USA: A Guide to Customs and Etiquette (Culture Shock! A Survival Guide to Customs & Etiquette) [Paperback]

Esther Wanning (Author)

Book Description

Series: Culture Shock! A Survival Guide to Customs & Etiquette | Publication Date: May 1, 2003

Culture Shock! adds two new "At Your Door" city lifestyle guides and one new country guide. The release of more Revised and Expanded Culture Shock! country editions continues with thirty-one now available. With over 1.5 million copies sold worldwide, the Culture Shock! brand name is recognized as the leading reference source for international customs and etiquette.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Newly updated and redesigned in 2005! --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 264 pages
• Publisher: Graphic Arts Center Publishing Company; Expanded edition (May 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558687599
• ISBN-13: 978-1558687592
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,867,883 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 64 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Could be helpful, although much is out of date, February 28, 2002

By 

Christopher Culver - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Culture Shock, USA: A Guide to Customs and Etiquette (Paperback)

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.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It's funny to read about yourself like this..., August 4, 2001

By 

Laura Hughes "scootiebee" (Damascus, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Culture Shock, USA: A Guide to Customs and Etiquette (Paperback)

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.

22 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not a good guide, March 2, 2003

By 

R. Kramp (Parow East South Africa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Culture Shock, USA: A Guide to Customs and Etiquette (Paperback)

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.