Product Description

A Survival Guide to Customs and Etiquette

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #123311 in Books
• Published on: 2008-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 300 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780761455035
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

From the Publisher
Newly updated and redesigned in 2005!

Customer Reviews

It's funny to read about yourself like this...
I bought this book to send to the foreign exchange student that will be living with us this year, and I read it myself before sending it to him. It is really strange to read about your own culture, because there are so many quirks that we have as Americans that we never notice. This book gave me new insight into our culture and behavior. It was definitely fun, and prompted a great deal of introspection. It is well written, but sometimes odd in style, using words and phrases that just don't sound "American". If you can get past that, it is really worth reading, even for an American, and perhaps especially for an American.

Could be helpful, although much is out of date
An expatriate American, I bought CULTURE SHOCK: USA for my Ukrainian girlfriend who wanted to better understand American culture. Before giving the book to her, I read it to see if it would be an enlightening introduction to the culture of the United States.

CULTURE SHOCK: USA is a decent overview of American culture, and its sections on body language and conversation can be of immense help to Europeans. I found the book's section on American education to be honest and straightforward. Regional differences were clearly explained, and the book acknowledged that American is a vast and diverse nation.

However, the book does leave out a few aspects of American culture that foreign visitors should be aware of. The book is correct in saying that Americans are generally friendly to foreigners, but the book does not mention the deep xenophobia and jingoism that are common to Americans, especially those from rural regions. I would have liked a better overview of America's religious diversity. The book emphasizes that most Americans identify themselves as Christian, but the book could have discussed the various denominations and the difference between, for example, Catholicism and Fundamentalism.

Another weak point of the book is that it is somewhat out of date. One amusing photograph shows a teenager mowing the lawn and the caption says that teenagers do chores to have money for such things are musical tapes. Tapes? It's all CDs or MP3 players now. And do teenagers even mow the lawn anymore? When I was in high school several years ago, everyone I knew just hired a lawn service. The book was supposedly revised in 1997 and 1999, but the revision didn't go too deep.

While it does have its faults, CULTURE SHOCK: USA is really the only book of its kind in English and can benefit those wishing to understand American culture. However, it's always good to have another source besides this one.

Great, detailed and funny look at customs and differences
This really is excellent. A little dated in some of the pictures but this adds to the humour (humor). I read this on the plane on the way over and it gave great insight and lots to talk about.