
It hits predictably after the initial excitement fades, and knowing its stages helps nomads ride it out rather than flee a place.
The difference is the whole point, so here is each one in a line.
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