Cross-Cultural Dialogues
- 2h 5m
- Craig Storti
- Nicholas Brealey Publishing
- 1994
How much culture lurks in common conversation? According to Craig Storti, so much that many of our most common, seemingly innocent exchanges—in social settings, on the job, in the world of business—are cultural minefields waiting to explode. These explosions—cultural misunderstandings—can cause confusion, irritation, even alienation. At the workplace and in the world of business these explosions undermine communication, threaten important relationships, and cost a great deal of time and money; away from work, they strain, even endanger, personal relations.
Cross-Cultural Dialogues is a collection of brief conversations (4-8 lines) between an American and someone from another country and culture. Short as each dialogue is, it has buried within it at least one, and usually several breaches of cultural norms which the reader is challenged to figure out. And a challenge it is: the exchanges are so brief and innocuous that even the wariest among us are sandbagged by the dialogue’s hidden subtleties.
Ten cultures are represented by the non-Americans in the dialogues: Arab/Middle Easter, British, Chinese, French, German, Hispanic, Indian, Japanese, Mediterranean/European, and Russian, and the dialogues are grouped according tot the setting in which the occur: social, workplace, and business.
Whether you’re a learner, trainer, educator, or an armchair interculturalist, you’ll enjoy solving these cultural riddles—and increase your cultural awareness in the bargain.
In this Book
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Cross-Cultural Dialogues
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The Concept
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Social Settings: Dialogues 1-17
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Social Settings—Explanatory Notes
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The Workplace: Dialogues 18-49
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The Workplace—Explanatory Notes
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The World of Business: Dialogues 50-74
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The World of Business—Explanatory Notes
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Seven Lessons
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How to Write a Dialogue
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Index of Dialogues by Country/Region
