Abstract

A 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.

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.

This 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.

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.

Born in California, Joseph Shaules (PhD) has worked in language and intercultural education for more than 20 years. For ten years he was a tenured faculty member at Rikkyo University, Tokyo. He has worked in curriculum design, educational publishing, and was the co-presenter of the NHK television program Crossroads Café. He teaches courses in intercultural education at the Rikkyo Graduate School of Intercultural Communication. He does intercultural training in Japan, and has lived and worked abroad (Mexico, Japan, and France) for more than 20 years. He is proficient in English, Japanese, French and Spanish. He created the PICO Intercultural Learning System and is the director of the Japan Intercultural Institute.

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.