Quote Originally Posted by JeffC View Post
For example, a Red Team of intelligence analysts are deployed to a facility where they are immersed in an environment as realistically constructed as possible to simulate the daily experience of a member of Al-Qae’da in Iraq, or the Taliban in Afghanistan. This may include religious education in the Koran, daily prayers to Allah, all written and spoken communication done only in Arabic, and other like-minded activities. Any scenario that displaces the previous mindset of the analyst and replaces it with one more closely aligned with the terrorist would accomplish the goal.
Quote Originally Posted by wm View Post
Usually, one is a native speaker of only one language. Native speakers of Iraqi Arabic are English As A Second Language (ESL) speakers. They will have the same kinds of cultural disconnects when trying to get the words right for their English native speaking employers. And, that is without consideration for such things as idiolects, regionalisms, colloquialisms, and slang.
Interesting. The problems I see with simulation as described above is that we cannot replicate the social-cultural and religious norms and rituals learned natively, beginning in the crib; nor the language issues that "wm" raises above. One of my Arabic instructors replied to a question I posed, "the only way you can learn [fill in the blank] is if you have an Arab mother." Holds true for different situations, I have discovered. Further, many Arab relationships are via kinship ties, which prevent us from truly entering their domains socially, or being seeing them with their guard down, i.e., with their true souls bared.

Simulation/immersion is great, and will go a long way toward reducing mirror imaging and cultural ignorance, but it can only do so much.

Thanks all for your comments. Very helpful.