Art of Crossing Cultures [Paperback]

Craig Storti (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 12, 2007 | ISBN-10: 1931930538 | ISBN-13: 978-1931930536 | Edition: 2nd Edition

Adjusting to a new culture and getting along with the local people can be huge challenges for someone who lives and works abroad. Whether in business, diplomacy, education or leisure, anyone can be blindsided by a lack of international knowledge and experience, thus caught at a disadvantage. In this second edition of his best-selling The Art of Crossing Cultures, Craig Storti gives voice to the cross-cultural experience and shows what it takes to encounter a new culture and succeed.This timely new edition focuses special attention on how to deal with country and culture shock and identifies two types of intercultural incidents, giving a more holistic picture of cross-cultural misunderstandings. Learning how to anticipate differences and master positive alternative reactions is at the heart of The Art of Crossing Cultures, as well as the cross-cultural adaptation experience.The interesting thing about The Art of Crossing Cultures is that it will be as enlightening to the university student in a formal intercultural communication course as it will be to the practical-minded businessperson bound for a first overseas assignment and as it will be for the seasoned intercultural specialist who is forever looking for theoretical material to explain the process we have all experienced but have such difficulty putting into words. -Robert Kohls, San Francisco ContentsPreface to the Second EditionForeward to the First EditionAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1 Country Shock2 Culture Shock3 The Fallout4 The Problem Explained5 The Problem Solved6 Language Lessons7 The PayoffAppendix: Eloquent WitnessA Selected Reading ListBibliographyIndex

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

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

Product Details

• Paperback: 171 pages
• Publisher: Nicholas Brealey Publishing; 2nd Edition edition (September 12, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931930538
• ISBN-13: 978-1931930536
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #297,373 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #62 in Books > Business & Investing > International > Exports & Imports

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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.