Abstract
Berlitz International has provided language and cultural services since 1878. Berlitz Cross Cultural offers a relocation training course: Relocating Abroad: Living and Working in . . . . The relocation program provides country or region-specific information about a target culture. The purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of the Berlitz two-day relocation program on participants' cultural adjustment. This will be done by using Milton J. Bennett's developmental model (1986) of intercultural sensitivity (DMIS). Bennett's DMIS describes six stages of cultural adjustment: denial, defense, minimization, acceptance, adaptation, and integration. Bennett's detailed characterization of each stage and of how people can move from one stage to the other will help to identify each participant's level of intercultural sensitivity during three specific times: prior to the relocation program, immediately after the program, and six months after the program's completion in their new country. Qualitative research is conducted using the Berlitz pre-program questionnaire and post-program evaluation form, which I collected from sixteen of the married U.S. national participants who took the Berlitz two-day relocation program prior to their move in 1998. The stages during two periods, i.e., before and right after the program, were identified for all participants (sixteen participants), and five participants' stages were identified for the third period as well. These five participants' stages at the end of six months were determined using the Berlitz six-month follow up questionnaire and the additional questionnaire that I designed. The findings indicate that the relocation program facilitates the participant's progress throughout the stages of the Bennett developmental model.
Recommended Citation
Kondo, Taeko, "Relocation program : the first experiential learning for expatriates and spouses" (1999). Capstone Collection. 562.
https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/capstones/562