We held our sixth meeting at a cafe in the city. We talked about the military of each country after reading a newspaper about the current situation in the Ukraine and Russia. It was very interesting to discuss because each of our countries has unique laws on the army. First of all, in Switzerland it is mandatory to serve in the army. Hence, all Swiss men must serve in the military for 245 days. Patrick also finished his military service in 2020. Germany was one of the conscription countries until 2011. However, it was changed to a volunteer military system in 2011. Croatia is also one of the volunteer military system countries. Lastly, South Korea is a conscription country like Switzerland. All South Korean men must serve in the military for 548 days. Lee finished his military service. In addition, some experts state that Korea's hierarchical societal structures has been greatly influenced by the military.
All our group members are in an adjustment stage in the culture shock model. Indeed, all our group members experienced culture shock in the Netherlands. The degree of culture shock varies from person to person. For example for Nils, Germany and the Netherlands are quite similar in many aspects and therefore it was easier for him to adjust to a new culture. Similarly, for Luka, coming from neighboring Belgium, the similarities of the culture simplified the issue of adapting to a new culture, preventing significant culture shock. Among our group members, Lee especially experienced a big culture shock compared to other group members. This is because Korea is very different from the Netherlands in terms of language as well as culture. For example, Lee found it difficult to adapt to a horizontal relationship with student and teacher because Korea has a strictly vertical relationship pertaining to teachers and students. However, he managed to overcome it with a positive attitude, even suffering re-culture shock upon returning to his home country during the holidays. Through this experience of culture shock, he bore witness to the fact that everything depends on mindset, leading him undergoing a paradigm shift, seeing the world from a broader perspective. Moreover, he is in the adjustment stage now. For Patrick coming from Switzerland, he suffered a mild culture shock. Switzerland is a different culture in many ways to the Netherlands. Namely, the lack of mountains gave him headaches, thus not being able to hike as he was used to regularly in his village in Switzerland.
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