CHF Cross-Cultural Annual J-1 Visa Orientation

Part of the Cordell Hull Foundation's responsibility to the State Department as J-1 visa sponsor is providing pre-arrival info to new teachers plus training on J-1 visa regulations and cultural adjustment.

William Arthur, Carlos Chubb, Betty Yu, Sebastien Pelletier and Marianne Mason moderated a series of cross-cultural workshops in New York, Washington, San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Oregon, Chicago, and New Orleans in addition to noted International and Immersion school principals using videos, written and interactive video quizzes.

All written materials for these workshops may be accessed in my book, J1 Visa Uncloaked--Complete Cultural Training Guide - Volume II which was been updated in May 2015, available through Amazon.com, translated into six languages.

The Cordell Hull Foundation New Program Guide on http://cordellhull.com/step-by-step-set-up-guide/ details the simple steps for a school, state or district to become a partner in sponsoring J-1 visas for international teachers to work in US primary or secondary schools.  Participation in the yearly CHF orientations is de rigueur for exchange teachers and often attended by school principals and Education Consuls from foreign governments, in groups of 10-50 teachers. 

We are grateful for the valuable participation and input of numerous talented, experienced, knowledgeable educators to the Cordell Hull Foundation's Cultural Orientation workshops each year.  Tom Gilbert, a British CHF Exchange Teacher from Bath, England, designed an interactive PowerPoint session on Culture Shock, including 5 animations depicting each step--Honeymoon, Rejection, Adjustment, Biculturalism, and Reverse--that have been enormously popular with teachers.  CHF also produced a 45-minute video presentation with Tom expressing his unique take on how foreign-national teachers can cope with cultural adjustments that can be more of a strain than expected when they first arrive in the US and find it different from just visiting.

Tom shares, "Like many people, I suspect, when I was told of the stages of culture shock I was convinced it wouldn’t happen to me.   The whole thing sounded way to simplistic, surely an intelligent person’s reactions to a new culture couldn’t be so easily codified?"
 

Tom, being British, really believed he would not be affected by culture shock.  But he went through every phase like clockwork.  He says that

"Culture Shock is a documented phenomenon.

Accept it, plan for it, but don't believe you can avoid it."

Marianne Mason, President, Cordell Hull Foundation for International Education
http://www.cordellhull.org/
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