Overview
Most people who go abroad experience a bit of culture shock, but to reap the rewards of studying and learning abroad, one must identify and face squarely the difficulties in experiential learning in a different culture.Studying Abroad/Learning Abroad is a student-friendly abridgement of J. Daniel Hess' The Whole World Guide to Culture Learning that will guide you through sorting out the dynamics of studying abroad. This books helps you dig beneath the surface of superficial actions to experience cultural learning at its deepest, most meaningful level by teaching to make note of cultural differences, body language, and interaction styles; overcome cucarachas, or elements of a host culture that are irritating or even repugnant; observe differences in time use; documents the experiences of studying abroad with a journal; and how to adapt on the return home. Hess outlines attitudes and character traits that foster effective learning, including how to deal with the dilemma of cultural relativism, and defines an action-reflection-response method for dealing with intercultural experiences.With its carefully selected excerpts from The Whole World Guide to Culture Learning, Studying Abroad/Learning Abroad provides a thorough review of culture learning and will greatly enrich any study abroad program. Contents Preface Introduction 1 Culture Learning 2 Attitudes and Character Traits that Promote Culture Learning 3 Methods in Culture Learning: The Action-Reflection-Response Strategy 4 Methods in Culture Learning: Reflection as Cultural Analysis 5 Culture Learning, Values, and Ethical Choices 6 Guides to the Culture Learning Process Bibliography and ReferencesSynopsis
Here is a book that provides a foundation for effectively managing the experiential learning process of students studying abroad. More streamelined than its predecessor (The Whole World Guide to Culture Learning), it constitutes a student-friendly framework for sorting through the dynamics of the study abroad experience.
The first chapters are essentially intact, laying the groundwork for comprehending the nature of culture learning, intercultural communication and cross-cultural adaptation. They also examine the attitudes and character traits that foster effective learning, offer a clearly defined action-reflection-response methodology for dealing with intercultural experiences, and provide a method of cross-cultural analysis. This section ends with a discussion-rarely encountered in the literature on study abroad-on ethics, values, and the dilemma of cultural relativism, for which the author suggests solid guiding principles.
In this abridged edition, fifteen of the most substantive guides (of the original 54) have been selected as self-instructional units. They can be used before, during, or after study abroad programs.
This is a text which provides a thorough review of the culture learning process-which is central to the experience of studying abroad-accompanied by a set of carefully selected practical applications, all of which will greatly enrich any study abroad program.