culture shock

From the earlier form cultural shock.

culture shock (countable and uncountable, plural culture shocks)

1. (anthropology, sociology) A state of anxious confusion experienced by someone exposed to an alien or unfamiliar environment.
   • 1982 December 4, Ilana Weinstock, “Letters From My Aunt”, in Gay Community News, volume 10, number 20, page 4:

     I went through another, reverse culture shock when I got back to Israel and the efort ^[sic] required to change from cherished and catered-to visitor to an ordinary working woman kept me away from my typewriter jor ^[sic] months.

   Having grown up in rural Arkansas, I experienced tremendous culture shock on moving to Harlem.