Reverse culture shock

"Choque cultural inverso"
Spanish B1 writing exercise

Irene tells us about her experience of being back home after having lived abroad for many years.

Pay attention to the hints!

Some vocabulary you may want to look up before or during this exercise: "to return", "previous (coming before)", "to shout (to talk loudly)", "to digest", "reverse culture shock", "to happen" and "habit (behaviour)".

Written by qualified Spanish expert Silvia Piriz BA
Last updated: 2023-03-27

I’ll give you some sentences to translate into Spanish

  • I’ll show you where you make mistakes
  • I’ll keep track of what you need to practise
  • Change my choices if you want
Start the exercise
How the test works
You’ll practise: Pronombre de complemento indirecto, Pronombre de complemento directo, Pronombre reflexivo

Here's a preview of the text for the writing challenge, when you're ready click the start button above:

Since I have returned to live in Spain I haven't been able to forget my previous life in Germany. There, people did not speak so loudly or shout, and I didn't have to eat that late. The latter is what I hate the most! I'd rather have dinner at seven in the evening because that way I could digest better, but my boyfriend thinks that schedule is crazy. I feel like I'm not totally adapting to Spain and that I suffer from reverse culture shock. This happens when you have lived in a foreign country for many years and, when you return to your country of origin, you have to readjust to their habits.

Thinking...