Customer Reviews

Intercultural Competence: Interpersonal Communication Across Cultures (4th Edition)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I have been teaching Intercultural Communication using this text (previous edition). After completing my MPhil in Intercultural Communication and being exposed to alot of texts in the field, I am still confident that this text is a very good introduction for college students. I have been teaching groups of students that are very diverse, with up to 14 different cultures at one time, and we always have fun with this book, because we are able to discuss the concepts very broadly. I still have to find a better book in its class.

This was a required text for one of my classes, so needless to say... this was something I had to read cover to cover. Since there's not much one can really say about a textbook (unless its extreme in one direction or another), I'll keep this short.

PROS:

1) Easy to read, this was great for taking notes from. The chapters had the key terms bolded & colored, so it was easy to get the definitions. Many of my college texts no longer do this, so this was a nice treat. Plus all of the topics & definitions are listed in the beginning of each chapter.
2) Good layout. The information was clearly defined & laid out in a way that went nicely from topic to topic.
3) Durable & easy to open. Seriously, you wouldn't believe how many textbooks out there can't lay flat or crumble in one semester. I purchased mine used & its obviously been through a lot of wear & tear. If you want something that you want to last a long time as a reference book or just want something that can be sold back by your students easily, this is a good one to choose.

CONS:

1) While I'm not really qualified to pass judgment on some of the things in this book, at times I didn't entirely agree with some of the concepts in this book. But like I said, I'm not a pro in this stuff yet, so I might be wrong. (One course does not a pro make.)
2) Occasionally the book would ramble on a bit, using 2-3 paragraphs to make a point that could be made in 2-3 sentences. (I'm not including examples in this.) That just irritated me a little when it came to note taking, that I'd have to glean what was pertinent & what wasn't.

Unfortunately I didn't splurge for the online code as it wasn't a requirement for my class, so I can't really say anything about that. Some of my classmates swore by it, so it sounded like it was rather helpful for them.

This book was easy to learn from, so I recommend it if you are looking for a textbook for your students. If you're a student wondering how easy this will be to learn from, rest assured that this is an easy text to learn from.

Intercultural Competence: Interpersonal Communication Across Cultures (6th Edition) A great book for learning how to avoid putting your foot in your mouth! A wealth of information on people around the world, pointing out similarities, as well as the differences. A worthy addition to the two-book series How to be a Perfect Stranger," which mainly treats the various religions and their sundry internal denominations. (Sunni vs Shiite vs Sufi; or Catholic vs Orthodox vs 300+ Protestant sects) Every family should have a copy for facilitating peaceful and harmonious living together.

My presumption is that most people getting this book are buying it for an Intercultural Communications class, so it isn't as if you can NOT buy it, but in case you were interested in what you were getting into, I will give you my two cents.

This book was overblown. The authors meandered through some pretty common sense things like some cultures are subversive and some are dominant. The concepts were silly, the writing was not neutral, but obviously biased and the material was immanently and immediately forgettable. You will probably do well in the class because it is the shallowest of textbooks, but don't look to be stimulated.

Because it was an assigned text for my intercultural communication course I needed it on time, and that's exactly what I got. The book is in great conditions and was on time; I am very pleased with this order!

The book was in great condition! I was very Please with what I received and I know that this book with be great for my class when I'm in Europe!

I needed this book for a class that was equally as pointless as this book. I did get an A in the class and I don't think I cracked the spine of this low quality reading material. Just use the internet.

Intercultural competence! What a totally inappropriate title for a book, especially when the subject matter is; view points of different cultures. Who gets to decide who is competent and who is not? Would one become competent after they read this book? People who do not agree with the authors, are they incompetent? After the initial shock of the title, I started reading this book, in fact I had to read the whole thing since it was the text book of a class that I was taking. Unfortunately the shock intensified. They define things that are not definable and they categorize things in the most reductionist and mechanistic fashion. Not only that but they don't even use English properly. They ask a question about apples and then give an answer about oranges, not realizing that the question has really no answer and should not be asked to begin with. This book is supposed to be about different points of view but there is nothing in it that would make one understand other cultures. It is all about the extremely narrow and linear point of view of the authors. They explain the simplest concepts in the most convoluted way possible but in reality the information is extremely superficial. They basically name and categorize things and consider them understood. After a few weeks our class turned into 'lets find out how wrong the authors are' class. I must admit after that it was kind of fun. When I asked my teacher as to why she chose this book, thinking perhaps I am missing something, her answer was "because it seems to be quite popular"! So now we are reading books not because of their content but because of their popularity. What a disappointment.