Richard W. Brislin – författare

Develop a unique counseling approach for training clients, students, and target populations with Improving Intercultural Interactions, a pragmatic text that deals with concerns specific to intercultural experiences in counseling. Intended as a companion to the first volume by Brislin and Yoshida, this new book works from an educational model for counseling and presents training modules that are relevant for varying clusters of circumstances, from the world of business to the field of education. It builds upon the first book and deals with issues including ethics, ethnocultural identification, conflict and mediation across cultures, as well as empathy and cross-cultural communication. In addition, this practical text is full of exercises, activities, and self-assessment questions that promote growth and cultural awareness. By defining culture inclusively and broadly, the editors have compiled a unique collection of training modules that will be essential to professionals and researchers in a broad range of fields, including clinical/counseling psychology, educational psychology, social work, psychology, gender studies, sociology, cultural studies, ethnic studies, and management.

"The book is clearly written and includes many examples and analogies to illustrate the authors' main points. . . .The collaboration presents information useful for setting up an intercultural training program but also helpful for those attempting to ascertain the elements of a good program as well as for those interested in the general subject matter. This work will enhance the collections of libraries that support communication and business programs in particular."

--The Journal of Academic Librarianship

As societies become more global, acquiring an understanding of other cultures and customs becomes a necessity. It is essential to provide effective training programs whether the association is with culturally diverse people within the same city or country, other countries, or across hemispheres. The only comprehensive guidebook of its kind, Intercultural Communication Training provides an organizational framework for planning and establishing intercultural communication training programs. Drawing from intercultural communication and cross-cultural training, this guide emphasizes those aspects of training that explicitly involve face-to-face communication. The approaches this volume covers, such as assessing needs, establishing goals, and building positive attitudes, apply to any situation where good personal relations and effective communication need to be established with people from different cultural backgrounds.

This guidebook is an essential tool in designing a training program for scholars, students, counselors, diplomats, social workers, business people, and anyone who needs to increase their knowledge and skills for communication across cultures.

As the editors of this volume point out, one certainty in life is that people must interact with others from very different cultural backgrounds--whether or not they are prepared to do so. The modules in this volume encourage productive and effective intercultural interactions in business, educational, social, and health services settings. Each module--a collection of materials for cross-cultural training programs--has a similar structure. They all have a combination of experiential exercises, self-assessment instruments, traditional "text" material describing concepts and the research methods necessary in using a given module, and case studies and/or critical incidents. Among the subjects Improving Intercultural Interactions addresses are gender relations in the workplace, intercultural education at the university level, intercultural communication for health care professionals, multicultural counseling, and nonverbal behavior in intercultural interaction. Improving Intercultural Interactions is a valuable resource for consultants, counselors, personnel officers, and others who offer various kinds of cross-cultural training programs. It is also useful as a supplemental text in graduate and undergraduate courses dealing with culture and behavior. "The present volume . . . aims at supplying not only valuable ideas and ideals but most of all practical guidelines to all those interested in carrying out satisfactory training programs." --Language, Culture, and Curriculum "An excellent practical guide to intercultural sensitivity, in the business world; elementary, secondary, and tertiary level schools; and social service and health delivery agencies. Each chapter provides opportunities for self-assessment, cases, critical incidents, constructs that can develop skills in analyzing intercultural situations, opportunities to practice these skills, and field exercises to test the newly acquired sensitivity. It increases awareness of culture and cultural differences, provides facts that can help adjustment, suggests ways to feel appropriately for interaction with members of other cultures, and opportunities to identify and practice skills that can assist in adjustment to other cultures." --Harry C. Triandis, University of Illinois "Improving Intercultural Interactions represents the next step forward in resource books for trainers, teachers, professors, organizational developers and the like who are in constant need of upgrading the results of their cross-cultural training programs. . . . It presents sequences of training processes from self-assessment and critical incidents through the development of an understanding of cultural concepts and frameworks to exercises targeted to cause the learner to experience and practice an array of behaviors or actions in appropriate cross-cultural problem situations. The fact that each of the books' modules ends with suggested actions based on specific examples helps lead the learner to a position where he or she can develop personally and culturally relevant strategies for their workplace situation. This book will serve as a resource for persons in culturally diverse work situations, whether it be business, education, health, or a broad array of other public and private organizations." --Sheldon Varney, University of Hawaii at Manoa

The first edition of Intercultural Interactions pioneered the 18-theme "culture-general" framework that has become the basis of work and research with a diverse array of populations, from interpreters for the deaf to helping professionals in multicultural settings and businesspeople around the world. Even more comprehensive in its scope and now with a practical new user's guide, the second edition expands coverage to draw the reader in--with more vivid scenarios and examples reflecting changing world events and social milieu. Updated essays integrate these critical incidents, incorporating the most current developments in the field of cross-cultural training. A special chapter, the user's guide provides practical, time-saving suggestions for using the book in a variety of training programs as well as preparing for the cross-cultural experience. Across the spectrum of professional, educational, and personal settings, the second edition of Intercultural Interactions offers a key framework for living, interpreting, and assimilating cross-cultural experiences. This book is integral for use in culture-centered training and research programs, college coursework in psychology and global management, programs for overseas business people and study abroad students, and multicultural health care and mental health settings. [all the quotes here are:] Praise for the first edition . . . "Brislin and his coauthors have developed a most interesting training device designed to aid sojourners, executives, teachers, and others during the inevitable adjustment period they will face whenever they go to another culture or country. The book will primarily be seen as a helpful aid to anyone who is interested in training and evaluating those who are preparing for 'close encounters of the other-culture kind.' However, it will also be welcomed by many academicians as a useful way in which to discuss certain social psychological principles, such as attribution processes or dimensions of interpersonal attraction." --from the Preface by Walter J. Lonner & John W. Berry "The appearance of Intercultural Interactions is a major event for researchers and trainers in the field of cross-cultural communication. The critical incidents and essays presented are intensely practical in their orientation, broad in their coverage of the main problem areas, and deep in the insights they provide." --Geert Hofstede, University of Limburg at Maastricht, The Netherlands "This admirable volume is addressed to the lay person. The purpose of the educational materials in this book is to assist people when they must adjust to life in another country, or to assist them when they are to interact extensively with people from other cultural backgrounds." --Contributions to Indian Sociology "The authors carefully describe the process they used to develop the training materials, giving convincing empirical evidence of their validity. Those who prepare sojourners will find the result of their work to be a highly useful resource." --Review and Expositor

The first edition of Intercultural Interactions pioneered the 18-theme "culture-general" framework that has become the basis of work and research with a diverse array of populations, from interpreters for the deaf to helping professionals in multicultural settings and businesspeople around the world. Even more comprehensive in its scope and now with a practical new user's guide, the second edition expands coverage to draw the reader in--with more vivid scenarios and examples reflecting changing world events and social milieu. Updated essays integrate these critical incidents, incorporating the most current developments in the field of cross-cultural training. A special chapter, the user's guide provides practical, time-saving suggestions for using the book in a variety of training programs as well as preparing for the cross-cultural experience. Across the spectrum of professional, educational, and personal settings, the second edition of Intercultural Interactions offers a key framework for living, interpreting, and assimilating cross-cultural experiences. This book is integral for use in culture-centered training and research programs, college coursework in psychology and global management, programs for overseas business people and study abroad students, and multicultural health care and mental health settings. [all the quotes here are:] Praise for the first edition . . . "Brislin and his coauthors have developed a most interesting training device designed to aid sojourners, executives, teachers, and others during the inevitable adjustment period they will face whenever they go to another culture or country. The book will primarily be seen as a helpful aid to anyone who is interested in training and evaluating those who are preparing for 'close encounters of the other-culture kind.' However, it will also be welcomed by many academicians as a useful way in which to discuss certain social psychological principles, such as attribution processes or dimensions of interpersonal attraction." --from the Preface by Walter J. Lonner & John W. Berry "The appearance of Intercultural Interactions is a major event for researchers and trainers in the field of cross-cultural communication. The critical incidents and essays presented are intensely practical in their orientation, broad in their coverage of the main problem areas, and deep in the insights they provide." --Geert Hofstede, University of Limburg at Maastricht, The Netherlands "This admirable volume is addressed to the lay person. The purpose of the educational materials in this book is to assist people when they must adjust to life in another country, or to assist them when they are to interact extensively with people from other cultural backgrounds." --Contributions to Indian Sociology "The authors carefully describe the process they used to develop the training materials, giving convincing empirical evidence of their validity. Those who prepare sojourners will find the result of their work to be a highly useful resource." --Review and Expositor

Handbook of Intercultural Training, Volume I: Issues in Theory and Design is a compilation of nine essays dealing with a problem central to today''s complex world: ""How can people best live and work with others who come from very different cultural backgrounds?"" The major focus of the nine essays in this book is the experience of living and working for long periods in other cultures. The book also focuses on other types of cross-cultural experiences, such as majority-minority group relations, training and preparation, and integration. There are analyses of possible experiences people may have, such as stress during adjustments. Other authors in this book address the benefits of intercultural action and integration into a country''s educational system. International education is seen to benefit through a greater attention to face-to-face cross-cultural experience. The first seven essays are good descriptions of intercultural behavior and training, while Chapter 8 is an evaluation of cross-cultural training. The last chapter describes the atlas of affective meanings containing 620 concepts from 30 languages/culture communities for use in intercultural training and education. Behavioral and social scientists, trainers and cross-cultural scientists, overseas businessmen, foreign students, diplomats, immigrants, and other people who work in different cultures will find this handbook very helpful.

Handbook of Intercultural Training, Volume II: Issues in Training Methodology is a major attempt to describe, critique, and summarize the major known ways to provide cross-cultural training. The collection of essays discusses the stresses of intercultural encounter, as well as how to reduce these. This volume is divided in two parts. The first part discusses context factors, including stress factors in intercultural relations and aspects of organization effectiveness. A cross-cultural experience from the perspective of a program manager is presented, as well as a situational analysis and designing a translator-based training program where alternative designs are forwarded for trainers to use effectively in multicultural and multilingual environments. The second part presents different methods of training. Learning from sojourners and from individuals from various cultures results in different frameworks for interpreting cross-cultural interactions. Consultants, advisors, and experts may find themselves performing outside and beyond their home ground and social groups, so training programs pertaining to their particular situation need to be addressed more profoundly. The training program in race relations by the U.S. Department of Defense is reviewed, and the effects of stereotyping people are discussed and considered as other factors in the preparation of training programs. English is then examined as a tool for intercultural communication, where aspects of intercultural training should be integrated. This book is suitable for overseas workers, foreign students, foreign technical advisers, diplomats, immigrants, and many others who are going to live and work and be exposed to other cultures.

Handbook of Intercultural Training, Volume III: Area Studies in Intercultural Training deals with information about the countries in which people will be living and working, where trainers want new and better country-specific information that can be incorporated into their programs. This volume contains two parts, wherein the first part deals with training in educational institutions where existing programs are examined. An intercultural competence in bilingual teacher-training programs is presented, and the intercultural communications skills imparted to trainers/teachers are examined. Also addressed are methods to facilitate education on cross-cultural matters to college level students. To put cross-cultural relations in perspective, the topic of American and foreign students in the United States in a university context is discussed, and its implications for theory, future research, and applied intercultural programming are further examined. Part II is concerned with area studies and covers Sub-Sahara Africa, Islamic countries such as Iran, Americans in Australia, Oceania, India, Japan, Canada, and the American retiree abroad. The inclusion of this section shows the types of content that can be included in the preparation of training programs. Trainers and cross-cultural workers, foreign workers, diplomats, foreign students, immigrants, and even transients working and living in a different culture will find this volume a wealthy source of information.