Cross-Cultural Dialogues: 74 Brief Encounters with Cultural Difference

This is a great companion to Figuring Foreigners Out - a practical guide by Storti - 1998 copyright. I also have cultures and organizations by Hofstede - 2010 for the third edition. This book, cross-cultural dialogues, is just a collection of dialogues. The dialogues are great to read through if you already know what you are reading for. So I recommend one of the other two books to go along with this book. The Storti book is in the same format; not surprising since it was written by the same author. The Hofstede book is essentially equivalent information but a newer copyright and more of a book format. Personally, I have all three and find all of them useful. But this is a great companion to either of these books.

Good look at the ways people from different cultures interpret conversations.

Good condition for class, thanks

This book provides very will designed cultural dialogues that cross-cultural trainers can integrate into their training workshops for effective experiential and interactive learning. The dialogues in this new edition will resonate much more with a more mature audience members that have already exposure to other cultures but need to learn about the cultural nuances that undermine good communication. This edition dialogues are much more subtle and workshop participants have to really pay attention to uncover the hidden cultural clues. Therein lies the power of cultural dialogues as a teaching/learning tool. After all these years, there is nothing like these dialogues out there. it makes sense because it takes so much experience and knowledge to develop such powerful tool. Storti's approach has been honed over decades of his experience teaching thousands of people all over the world. My workshop participants love them and I can't teach a workshop without Storti's dialogues. Stop looking for other tools and get your copy of this book today.

When dealing with people overseas, the blind assumption among many Americans is that individuals from other societies possess the same value system, process information in the same way, and express themselves in the same manner as we do. This attitude, however, is almost bound to lead to hurt feelings, sour business deals, or worse. In an effort to reduce these cultural misunderstandings, Craig Storti aims to educate readers on the perils of not only inadvertantly insulting your foreign counterpart in a conversation, but of taking his or her words at face value as well. Through the study of 10 major cultures, we are able to briefly explore the psyche of such groups as Arabs, Indians, and the Japanese in order to better understand the way they see the world.The short dialogues followed by an explanation of the conversation by Storti provides for a highly effective means of discovering how very differently human beings from contrasting cultures think and communicate on an implicit level, thereby confusing your average Joe who is at a loss to understand what actually was said.Regardless of whether you wish to better understand one particular culture or to gain a broader understanding of major ethnic groups in general, you will surely benefit from this book.

As president of a cross-cultural training and consulting company, I have found this text extremely useful for providing our clients, corporate managers and executives, a quick, easy-to-read overview of the types of communication challenges that can arise in daily cross-cultural conversations. Typically, the reaction we get is "That just happened to me, but I didn't know what was going on at the time." At ERUdyne, we use the text on a regular basis. We recommend it to all our clients who are new to the global business environment, and to those who want to fine tune their skills for picking up the real message behind the words.

This book is a fun and fascinating read. Craig Storti is truly in tune with the subtleties, pitfalls and opportunities of cross-cultural dialogue. The book does not have an academic or burdensome tone; rather, it is simple to read and understand. I found it quite enjoyable, attempting to figure out (like a riddle), from each small example of a cross-cultural interaction, WHAT the "snags" or miscommunications of each scenario were. I also liked that Mr. Storti divided the book into different settings: social, workplace and business. As a student of conflict analysis and resolution, I have found (and will continue to find) this book extremely useful in my present and future work and interactions; however, anyone, from any walk of life, study, or profession should really read this book, as it would be very useful in our increasingly multi-cultural society, and our world, which is getting smaller and smaller all the time.

It may seem that Mr. Storti's book shows other world cultures - Asian, Latin, European - through an American magnifying lens. It may be so if you are an American reader. If you're not, it gives you the chance to look at your own culture through foreign eyes. This can be a rather informative and actually liberating experience. I strongly recommend it.

The book focuses mainly, but not entirely, on business situations abroad from a US perspective. For anyone in USA doing buisiness overseas it is very enlightening. A variety of cultural contexts are explored. Even if you are not doing business-oriented travel overseas, the dialogues will give you insight on how much cultural context can be imbedded into what may seem like very innocuous conversations. I'm Canadian, and the contexts are very similar to what I have experienced after travelling extensively abroad.Analyzing the cultural contexts behind the dialogues will help to inform the reader about the importance of trying to "desconstruct" conversations through different cultural lenses. So much is happening so quickly beneath the surface in these cultural interactions that it is important to be able to develop the skills to recognize a cultural miscue or faux-pas when engaging in conversations with others from different cultural backgrounds. Raising one's sensitivity to these issues will help to improve cross-cultural communication.The book is quick, easy, and enjoyable reading. I would recommend it to anyone planning to travel or work abroad.