Introduction

People who interact across cultural borders often carry with them a significant amount of undeclared (and usually unconscious) baggage. While this baggage was useful in the culture left behind, it may prove useless and even detrimental in the alien one being entered.

The exchange of information is an integral part in the development of relationships. People seek information about others just as they disclose information about themselves. This is done in an attempt to predict the behavior of others and to ensure the selection of the most appropriate behavior in an interaction.

Anyone who visits a foreign country must attempt to comprehend the norms, values and roles shaping the society’s institutions. Norms color personal interactions with the people within that culture. No matter how alien it may appear, every culture works; most people in the society find it a coherent and comprehensible way of life. This is the situation American military members face when deploying to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

When institutions or behaviors of another society seem incomprehensible or even reprehensible, there is a reasonable explanation for them. Every interpretation of any event, reflects and reports a relation between the observer and the observed; there is no way to comment on anything that does not incorporate the assumptive premises of the interpreter.

Through acculturation, all human beings acquire ways of viewing life; hence, wider and deeper conflicts are probable in encounters between cultures. At their core, difficulties associated with living in alien cultures often stem from the distinctive unconsciousness of both outsider and insider; learning to recognize one’s own cultural values is as constructive as learning the values of the new culture (Samovar & Porter, 1985).

Participants

In order to measure the effectiveness of this training program, a survey should be administered (Appendix D). Random sampling ensures every person and object, event or person in a population has an equal likelihood of being chosen for a study (Sommer & Sommer, 1997). For this study, the population is confined to deploying members from a base or post that maintains a semi-permanent presence in Southwest Asia. To ensure the survey is random in nature, a representative sample would be drawn from the population by surveying all deploying members whose social security number ends in "5."

In order to ensure the survey’s validity in measuring participant knowledge on the Arabic culture, a pre-test of the pre-test will be given. Based on the results of the initial pre-test, questions and statements will either be modified or accepted in the current format. Next