Customer Reviews

Understanding Cultural Differences: Germans, French and Americans (Hall)

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

 

 

The authors try hard not to generalize, and use specific examples to illustrate cultural differences. I read this book while working for a company in the US that was jointly owned by a French company and a German company. Our 'bosses' were very much typical of that described in the book. I found this to be fascinating and used the information in the book to improve communications and information flow between the different groups. I would highly recommend this book to anyone working with any of these 3 cultures!

Anybody dealing with any of those three cultures in business should read this book. It is simple, handy and quite accurate. I am myself French and have been living and working in Germany for ten years now in an international environment. I also spent three years of my life in the US. The book - already ten years old - does need some up-dating as far as the political and economic situations in each of these three countries are concerned and I found a few inaccuracies in the French part (probably due to the fact that the French culture is more difficult to grasp for an American than the German one), but all in all it is a highly recommendable book. The key notions of "monochronic" and "polychronic", of "high context" and "low context" cultures are extremely useful. This is not only a book for Americans doing business with Europeans : as far as I am concerned it helped me understanding and being more patient with my American colleagues.

I read this book several years ago, in large part due to the fact that I had married a French woman and was having quite a bit of difficulty understanding the culture during my visits to France. Granted, this book largely focuses on the business aspects of the cultural divide, but I found it incredibly accurate as it relates to the culture as a whole. Especially useful was the description of a "polychronic" culture as opposed to a "monochronic" one like the U.S.
If you want to get to the root of the differences and gain an ability to work with others of France, Germany, or Japan, I highly recommend this book.

Our company has divisions in America, Germany, Spain, Brazil, and other places. We deal directly with people from all of these cultures, and sometimes we experience friction.

This is an excellent book in helping understand why those frictions exist, and how to handle them. It describes differences in our values as far as time, space, relationships, and other areas.

I have used the information in this book to help me understand both Germans, and Russians. It's been a great help.

After having read "The silent language" by Edward Hall I am very disappointed of "Understanding cultural differences". I would love to know where exactly the authors got their information from. They certainly haven't lived in any European country long enough to really get acquainted with cultural differences. The book contains so much negative information about Germany (my home country) and France (where I lived for a long time before moving to the U.S.) that has so little to do with reality that it's almost funny.
Those stereotypes in a written form are rather dangerous and hardly offer adequate preparation for anyone who plans to travel to Germany or France on business or even live there.

An interesting book, but poorly written. Observations were useful but the book is so repetitious and muddled, it was hard to stay focused on it. Most of the source material was self-referential and seemingly based on surveys done in the 1980s. Worth a read, but keep expectations in check.

The book is dated with a copyright 1987. Many things have changed since then. Fortunately for the book, culture changes quite slowly and hence the content of the book stays relvant, even though some of the references to events in the 70s and '80s require some 'grey haired' reader experience.
Having said that, it does provide usefull comparisons between the french, german and american culture. As a German living in the US (20+yrs, married to a - polychronic american) and current managerial responsibility in US and France, I find the book eye-opening in highlighting my own and the other countrie's cultural approaches. The book helped me to a better appreciation of the cultural 'stereotypes' by providing structuring framework of cultural understanding of 'time, space, context, information flow and interface'. (I do think that Hall's framework is not quite as appealing as the five 'dimensions' provided by Gert Hofstede and Gert Jan Hofstede in 'Cultures and Organizations': power distance, collectivism versus individualism, femininity vs. masculinity, uncertainty avoidance and long-term vs. short-term Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind)
Hall states,"Culture is Communication", and points out that in dealing with different cultures it is "more important to release the right responses in others than it is to send what you think are the right messages."
I find this book helpful in understanding my own constraints like punctuality (monochronic time), the focus on 'maintaining things' rather than 'using them' and the need for formal processes in decision making.
Let it be said. This book improved my marriage (of 20 years) by helping my understand the underlying cultural subtleties of everyday interaction.

Well worth and easy reading, sometimes eye-opening about your own (in my case - German) cultural biases, which are the hardest to detect and deal with.

Good short summaries of the basic differences of the three peoples. Found American profile most useful insight.

The book provides excellent guidelines for Americans to compare German cultural values and behaviors against ours, but I am not sure about the French (lack of personal experience). It is quite general but you can learn a lot if you have the will to understand German corporate cultural rules and to gain the edge in your interactions with your German counterparts. My personal observations/experience during a recent business stay in Germany seemed to have mostly agreed with the authors' points of view.

I wish it had more real-life examples and illustrations for higher practical values.

I loved reading it through and would recommend it highly.

If you have little time to read about Doing business in Europe then this book is ideal choice. Well analysed and Excellent Presentation. Worth for my money sure your's too.