Overview
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
Through hundreds of revealing, provocative, and sometimes amusing first-hand accounts, Norine Dresser, the "Miss Manners" of multiculturalism for the Los Angeles Times, illustrates many of the common gaffes, social miscues, and misunderstandings that can occur between people of different cultural backgrounds, and teaches how to avoid them.