• Cultural Awareness: Come to recognize patterns of behavior which are different from those with which you are familiar. Cultures have an internal consistency and can be appreciated for their differences. Reflect on the meaning of cultural relativity, the degree to which behavior is determined by culture and how your own behavior may be perceived differently depending on cultural interpretation.

• Cultural Learning Skills: Learn to translate skills learned by living in another culture, to other cross-cultural situations, and, in the process, further the development in your individual, multicultural competencies.

• Interpersonal Skills: As you explore the new cultural environment and different ways of perceiving and behaving; interpersonal communication and different ways of connecting with people come to the fore. Cross-cultural interpersonal skills are increased. Reflect on and become aware of these different ways of connecting.

• Communication Skills: Living in another culture cannot help but improve intercultural communication skills. Communication and culture are closely intertwined and learning the Culture is as important as knowing the language spoken.

• Personal Growth: People gain confidence and a strengthened sense of identity and self-esteem through living in another culture. This includes a new tolerance for ambiguity, a flexibility in daily living and a willingness to seek alternative meanings in your interactions with people. Reflect on and become more aware of these qualities in your self.
  

In his theoretical discussions of cognitive development, Piaget proposes that disequilibrium of mental structures is the necessary condition for the assimilation of new knowledge. He argues that knowledge and intellectual dvelopment are facilitated by the twin mental processes of assimilation and accommodation. As interaction with the environment occurs, the child assimilated certain elements into already existing mental structures. Equilibrium in mental organization is upset as mental structures change to accommodate new data. An analogy using the homeostatic processes involved in body temperature control illustrates this:

As the body cools, temperature equilibrium is upset. Information on changes in the state of the system are assimilated in the hypothalamus, and the autonomic nervous system accommodates by setting in motion certain changes that enable the body to take care of the cooling blood. Vessels close to the skin contract so that less surface area is exposed to the cold. Shivering increases production of heat in the body. (Lavatelly et al., p.54).

We are suggesting that a similar process takes place in multicultural learning. The shivering is the disequilibrium experienced in cultual conflict and/or as a result of educational intervention in which new cultural information has been introduced which must be accumulated and to which the individual must accommodate. In the context of cultural conflict amelioration, disequilibrium involves "the balance between the need to protect sameness and continuity and the need to accommodate change" (Ackerman, p. 85).

Disequilibrium in the multicultural process occurs when previously held knowledge is challenged or is invalidated. At this stage, students begin to doubt and question some of their attitudes and beliefs. Hopefully, an inner emotional and intellectual struggle will take place as students begin to internationalize the concept of culture and its power and arbitrariness in influencing thought and behavior.

...to be multicultural is to be aware and able to incorporate and synthesize different systems of cultural knowledge into one's own. Peter Adler has put it eloquently:

Multicultural man is the person who is intellectually and emotionally committed to the fundamental unity of all human beings while at the same time he recognizes, legitimizes, accepts, and appreciates the fundamental differences that lie between people from different cultures. This new kind of man cannot be defined by the languages he speaks, the countries he has visited, or the number of international contacts he has made. Nor is he defined by his profession, his place of residence, or his cognitive sophistication. Instead, multicultural man is recognized by the configuration of his outlooks and world views, by the way he remains open to the immanence of experience (p.23-24).

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