Council on Standards for International Educational Travel, Essay Example

An inter-cultural exchange between Saudis and North Americans would be an effective practice so that each culture could learn more about the other. Ultimately, this program would involve a student exchange program that will allow students and adults from Saudi Arabia to visit the homes of American citizens and for American’s to visit the homes of residents of Saudi Arabia (Council on Standards for International Educational Travel). In this manner, individuals from both cultures will have the opportunity to learn about the everyday life of individuals in these areas. This will allow participants to compare and contrast aspects of daily life such as food, clothing, housing, school, and work. Since these individuals will essentially swap lives with their counterpart from another culture, they will be immersed in the culture of a new society.

In order to prepare individuals for such a program, it would be necessary to have them attend an orientation program that will allow both Saudi Arabian and American citizens to begin to understand a little bit about each other’s cultures (Grayson). A brief overview will include the language spoken in each area, customs, a summary of the typical work or school day, how clothing should be worn, and typical social interactions that one could expect.

The overall goal of this project will be to provide a means by which Saudi Arabian and American citizens could come to understand one another despite coming from very different cultures. Therefore, the end of the tourism program should culminate with the individuals who swapped places to meet each other to discuss their experiences and learn their commonalities. This would also be a helpful way to improve the international relations between these two areas as well (House 238).

Works Cited

Council on Standards for International Educational Travel. About. N.D. Web. 12 May 2015. <http://www.csiet.org/>

Grayson, Benson Lee. Saudi-American relations. University Press of America, 1982.

House, Karen Elliott. On Saudi Arabia: Its People, Past, Religion, Fault Lines and Future. Knopf, 2012.