Quote Originally Posted by Steve Blair View Post
Tom, your point could be expanded to the academics here as well. Does anyone with any serious historical background really believe that you could cram 20 years of study and field experience with a particular culture into one week? Hmm...let's see...eat Middle Eastern food and listen to Al Jazira at the same time and somehow attain true cultural enlightenment? I don't think so.

The sad thing is that there are people out there who will buy into this (in droves, most likely), and yet another batch of "Ugly Americans" will hit the streets....
Nope. 6-9 months of total immersion where all you hear is Arabic and you are begging for food on the street corner would give you a good start. Five days will turn out arrogant "graduates" who have a "licence to practice" but no "ability to perform".