The Art of Crossing Cultures [Paperback]

Craig Storti (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1990 | ISBN-10: 0933662858 | ISBN-13: 978-0933662858

This text provides an analysis of the personal challenges inherent in cross-cultural experience. The author weaves the perceptions of an assortment of the world's great writers and literature into his comments. He examines the differences one encounters in living in another culture which cause some form of counterproductive psychological reaction. This text should help the reader to anticipate differences and master alternative reactions to enable cross-cultural adaptation.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Any person facing the prospect of going abroad...would do well to start with [The Art of Crossing Cultures]. --Soundview Executive Book Summaries --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Craig Storti is founder and co-director of Communicating Across Cultures, a Washington, D.C.-based intercultural communication training and consulting firm specializing in seminars on cross-cultural adjustment and repatriation. With work appearing in the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and Chicago Tribune, he is the author of six books, including Speaking of India: Bridging the Communication Gap When Working with Indians and the bestselling Cross-Cultural Dialogues, The Art of Crossing Cultures, and The Art of Coming Home. Having lived nearly a quarter of his life abroad, he lives now in Maryland. For more information, please visit his website: www.craigstorti.com --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 121 pages
• Publisher: Intercultural Press (March 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0933662858
• ISBN-13: 978-0933662858
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,059,309 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Extraordinarily comforting and enlightening, February 7, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Art of Crossing Cultures (Paperback)

This book remains a great source of wisdom and comfort, still needed after 15 years living abroad. The cultural differences aren't obvious any longer -- they can be deceptively subtle -- now that language and the daily facts of life are no longer an issue. However, I still trip over matters which I later realize to be cultural differences, and I assume others in similar situations do as well. And then I pull down Mr. Storti's book from the shelf and put it all into some sort of workable perspective.

Highly recommended to others, even those who have no intention of going abroad but would just like to have a better understanding of the cultural differences in this world -- something sorely needed these days.

By the way, Western women so quick to judge the 'sad' reality of women in Arab societies might do well to read this quotation from Harriet Martineau:

"[The women of the harem] pitied us European women heartily, that we had to go about travelling, and appearing in the streets without being properly taken care of -- that is, watched. They think us strangely neglected in being left so free, and boast of [how closely they are watched] as a token of the value in which they are held."

It should be a sobering reminder that it's a fools' game to judge, and certainly to pity, the reality of a person from a culture foreign to ours.

Thank you for your efforts and insights, Mr. Storti.

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I usually hate this stuff..., February 27, 2003

By 

Xmas shopper (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Art of Crossing Cultures (Paperback)

I am a totally way-too-confident, know-it-all travel partner, but I admit to having lost it while living in Eastern Europe last year with my husband (not his fault). Simply put: this book kept me from going home early SEVERAL times because Storti lets you moan and groan a little and then points out how you might have had a part in creating the cultural "misunderstanding" that plagues you. Trust me...if this book could help someone as stubborn as I am...it might be responsible for world peace someday.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Framework for Cross-Cultural Living, March 3, 2005

By 

Julian A. Richter "JR" (Elizabethtown, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Art of Crossing Cultures (Paperback)

Using humorous anecdotes, this book gives the reader a framework for adapting to other cultures, not a step-by-step guide to "here's what to take the hostess in Bulgaria." The stories of British colonists in India may seem irrelevant if a reader is looking for that level of detail, but they do present basic guidelines that are applicable to any culture in the world. I would recommend this as one book among many that a person should read prior to moving to an overseas assignment.