ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a story passed on at various meetings associated with intercultural trainers. It considers how trainers to be successful in their intercultural travels. The trainers began by considering the hierarchy of human needs proposed by Maslow and how their ability to meet these needs changed when they travel to a new culture. The process of moving to a new culture is referred to as acculturation. Acculturation may be viewed as developing communication competence in the new or host culture. The trainers then review four different models of acculturation. First, they discuss the U-curve model. It is a general model that charts the sojourner's experiences of excitement, crisis, and readjustment to normal life. The second model is the hero's journey. Third, trainers consider the surprise and sense-making model, in which surprise is positioned as inevitable. And fourth, trainers reviewed a comprehensive model of stress, adaptation, and growth.
