How much culture lurks in common conversation? According to Craig Storti, so much that many of our most common, seemingly innocent exchanges (in social settings, on the job, in the world of business) are cultural minefields waiting to explode. These explosions (cultural misunderstandings) can cause confusion, irritation, even alienation. At the workplace and in the world of business, these explosions undermine communication, threaten important relationships, and cost a great deal of time and money; away from work, they strain, even endanger, personal relationships.
This book is a collection of brief conversations (4-8 lines) between an American and someone from another country and culture. Brief as each dialogue is, it has within it at least one, and usually several, breaches of cultural norms which the reader is challenged to figure out. And a challenge it is: the exchanges are so brief and innocuous that even the wariest among us are sandbagged by the dialogue’s hidden subtleties. If you read them on your own, the dialogues can be an introduction to cross-cultural understanding and sensitivity. Ten cultures are represented by the non-Americans in the dialogues: Arab/Middle Eastern, British, Chinese, French, German, Hispanic, Indian, Japanese, Mediterranean/European, and Russian.
You’ll enjoy trying to solve these cultural riddles, while at the same time, increasing your cultural awareness. – TCK World
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