Dealing with the culture shock of living in London

If you’re moving to London from abroad to study or work, you will probably experience a bit of a culture shock when you arrive in the UK. For the first couple of weeks, it might feel like a holiday, but a little after that you may start to feel frustrated about the differences in your new country and become homesick.

There are ways to deal with the experience of a culture shock, but ultimately it’s down to you to get stuck in and embrace living in London. You won’t learn anything about London by shutting yourself away.

First of all, try and meet as many people as possible. If you are having trouble understanding something, then try not to quickly form an opinion against the culture. Instead react positively by asking questions about why the English do things a certain way. Even if you don’t agree with the answer, it will help if you understand our mentality a little better. If you’re able to meet people from your native country who are also living in London, then that’s great, as they’re likely to have gone through the same experiences and difficulties as you. If you’re from an EU country, then read our EU Citizenspage, which has details of social events for each member country. You’re also welcome to post a message in our forum and invite others to chat with you.

If you’re having difficulty in meeting people, try chatting to people at work, on your course, join sports teams, take classes and make an effort to socialize with your flatmates and their social circle. The more effort you put into meeting people, the more positive experiences you’ll have whilst you’re living here.

However, as much as you need to immerse yourself in London life, you should also keep in touch with friends and family back in your home country. Luckily, letter-writing is a thing of the past and now the technology is in place to be able to email and skype whenever you’re having a bad day. It’s important to talk through your feelings and admit that you’re having a tough time, so that the people closest to you can offer you good advice. Also talking to them about the annoyances in their daily lives, might help you remember that things back home weren’t perfect either.

Depending on where you’re from, English may not be your first language. If you’re having difficulty expressing yourself, then take a class. It’s basic, but if you want to get better at English, you’re just going to need to speak it more and you’ll be amazed at how quickly you’ll improve by interacting on a daily basis with English people. Also, if you have a different mother tongue, then why not look into teaching your language in one-to-one tutorials or even a small class. Talk Languages is a good company to contact if you’re interested in becoming a language tutor.

Above all, please don’t be despondent. Homesickness doesn’t last forever and you may find that when you’re ready to leave the UK and return to your home country, that you might actually feel a little sad at leaving!