2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent practical guide, June 23, 2003
This review is from: Intercultural Interactions: A Practical Guide (Cross Cultural Research and Methodology) (Paperback)
An excellent practical guide for both students and teachers of
intercultural communication skills. The book provides a short, but
precise consolidation of the process of intercultural interaction, and
from there on focusses on identifying one of the most prolific tools,
the case study, employed to train intercultural communication
awareness and skills.
The 'culture assimilator' technique requires the trainee to read short
case studies, or critical incidents, that present culture clashes
between individuals from different cultural backgrounds. Trainees are
typically asked to select from a range of alternative explanations for
the incident. Through the process of discussing in groups, attempting
to draw a conclusion or discover underlying concepts, trainees learn
how and why people make judgements concerning the cause of behaviour.
The first third of the book provides a broad definition of
intercultural interaction and the issues involved at the point of
cultural misunderstanding (misattribution process). How the culture
assimilator facilitates the development of a more sophisticated,
layered understanding of cultural behaviour rounds out the
introduction.
The middle section of the books contains a substantial
bulk of critical incidents and their accompanying explanatory essays,
which cover 18 major themes that reflect the places and situations
where people are most likely to encounter difficulties (workplace, in
the family, education and schooling, settling in and adjusting,
socialising events, returning home, etc.).
The last third of the book looks at the application of the critical
incidents for an understanding of the emotional consequences of
culture clash, and provides further background for 'knowledge areas'
required to respond effectively to many every day behaviours.
For especially teachers and trainers this book is a rich source of
material to supplement courses or seminars, and a rare step-by-step
analysis of the development and use of a typical method of training
intercultural sensitivity. The authors guide the teacher and trainer
through the stages of administering the 'culture assimilator' using
sample incidents, and provide clear guidelines on how to construct or
tailor critical incidents key to their learners' understanding of
cultural concepts.
The book, both as informational background and practical skills
training tool, can be used for diverse groups such as international
businessmen, teachers and teacher education students, psychology
professors, cross-cultural trainers, and even health care
professionals. The critical incident method can be adapted along
culture-specific or culture-general lines, into role-plays, to
introduce a topic as a key point in understanding more complex
concepts.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
excellent resource for teachers and cross-cultural trainers, November 7, 2003
Cushner and Brislin's Intercultural Interactions is perhaps the most useful cross-cultural studies book that I have ever read.
Designed to be helpful regardless of the cultural background of those in the critical incidents, or the reader's particular culture, it is both highly useful as a reference book and as a teaching resource.
The first chapter is an excellent introduction for people who are about to enter another culture extensively. The second, which is full of information for teachers and cross-cultural trainers, is also an enjoyable read. The main focus of the book, however, is in the next eight chapters, which present over one hundred examples of critical incidents under themes such as host customs, family, tourist experiences, the workplace and education. The cultural backgrounds of the people involved in these incidents are very diverse, and include Americans (and their many cultures), Europeans, Asians, Latin Americans, Arabs, and also the physically disabled and the deaf. All the stories are believable, having been well researched, and well written. What is more impressive, however, is the trouble the authors have taken to validate them, asking no fewer than sixty professionals from a diverse range of disciplinary backgrounds to offer an interpretation. This kind of scientific approach is excellent, I think, and I also welcomed there being no right answer; only preferred ones, since the experts could never agree unanimously.
The final three chapters deal with issues of culture in greater depth, and also point to additional resources for teachers and cross-cultural trainers, which is all very useful.
If I were to have to find fault with this book - which I do not want to do, then it would be that I found interpreting some of the stories rather easy once I read the options, since they had just one juicy morsel of information about a culture that gave the whole game away. This is a very minor point, of course, and teachers and cross-cultural trainers who plan to use such stories in class will surely be able to manage.
I have not used Intercultural Interactions with my students yet, but I do plan to do so, and I am sure that they will enjoy learning from it, as much as I am sure that I will be using it for many years to come.
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