Customer Reviews

Culture Shock! USA: A Survival Guide to Customs and Etiquette

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

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Another weak point of the book is that it is somewhat out of date.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.

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.

I have read six other Culture Shock books. Those are interesting and well researched. However, Culture Shock USA is the opposite. It deals far more with everyday life, than with the USA, with knowing little about what aspects of American life would be a problem or a surprise to a foreigner (apparently most Americans wouldn't know). I have read a few other interesting and well researched books about the USA, e.g. Coping with America by Peter Trudgill, which I would recommend instead.

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.

Hi,

I bought the book several years ago with the expectation of being better prepared for whatever culture shock may hit me - we were preparing ourselves to immigrate to the States.

But how can a native possibly understand a culture shock in his own culture???

I am German and I read the book Culture Shock Germany, because my husband is from Brazil and I wanted to understand what he was going through. The German culture shock book was written by an Irish, who actually had lived in Germany for 15 years or so and had a good overview after having gone through his own culture shock. My husband had a great time with that book!

Well - so I was very disappointed with Culture Shock USA because of course I know things like I cannot burp sitting at the table - that's absolutely clear for everyone who traveled doing business before. I also did not read a whole lot about etiquette etc like the title was promising - plainly I didn't learn anything I didn't know yet.

I did not meet what I was looking for in this book and think it should not have been written by an American because she just doesn't understand WHY foreigners do have a culture shock in the US. Hope there will be a new edition of Culture Shock USA and I am sure I will buy it if someone writes it that actually had some confrontations with the particularities of the American cultre.

Some of the other Culture Shock! books are quite good, offering helpful information and amusing insights.

This one is sadly disappointing, for the obvious reason that it's written by an American who clearly has no idea what it is like to experience life in the USA as a foreigner.

The phenomenon of culture shock describes the feelings - which can range ranging from mild irritation to paralyzing depression - arising from being in a new culture where customs, behaviour and social cues all differ from those you are used to in your home culture. Sometimes you do not even realise the effect the differences are having on you until the cumulative experience overwhelms you. For example, in a culture where concepts of personal space are different, you may find something uncomfortable about your interactions with other people, without even consciously realising that they are always standing closer or further from you than you are accustomed to, until you find yourself shockingly saying that you just can't stand the people here because they are so unfriendly/pushy/distant.

Any decent book on culture shock would identify, and discuss ways of dealing with, the differences that exist in the particular culture.

Here are some things that it's hard to cope with as a foreigner in the USA:

* tipping - Americans have internalised a complex list of social rules about where, how, and how much to tip; and if you haven't learnt how to do it, every meal, drink, hotel stay, or shopping trip becomes stressful until you do.

* people in restaurants, supermarket checkout lines or other public places who feel free to comment on the behaviour of your children and the defects in your abilities as a parent.

* high levels of personal violence - for example, how to handle being threatened by a stranger in a bar or in the street.

Tipping is dealt with only as a list of amounts payable, but no details about how and when to make payment, or what to do in case of bad service. The other issues mentioned above aren't covered at all.

Ultimately the book comes across as as a rose-tinted advertisement for the benefits of migration to the USA, but contains little of use or even interest.

Skip this one, and read the others in the series.

I'm going to buy this for some overseas friends. It's got its moments. The section explaining business practices was useful. It is not the be all, end all, but a good start. I would have liked spelling out a little better who the main audience was. That's why I gave it a 4.

i read till now five titles in culture shock series: Germany Israel, Austria, Brazil and USA. Each book was very worth of reading. culture shock USA is a great book.On my first sight of the book i thought that it was not fair to take an USA-born writer in this interprise because in the series foreigners were asked to write about the country where they are living now.but the author cares about this and takes opinions of immigrants. even harsh remarks are in the book(even too much ones).that is a good ,realistic and inspiring intoducion to USA for us foreigners.but the shadowy side is present too. the author advises that is not correct to say chairman because could be a woman this person ,but she calls USA America despite that could be Canada ,Argentina,Haiti or my country Brazil among others.One more point.CAVEAT EMPTOR:in culture shock Brazil i asked the quiz in final chapter and i answered correctilly just one question in five.don't trust too much inflexible statements because in real life they may not be true.

The best book I have ever seen about US customs and traditions particulary from business point of view.

I especialy came to Amazon to review this book because I was so shocked. I have read the culture shock France and many other book about french culture. The thing is, I am a french women who lives in the Usa and I enjoy learning about my culture through some fresh set of eyes. There is nothing so vivid, and refreshing the viewpoing of a foreigner thrown into a new culture.
I had been looking for a long time for the equivalent for the US culture. I wanted to see what other people like me commonly experienced. There is often great explanation on questions you wonder about culture wise in such books.
The thing is, I read the first several chapters and was really disapointed.
The book IS NOT written by a foreigner. As such, the book is not honnest. The writter has a very human but annoying tendancy to defend its own country and to advise foreigners to get themselves well integrated. A lot of the times we book is written in the "we, americans" person which makes the reader feel excluded.It is filled with common places about being sympathetic to american cultures, and picking up american qualities to better succeed.
Clearly absolutely NO notions of what culture shock is and how to deal with it....
A must NOT read unfortunately...in my humble opinion