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Captain Cook, Marco Polo And Christopher Columbus

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Most of us live and work in similar surroundings, usually in places where we grew up or like those where we were raised. And by and large the people whom we get to know at work, school or play tend to be familair to ourselves, in the sense of having comparable ethnic backgrounds, matching beliefs, shared values, and speak the same language or at least a dialect variant of it. Technically, this can be called inhabiting a culturally homogeneous space. Although living in accustomed circumstances is the rule for most people, there have always been exceptions to this pattern. The history of humankind is full of examples of persons and groups who travelled to foreign lands for a variety of purposes, the main ones being to work, study, teach, conquer, assist, have fun in, or settle in the country. The journals of Captain Cook, Marco Polo and Christopher Columbus provide very good descriptions of what we have referred to elsewhere (e.g. Ward, Bochner & Furnham, 2001) as between-society culture contact. Modern day examples include employees of international organisations, guest workers, overseas students, tourists, immigrants, refugees, missionaries, and peacekeepers. During the last 40 years, the incidence of humans shifting across national boundaries has greatly increased. Reasons include the invention of the jumbo jet that made international travel quicker, easier and cheaper. Changes in the world economy have also played their part. The term "globalisation" is much in the

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