Quote Originally Posted by JMA View Post
Ray you are absolutely correct. In addition a knowledge of the languages and actually living amongst the people is essential.

Even then (as in parts of Africa) even speaking the local language but living in a separate community limits ones intimate knowledge of what the local people are thinking (which is quite often diverse anyway) and why (this is often the important aspect).
For once I agree completely with JMA... will wonders never cease. Speaking multiple languages and living among the people gives a perspective that living in an expat enclave or other restricted area never can, even for decades. In addition a knowledge of the history, national and local, is important... not just "the history" as recorded by distant scholars, but the multiple historical narratives perceived by various subsets of the populace.

Not that all of that would mean that "one had ingrained oneself in the psyche and mindset of all sections of the people in that land!", but it would be a start. How many people can honestly claim to have ingrained themselves in the psyche and mindset of all the people even in their own land?

It's also true citizens of a country who have spent all or most of their lives in one part of their own country often have a terribly limited understanding of people in other parts of that country. How well does an urban sophisticate in Manhattan understand an Oklahoma wheat farmer? Could an academic in Mumbai or Delhi claim a full understanding of the vast diversity of populaces and narratives that makes up India? In my neighborhood we get Filipino visitors from manila who are more clueless than any of the foreigners, who haven't the slightest grasp of local language of custom and carry some of the most absurd stereotypes about indigenous people.