Intercultural Learning Goals

This work has emphasized a description of intercultural learning which finds both positive and negative outcomes of intercultural experiences to be normal. For educators, of course, negative outcomes are less desirable and it is important to consider how this description of intercultural learning can inform intercultural education. The successes of intercultural learners can act as signposts in intercultural education and successful sojourners can be learning models. We have seen highly successful interculturalists, such as Paul and Yuko, and thus need to consider if they should serve as the model for intercultural learners. As we have seen, however, the kind of deep cognitive empathy and ‘beyond culture’ state they reported are so rare that it may not be appropriate to consider their experiences as the target of intercultural learning. For most sojourners, success may more reasonably be defined not by an abstract meta-consciousness of cultural difference, but rather by the ability to understand and accept difference at a deep level and use this acceptance as a base to build relationships and develop communication skills in new cultural communities. It remains, then, to find ways to apply this insight.

A vocabulary for intercultural experiences

It is striking that among the typical goals of intercultural learning there is little emphasis on the possibility of negative outcomes – there doesn’t even seem to be neutral terminology to express this phenomenon. Yet, this work has shown that intercultural contact can reinforce or create negative attitudes and intolerance. This is a serious problem because such negative attitudes are embedded in the lived experience of sojourners and not easily altered. Terms such as culture shock or culture stress articulate the psychological stresses of intercultural adaptation, but do not go so far as characterizing the long-term possible negative consequences of intercultural learning. For terms like ‘cultural awareness’ there seems almost no negative counterpart, other than ‘not being aware’.