Rational and Emotional Components of the Culture Bump Culture bump has been defined as a “cultural difference” (Archer, 1991). It consist of two components which are emotional component and rational component. People are usually unaware of that they are in culture bump. Culture bumps can be experienced as negative, positive or neutral. The emotional component happened at particular time and under a special situation. For example, the first time I came to American restaurant, I asked the waitress to give me a cup of hot water. His first reaction was to feel surprised and then told me they didn’t have hot water for guests. And I felt surprised and the American restaurant was strange. That is the emotional component. When you come into a particular situation and experience the difference, you’ll have an intrinsic feeling about the difference.
When you experienced a culture bump, you may have a feeling of disconnectedness which is accompanied by a sense of not knowing. It is frequently accompanied by a loss of knowledge of a normal response. Then the person who is in culture bump would like to figure out this discomfort feeling through asking why. Even though it may reinforce the feeling of difference between these two people, the discomfort and disconnection will be resolved.
For example, after I knew Americans would like to drink icy water rather hot water, I felt surprised and strange. Because it was different from my country. Then I wanted to figure out why we