Description
Book SynopsisA straightforward guide to understanding the hidden cultural challenges of adapting to life abroad. Combining intercultural theory and the voices of sojourners who talk about their experiences, it maps out the process of resisting, accepting and adapting to cultural difference. We see that all sojourners, from tourists, to expatriates to immigrants, go through a similar learning dynamic. We learn that intercultural experiences can be deep or shallow, and that hidden cultural difference can increase sojourner prejudice. The book examines intercultural sensitivity while avoiding “feel good” idealizations about cross-cultural contact. It brings clarity to debates regarding the importance of cultural difference and the effects of globalization. An essential resource for sojourners, language teachers and intercultural educators.
Trade ReviewThis book is a timely intervention in the field of intercultural communication and the forms of learning that underpin it. It takes issue with existing approaches that construe intercultural learning as a largely linear process, and argues that things are considerably more complex.
-- Professor Michael Kelly, University of Southampton
The deep culture model used in this book is a model informed by theory and by common sense, and this is very welcome. This is a good book for post-graduate level students, trainers, lecturers and scholars. Its domain is the foreign-languages related school of interculturalists but will also appeal to associate fields of psychology, education and business.
-- Terry Mughan, Professor of International Management, Anglia Ruskin University, UK
This book is a useful addition to the literature of intercultural education and should be of interest to students and professionals going to live and work abroad who are interested in the intercultural learning process they face.
-- Kathrin Volt * dialogin The Delta Intercultural Academy *
This book is a useful addition to the literature of intercultural education and should be of interest to students and professionals going to live and work abroad who are interested in the intercultural learning process they face. Shaules points out that there has not been much focus lately on the hidden side of the intercultural experience. The book provides a theoretical model to illustrate how inner cultural learning as a process should help sojourners function effectively in intercultural situations. Deep Culture is useful reading, especially for educators and sojourners facing intercultural contact or simply for people interested in the subject matter. It is a comprehensive book giving an overview of different cultural theories, questioning and applying these in light of Shaules’ Deep Culture Model of Intercultural Learning. What I valued most about the book is the enriching and personal approach to such learning.
-- Kathrin Volt, Estonia and France * Dialogin, March 2010 *
Table of ContentsIntroduction
Part 1: The Intercultural Experience
Chapter 1: Intercultural Contact in the Global Village
Chapter 2: Objections to Culture
Chapter 3: Understanding the Deep Structure of Culture
Chapter 4: Deep Cultural Difference and Increased Prejudice
Chapter 5: What is Successful Cultural Learning?
Chapter 6: The Process of Intercultural Learning
Part 2: A Model of Cultural Learning
Chapter 7: The Deep Culture Model
Chapter 8: Resistance to Change
Chapter 9: Acceptance of Difference
Chapter 10: Adaptation and Cultural Identity
Chapter 11: Resistance and Rapport
Chapter 12: Beyond Adaptation
Chapter 13: Implications for the “Global Village”
Glossary
References
