Crossroads on the Silk Road: accounts of a U.S.-American faculty member’s culture shock and adaptation in Uzbekistan

Abstract

ABSTRACT The knowledge of and experience with culture shock and intercultural communication come under analysis in this autoethnography of a U.S.-American faculty member’s Fulbright teaching experience in Uzbekistan. As a relatively new country couched under the blanket of Russian and Chinese influence, Uzbekistan strives to shift its economy, language, and geopolitical connections toward the West. Cultural knowledge about Uzbekistan is likewise still hidden behind the Uzbek and Russian languages, leaving English speakers from the West with few resources to engage in predeparture uncertainty reduction. This manuscript chronicles the early days of a sojourn of a faculty member who had cognitive knowledge of intercultural communication concepts but had no immersion experiences in which to test her abilities to adapt. Anxiety uncertainty management theory offers some insight into the culture shock and adaptation experienced by this faculty member. The study benefits teachers who may enter this or similar cultures, teachers who instruct with an interpreter, and anyone seeking cultural information about Uzbekistan.