Multicultural Manners: New Rules of Etiquette for a Changing Society [Paperback]

Norine Dresser (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0471118192 | ISBN-13: 978-0471118190 | Publication Date: January 30, 1996

Your friend's mother-in-law is visiting from Korea. When greeting her, do you bow, shake hands, or kiss her on both cheeks?

The meeting with his international customers is going well for the corporate president—until he gives the thumbs-up sign. Why?

You welcome your new neighbors with a bouquet of your prize-winning daffodils. Yet, your beautiful yellow blossoms are met with looks of shock and horror. Why?

Discover the answers in this incisive guide to etiquette for today's multicultural society. This informative and entertaining book gives you the understanding you need, the perfect words to say, and the correct behavior to use in a wide range of cross-cultural situations:

• The do's and don'ts of successful business and social interaction with people from different cultures
• Appropriate etiquette involving body language, food, child rearing, clothing, word choices, colors, entertaining, romance, and gift giving
• Detailed tips on avoiding embarrassment at work, in the classroom, at meals, and at weddings and funerals
• Important rules and traditions in Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant churches; in Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform synagogues; in Buddhist and Hindu temples; and more

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

"English Only" and anti-immigration folks won't like it, but readers who hope with Rodney King that we can "all just get along" will want to learn what Dresser--the Los Angeles Times' "Multicultural Manners" columnist--has to teach. We don't all speak the same language or have the same cultural assumptions; even caring, thoughtful people offend others unintentionally. Dresser's longest section--on communication--addresses a broad range of issues: body language, child-rearing practices, classroom behavior, clothing, colors, gifts, luck and supernatural forces, foodways, male-female relations, prejudice, time, and verbal expressions. Shorter chapters discuss holidays and worship and health issues in terms of specific ethnic groups and religious denominations. A longtime college ESL teacher, Dresser views her subject as a folklorist or anthropologist, seeking to inform rather than to make judgments; her style is lively and anecdotal. Given Los Angeles' demographics, Dresser focuses on more recent immigrants, particularly those from Asia and Latin America, rather than on groups that have been in the U.S. for generations. Her advice will help businesspeople, teachers, neighbors--anyone who recognizes the value of knowing about and respecting others' cultures. Mary Carroll

Review

Multicultural Manners is an etiquette book which applies equally to business and personal relationships, covering social interaction protocol among people from different cultures and covering body language, word choices, entertaining, and gift giving. Avoid problems at work and home with this important guide. -- Midwest Book Review

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Wiley (January 30, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471118192
• ISBN-13: 978-0471118190
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #771,447 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Useful, readable, accurate, respectful, September 29, 1999

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Multicultural Manners: New Rules of Etiquette for a Changing Society (Paperback)

Norine Dresser's work is an invaluable guide to helping people navigate the dangerous shoals of intercultural intersections. From the varying significance of yellow flowers through the opposing attitudes toward salt to the values of folk remedies, Dresser gives excellent and respectful advice.

Organized by clear and useful categories, the book offers interesting anecdotes to illustrate the cultural clashes sparked by apparently small things like the color of the flowers in a thank-you gift. Where I have the experience to know, I find her information accurate. She is invariably respectful of all cultures, and offers explanations of cultural beliefs which may on the surface seem irrational to our Western perceptions.

The book is written in language and style which is available to readers as young as junior high school, but there is no condescension either to the reader or the described cultures.

This is fine and valuable book, helpful to international businesspeople, school teachers, travelers, and neighbors. I recommend it to anyone who comes in contact with people from other countries, either here or abroad.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Gnerally helpful but not well organized and dismissve, March 11, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Multicultural Manners: New Rules of Etiquette for a Changing Society (Paperback)

"Multicultural Manners" was an interesting cruise through the often dauniting seas of custom and manners. Dresser provides succinct vignettes of real world cultural clashes that lend an air of reality to the many differences between peoples. Its easy to read format and small narrratives made for a quick read. I actually found myself in need of some of the information I had gleaned from the pages. The work, however, is disappointingly shallow. It fails to explore the underlying principles of cultural variations in favour of a brief glance at surface phenomena. Dresser's attitude toward non-western medicine was both uninformed and arrogantly dismissive. She would have done well to avoid the issue altogether rather than flaunt her raging ignorance before the world. All in all "Multicultural Manners" was a fun read, worth the time and investment.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Know why the elevator stops on every floor?, May 29, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Alexandria, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Multicultural Manners: New Rules of Etiquette for a Changing Society (Paperback)

For decades I thought it was because some prankster had been on just before me. All that wasted time while no one got on or off had begun to bother me. Now that I know the reason behind it, I smile. So glad to have this and other cultural differences explained. Thank you Norrine Dresser. This one's on my gift list. (Bonus (not in book): Did you know that if you ask someone who is deaf to have lunch and they give a big frown as they nod yes. that it means YES VERY MUCH! The deaf tendency to frown to emphasize has led to a lot of misunderstandings.