This was a big part of why I finally got around to getting this blog started again. I realized that I didn’t have it in me to chronicle every minute detail of my thesis research in a dedicated blog, and I didn’t want to make it all public anyway. But I would like to have a place to post cool findings and thoughts as I go along.

My topic (specifically, the “one-liner” my advisor asked me to prepare):

“I am developing a resource to aid North American JET Programme returnees who have spent several years living in Japan as they go through reverse culture shock upon their return.”

Why did I choose this?

1. I really wanted to do something related to international experiences somehow, as I have a strong interest in intercultural design and communication.
2. The JET Programme has a solid network of alumni associations that I figured would make it easy to get access to a pool of research participants. (Plus, I still have friends and contacts from my own experiences abroad.)
3. There is plenty of information out there to prepare JET participants for the culture shock they’ll experience when they first arrive in Japan, but there is relatively none to prepare people for the (often times even stronger) shock of returning home afterward, and what is there is often overlooked or disregarded somehow.

The truth is that it is a rough “homecoming” for many folks; you sometimes don’t realize how much you have changed when you spend time abroad, and life has gone on at home and the people and things you knew may have changed as well. It’s not the comforting constant it had been before. I know people who genuinely went through quarter-life crises once they returned because their fundamental values and outlook on life had changed drastically, and their former career paths were no longer relevant for them.

I have a general hypothesis, based on my own experiences with the JET Programme and reverse culture shock: community, and talking to others, is one of the best ways to get through it.

I spent the summer and part of the fall beginning a basic literature review–reading up on the psychology behind reverse culture shock primarily, but also starting to explore topics surrounding my hypothesis. I started drafting user research materials (a general survey for a broad snapshot of JET alumni, interview questions to get insight into specific individual experiences, and a journaling activity to get a more emotional look into RCS) and obtained IRB approval.

First I distributed the general survey (much later than I intended, but oh well). I disseminated it both via Facebook and a few relevant forums, and Steven, the webmaster of JetWit (a great website serving the JET alumni community), kindly offered to post about it as well. I also asked Jessica, the JET coordinator at the Japanese consulate in Atlanta, if she’d mind passing the URL on to her list of alumni.

Through my own efforts, I’d gotten a dozen or so responses. Thanks to Steven posting the link to JetWit, I got roughly 30. Once Jessica sent out the URL, I received (wait for it…) 90 responses in 12 hours. It’s been a little over a week now and I’ve received well over 200 responses–twice what I thought I’d get! They’re finally tapering off but still coming in, amazingly, and each one has such an incredible amount of insight to offer.

Here are a few snapshots of my attempts to collate some of the data thus far:

Incredible.

To the JET alumni community: thank you so much. I don’t have words to express how incredibly grateful I am for your kind assistance, and that so many of you took the time to give such thoughtful and detailed (and very moving, in many cases) written responses to nearly every question. This is such an enormous help. (Particularly since, in looking at that last image, nearly every prefecture in Japan is represented. I still am reeling from this amazing response!)