Survival Kit for Overseas Living

Survival Kitfor

OverseasLiving

This Page Intentionally Left Blank

Survival Kitfor

OverseasLiving

FOR AMERICANS PLANNING TOLIVE AND WORK ABROAD

Fourth Edition

L. ROBERT KOHLS

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Kohls, L. RobertSurvival kit for overseas living: for Americans planning to live

and work abroad / L. Robert Kohls; with an introduction by DavidS. Hoopes.—4th ed.

p. cm.Includes bibliographical references.ISBN 1-85788-292-X1. Americans—Foreign countries—Handbooks, manuals, etc. 2.

Intercultural communication—Handbooks, manuals, etc. I. Title.

E184.2.K64 1996303.4'8273—dc20 95-23752

CIP

This edition first published by Nicholas Brealey in associationwith Intercultural Press in 2001.

Intercultural Press, Inc. Nicholas Brealey PublishingPO Box 700 3–5 Spafield StreetYarmouth, Maine 04096 USA London, EC1R 4QB, UKTel: 207-846-5168 Tel: +44-207-239-0360Fax: 207-846-5181 Fax: +44-207-239-0370www.interculturalpress.com www.nbrealey-books.com

First published by Intercultural Press in 1979

© 1979, 1984, 1996, 2001 by L. Robert Kohls

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproducedin any manner whatsoever without written permission from thepublisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in criticalarticles or reviews.

Book design and production by Patty J. TopelCover design by Ken Leeder

ISBN 1-85788-292-X

Printed in the United States of America

06 05 04 03 3 4 5 6

Substantial discounts on bulk quantities are available. Fordetails, discount information, or to request a free catalogue,please contact the publishers at the addresses given above.

To Norma, my lifelong partner in the exploration andmastery of strange lands and alien ways.


vii

Table of Contents

Preface ................................................................... ix

Introduction .......................................................... xv

1 So You’re Going Overseas ................................. 1

2 Others Have Gone Before .................................. 5

3 The Stereotyped American................................ 9

4 The Ugly American ......................................... 13

5 Primitivism Reconsidered ............................... 17

6 Culture Defined .............................................. 25

7 Comparing and Contrasting Cultures.............. 31

8 What Makes an American? .............................. 39

9 To See Ourselves ............................................ 45

10 Traveling by Objectives .................................. 51

11 On Becoming a Foreigner ............................... 55

12 A Strategy for Strangers ................................. 59

13 Know Thy Host Country ................................. 63

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Survival Kit for Overseas Living

14 Let’s Play Q and A ........................................... 69

15 Speaking of Learning the Language ................ 75

16 Getting Down to the Nitty-Gritty .................... 79

17 A Handy Guide toIntercultural Communication ......................... 83

18 Culture Shock: OccupationalHazard of Overseas Living .............................. 91

19 Responding to Culture Shock ....................... 101

20 Skills that Make a Difference ........................ 109

21 Husbands, Wives, and Children .................... 113

22 Minding Other People’s Business .................. 119

23 The Challenge .............................................. 131

Postscript 1: So You’re Coming Back Home? ........ 133

Postscript 2: Jaunts and Junkets.......................... 141

Appendices

A. The Kluckhohn Model ................................. 150

B. Information-Gathering Checklistabout Your Host Country ............................ 153

C. A Human Profile ......................................... 157

D. Logistics Checklists .................................... 159

E. Additional Resources .................................. 167

F. Template for Gathering Informationabout Doing Business in Your Country ofAssignment ................................................ 181

About the Author ................................................ 187

ix

Preface

I had not read Survival Kit for Overseas Living, origi-nally published in 1979, since the last time I revised it(1996). To my surprise, I felt it had stood the test oftime rather well, and in all humility, I felt that perhapsit might even stand up to the high praise which somein the intercultural field have given it by calling it a“classic.” I have also been encouraged by the fact that,to my knowledge at least, none of my professional col-leagues have criticized the fundamental premises onwhich the book is based. It is often easy to criticizewhen someone tries to simplify any body of profes-sional knowledge so that the layperson can understandits basic concepts and apply them in practice, as inthis case to living in another country.

These facts, plus the additional fact that Survival Kitremains the best-seller in the Intercultural Press’ stableof publications, have encouraged me to bring the bookup-to-date again. I am most appreciative of the manypeople who have told me over the past two decadeshow useful this small book was in helping them per-sonally adjust to another country and its unfamiliar

x


value system. That, after all, rather than the compli-ments of one’s professional peers, is the real test ofSurvival Kit for Overseas Living.

Although the target readership of this book was andremains the neophyte American about to experience afirst extended period living abroad, it has also been apleasant surprise to me to discover that Survival Kithas become one of the indispensable reference booksof professional interculturalists and that it is evenadopted as a textbook in university courses in inter-cultural communication.

Since this is true, I would like to address a word ortwo in this preface to my professional colleagues.

Although as Buckminster Fuller pointed out, Space-ship Earth came with no operator’s manual, the initialplan, when the world was sparsely populated, seemsto have been that the various human groups still hadenough room to allow each group to live in “its own”territory, securely separated from the others. Theycould live out their lives in comfortable isolation, re-lating only to members of family and their own clan.They had no need to communicate with neighboringstrangers, much less with people from halfway aroundthe globe.

Then the Ages of Exploration and of Colonizationbegan to change all of that, as the Western nation-statesset out to find resource-rich countries they could takeand “own”—by right of their superior firepower.

Today, the impetus for contact is somewhat differ-ent, as are the means by which it occurs. We are able totravel rapidly to and communicate immediately withthe far corners of the earth. The many advances incommunication and transportation have meant that

xi

even the remotest parts of the world have been broughtinto virtually instantaneous contact with one another.Jules Verne’s 80 days have become 80 hours, 80 min-utes, or even the 80 seconds or less that it takes for e-mail to span the continents.

We all tend to see these changes as advancements(if not as evolution), but at the same time, they haveproduced greater complexity in our lives, and they haveshifted the world into a new paradigm. The changesthey have brought about are at least as significant asthose which moved human beings from the Old StoneAge into the New Stone Age, when previously nomadicbands of hunters stopped pursuing large game andbegan to settle down, plant and raise grains, domesti-cate animals, make pottery, weave cloth, and developtheir settled communities.

The current shift is, if anything, even more dynamic,for it means that instead of each group living in safeand intentional isolation (with their major contactscoming through trade for essential items or throughwarfare), suddenly, and without much preparation, theplan has changed. We are supposed to know how tolive together in harmony and with respect for everyother group in the world.

The old habits which were developed over centuriesand which provided protection and security have sud-denly become dysfunctional. Yet they are not easy toshake, for fundamentally, this paradigm shift meansthat while it was natural in the past to develop a pref-erence for similarity as we related to people who wereso like ourselves, it has now become more natural toexperience variety and difference in our daily lives.And those who do have a preference for variety, differ-

Preface

xii


ence, and a large range of choice in their lives seem tohave a huge advantage in adapting to the constantlychanging world. It is obvious that we need to developnew skills, different ones from those which our cul-ture provided us while we were growing up. The skillsthat served our parents and our grandparents so wellno longer serve us in the same way.

The world can no longer afford the luxury of a sepa-rate space for every distinct ethnic group. In the UnitedStates, just within our own lifetimes, we have witnesseda striking evolution toward a multiethnic or multicul-tural society. We have watched as the possibilities ofcontact and interaction with the great variety of peopleswho inhabit the world have expanded in exciting ways.We have even come to realize that our homeland is aneven more special place, because it provides the worldwith one of the largest experiments ever witnessed inbringing together in one place and on such a grandscale peoples from all over the world. It is an exciting,hopeful experiment, made all the more difficult be-cause there are no models to emulate. We have had towrite our own operator’s manual.

It is not easy for people to make this kind of dra-matic mind-change—especially as we become more andmore aware that the groups inhabiting the earth are inincreasingly fierce competition for the earth’s limitedresources.

As an interculturalist, it is my sincere hope that wewill accept this latest challenge with a spirit of good-will toward all peoples. We will need all the compas-sion we can muster and a large dose of humility tomeet this, the most important challenge in our his-tory. Those who have found effective ways to express

xiii

concern for others and to work across cultural barri-ers must lead others in this essential task. We haveembarked on a revolution of sorts, where building com-munity at every level of human existence must becomeour overriding goal. This will require new ways of per-ceiving the human condition and the development ofinstitutions which will allow humanity to thrive.

Every book is written by many people, and this oneis no exception. While they do not share the title page,their imprint appears stamped clearly everywhere inthe book. Without them it would never have been pro-duced.

Revisiting one’s creation of over two decades agostirs up fond memories of human contacts that spanthree revisions of this book. It is obvious to me thatthe loving contributions from coworkers in the fieldhave left their indelible mark on the work. David S.Hoopes’ suggestions were responsible for the inclu-sion of whole chapters in the original version. When Idecided, in the second edition, to add a chapter onreturning home and encountering reverse culture shock(Postscript 1), I asked Fanchon Silberstein to draft thatchapter for me, and she did such a fine job of imitat-ing my “Time magazine style” that there was little re-writing for me to do. Similarly, in the third edition Iasked my colleague at Global Vision Group, ClaudeSchnier, to conceptualize the contents of “Jaunts andJunkets” (Postscript 2), so most of the ideas in thatportion of the book are his rather than mine.

Conversations with Danielle Rome Walker in 1979were responsible for inspiring me to sit down and writethe book in the first place. Serge Ogranovitch, ThomasWalker, and Jack Cook supported those early efforts.

Preface

xiv


David Hoopes, Peggy Pusch, George Renwick, and AlexPatico critiqued the first edition, and all of them madevaluable suggestions which greatly improved the con-tent of the book. David and Kay Hoopes, Peggy Pusch,and Toby Frank went over the third edition with a fine-toothed comb and were an inspiration through the la-borious process of rewriting it. In this fourth edition,it was Nick Brealey who suggested I write an additionalchapter to prepare the businessperson who is beingsent abroad to manage the people in the host country.In that effort, it was Judy Carl-Hendrick who carefullywent over every word of the new draft, smoothing outall of the rough spots. Most authors I know argue agreat deal with their editors and often look upon themas enemies, but I have always been grateful to minefor making the behind-the-scenes improvements forwhich I will ultimately receive all the credit. They arethe true unsung heroes of any publication.

L. Robert KohlsSan Francisco, 1995 and 2001

xv

Introduction

I am very pleased to have been associated with theproduction of this book. For years, specialists in thecross-cultural field bemoaned the fact that a book likethis did not exist. Yet none did anything about it. Ioften wondered why, until I got hold of Bob Kohls’manuscript. It then became clear that none of us hadbeen able to overcome the jargon of our profession orbreak out of the prison of our academic training. Noone was able to write a book that was substantive incontent, yet couched in the language of the layperson.

Bob Kohls has done it. Kohls has been in interna-tional and intercultural training for a long time. He’shad experience in business, education, and govern-ment. As Director of Training and Development for theUnited States Information Agency, his daily job was toconvince his colleagues that there was more to beknown about functioning abroad than they thought.Later, at the Washington International Center, he hadthe chance to apply his ideas to orientation programsfor foreign students and visitors in the United States.Since then he has had many opportunities to apply his

xvi


ideas in academia where, in addition to teaching be-ginning and advanced courses in intercultural com-munication, he also teaches international relations andinternational business courses at several universities.His workshops in intercultural awareness have beenpresented to mid- and upper-level managers in morethan seventy of America’s Fortune 500 companies.

There’s an air of the author’s knowing what he’s aboutin this book. He has a flair for capturing the right ideain the right language, for making the critical pointsstand out, for taking you step-by-step into the intrigu-ing heart of a sometimes baffling, sometimes frustrat-ing, but almost always immensely rewarding experi-ence.

But he doesn’t do it ploddingly, exhausting the readerand the subject in the process. Instead, he moves youthrough the book at high speed, stopping to ask youquestions and get you to probe your own thoughtsand feelings, then taking you on at a lively pace toexamine each successive stage of the overseas experi-ence. Especially effective and valuable is Kohls’ abilityto keep the reader focused on the practical. He doesn’tdwell on the ideas—though he makes clear the cross-cultural conceptual framework he is using. Instead, heconcentrates on the practical knowledge and skills theoverseas sojourner needs to “survive” in a strange land.

Given its pace and substance, this is a book you willget through quickly, but one you will think about andreturn to for a long, long time.

David S. Hoopes

1

1So You’re Going Overseas

It’s been decided. You’re going to accept the opportu-nity to spend some time working and living in anothercountry. You’re beginning to get ready, doing the thou-sand and one things necessary to get yourself, andperhaps your family, launched. Or maybe you’re al-ready on the plane, seat back, legs stretched out, fi-nally able to relax for a moment and let your mindwander.

You’ve probably had little time to think seriouslyabout what’s ahead, what it’s going to be like living ina “foreign” country. There are relatively few sources ofgood information about overseas living, and the per-spective of those who’ve gone before you is skewedby their own particular experiences and how they’veperceived them.

Yet, unless you’ve spent a long time in a foreign coun-try before, there are unanticipated surprises in store.The success rate of overseas adjustment among Ameri-cans is not nearly so high as it might be. If left to luck,your chances of having a really satisfying experienceliving abroad would be about one in seven.

2


But it doesn’t have to be left to luck. There are thingsyou can do. Specifically, you and your family can givesome organized thought to planning and preparingfor the experience. Many people devote most of theirenergy to the logistics of getting launched and, in fact,do leave the rest to luck. The wise person looks fur-ther ahead. There may be many unknowns or uncer-tainties, but it’s possible to lay the groundwork for aproductive time overseas. The purpose of this book isto show how it can be done.

Curiously, what people need most when they go over-seas is to understand themselves better, because whenthey go they carry with them all the “cultural baggage”they have accumulated during their lifetime. One pur-pose of this book is to help you become aware of yourcultural baggage and suggest ways in which to avoidtripping over it too often. To do so we need to askwhat it is in the American environment that has madeyou what you are and how an awareness of your Ameri-canness can provide the basis for understanding andcoping effectively with your experiences in a foreigncountry.

Over there, the environment and the culture havebeen busy shaping people into Germans, Japanese,Arabs, Chinese, Colombians, or whatever. The ques-tion is: How can you as an American direct your ef-forts toward learning, in the quickest, most cost-effec-tive manner, how to function at your optimum capac-ity in the non-American environment into which youare soon to be, quite literally, dropped?

The material presented in these pages is designedto provide answers to those questions. The ideas arestated as succinctly as possible and yet attempt to get

3

at some of the deeper issues which are central to func-tioning effectively overseas.

The book doesn’t preach. More often than not youwill be asked to think through the issues on your ownin brief, structured exercises. The book should be seenas a resource for getting you into and through an ex-perience which, like whitewater rafting, is exciting andrewarding, but which has its shoals and rapids. It’s abook you can come back to when the going gets rough.It’s a Survival Kit for Overseas Living.

So You’re Going Overseas


5

2Others Have Gone Before

You’re not the first American to leave our shores to tryyour hand at living in another country. Thousands havegone before and set the stage for your arrival.

Yes, your way has been paved—with bad impressions!All over the world people think they know all about

Americans. They’ve watched American tourists, Ameri-can films, and American TV programs. Their radiosand newspapers have blared forth sensational newsabout the United States. They’ve heard incredible sto-ries from friends and relatives who have visited theUnited States.

The result has been, at best, an incomplete view ofwhat Americans are like; at worst, a distorted one. Outof this incomplete or distorted information haveemerged stereotypes—fixed, simplified impressions ofwhat Americans are. Stereotypes are natural; they areone way people everywhere deal with things which aretoo complex to handle or about which they have inad-equate information.

Nancy Adler has said that due to the multiplicity ofimpulses that our brain is receiving as our sensory

6


receptors are being flooded with stimuli, we have nochoice but to ignore most of them in order to pay at-tention only to those few that we have learned to con-sider as most vital to our own survival. In this per-petual overload situation, stereotyping may even proveto be a useful necessity, so long as we consider ourmomentary stereotyping to be only “our best firstguess” as to the meaning and are ready and willing toabandon it the moment the evidence indicates ourguess is wrong. After all, stereotypes are not necessar-ily wrong. Some of them contain too much truth forcomfort. The problem with stereotypes, really, is thatthey prevent us from getting to the richer reality whichlies beyond them. Also, unfortunately, another truismabout stereotypes is that once formed in people’sminds, they outlive the partial truth that created themin the first place.

They are also destructive in personal encountersbecause they are unfair and because they interfere withgetting to know individuals as they really are.

You will be confronted often with stereotypes. Peoplewill judge you not on the basis of who you are and thesignals you transmit, but on the stereotypes theyformed long before they knew you existed.

How will you respond? What kinds of stereotypesdo you think you will encounter? Take a moment be-fore turning the page to jot down in the space pro-vided on the following page some of the stereotypesof Americans you think are most commonly heldabroad. Then go on and see how they compare withour list in chapter 3.

7

Others Have Gone Before

STEREOTYPES:

8


9

3The Stereotyped American

Here are some of the most commonly held stereotypesof Americans encountered in other countries.

• Optimistic

• Outgoing, friendly

• Informal

• Loud, rude, boastful, immature

• Naive

• Hardworking

• Aggressive

• Judgmental, moralistic

• Superficial

• Extravagant, wasteful

• Confident they have all the answers

• Politically naive and/or uninformed

• Ignorant of other countries

• Disrespectful of authority

• Wealthy

• Materialistic

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• Generous

• Impatient, always in a hurry

It is also widely believed that all American women arepromiscuous.

How many of the listed items are positive and howmany are negative? Go through and put a check besidethe positive ones and underline the negative ones.

Most of us would probably consider six or seven ofthe points to be positive. To Americans, being outgo-ing, friendly, and informal (to mention only a few) isconsidered good. Yet, the reserved Britisher who findshis or her seatmate on a transatlantic flight an outgo-ing, backslapping American may have a quite differ-ent opinion. Someone from a country with a very struc-tured, hierarchical social system, such as India, mayconsider our informality an affront and disrespectful.

The point is that what we think are positive valuesor admirable characteristics may not be considered soby others. What we believe to be a positive stereotypemay, in fact, be a negative one in the eyes of a personfrom another country.

Which brings us to a fundamental point: throughoutthe world there are many different ways of doingthings, most of which are intrinsically neither betternor worse than our own. They are simply different.

One thing is certain: at some point when you areoverseas, you will encounter many negative stereo-types about Americans, and there will be those whowill hold you personally responsible for them. It’s verylikely you will be called upon to answer some verypointed questions based on them.

When we asked you about how you would respondto being stereotyped, what were your thoughts? What

11

will you say in reply if someone asks you, “Why areAmericans such racists? Such imperialists? So rude?So rushed all the time?”

There are no pat answers, of course. Each personmust form his or her own unique responses. Experi-ence has shown, however, that the following threeguidelines are useful:

1. Resist becoming angry or defensive.

2. Avoid reinforcing negative stereotypes.

3. Persist in being your (sweet old) self.

If your sweet old self fits one of the stereotypes,then you’ve got a problem. Better in the beginning toavoid the stereotype and to let your real personalityemerge as you become more comfortable in the envi-ronment.

Indeed, anything you can do to help break the nega-tive stereotypes people have of Americans will con-tribute to (1) your own pleasure in the overseas expe-rience, (2) the pleasure of those who follow you, (3)the improvement of the American image abroad, and(4) world understanding perhaps a smidgen. Quite acollection of accomplishments for so small an effort.

The Duane Hanson sculpture on page 8 reminds usof several negative stereotypes that many foreignershave had of Americans. We would hope that those ste-reotypes are less true today than they were whenHanson created this sculpture. But even in 1970, thesculpture did not portray all Americans.

Now let’s look at the other side of the stereotypingcoin. All over the world there are friendly, hospitablepeople ready and eager to welcome Americans intotheir societies.

The Stereotyped American

12


What kinds of attitudes do we as a group have aboutthem and their cultures? Are we ever guilty of a littlecounterproductive stereotyping of our own?

13

4The Ugly American

The novel The Ugly American1 struck the Americans ofthe late 1950s like a thunderbolt. It came at a timewhen the nation was moving internationally into highgear. Americans were swarming about the world asnever before. Tourists, diplomats, students, scholars,technical experts, business executives, and militaryadvisers were spreading an image of Americans whichcame to be embodied in many of the negative stereo-types discussed in the previous chapter. The UglyAmerican held a mirror up before us, and it was with adistinct shock that we recognized the reflection wesaw. We were embarrassed by the behaviors and atti-tudes Americans displayed as guests in other coun-tries.

1 By William J. Lederer and Eugene Burdick (New York: Norton,Reissue, 1999). Ironically, the “Ugly American” in the book wasin reality the good guy, who was sensitive to other cultures.The term was soon turned around, however, to refer to the loud,insensitive, exploitative brand of overseas American.

14


To a significant extent because of The Ugly Ameri-can we are much more conscious today of our behav-ior overseas, particularly in our words and deeds. Westill carry with us, however, a number of deeply em-bedded attitudes which tap into our darker nature andemerge from time to time in our international contacts.

Following is a list of some of those attitudes. A num-ber are quite commonly held and may not, at firstglance, seem offensive. Others are to be found only inthe extremely narrow-minded or, indeed, in the bigot.Look the list over and check those which reflect whatyou feel is a defensible position.

1. The fact that the United States was the first na-tion to be able to place a man on the moon provesAmericans’ long-held technological superiority.

2. Foreigners coming to live in the United Statesshould give up their foreign ways and adapt tothe United States as quickly as possible.

3. Asians do many things backwards.

4. Much of the world’s population remains under-developed because they don’t take the initiativeto develop themselves.

5. English should be accepted as the universal lan-guage.

6. The Vietnamese and other Southeast Asians donot place much value on human life; to them lifeis cheap.

7. Americans have been very generous in teachingother people how to do things the right way.

8. Minority members of a population should con-form to the customs and values of the majority.

15

9. If everyone learned to do things the way we dothem, the world would be better off and peopleeverywhere would understand each other bet-ter.

10. Primitive people have not yet reached the higherstages of civilization.

Can you convert these into objective statements?For instance, you might change item 1 to “By being thefirst nation to place a man on the moon, the UnitedStates demonstrated the great emphasis which it as asociety places on technological development.” Considerthe others.

More important—as they stand, what central themeruns through all of these statements?

Look them over again carefully before reading on.State the central theme briefly in the space below.

The theme as we see it: the implicit assumption ofthe superiority of one group over another, humankind’sancient ethnocentric2 impulse. We all believe in ourheart of hearts that our race, our culture, our group isthe most important, worthy, civilized, and so forth inthe world. It’s a primordial instinct which from the be-ginning of the species has served a basic survival func-

2 Webster’s definition of ethnocentrism is “Regarding one’s ownrace or cultural group as superior to others.”

The Ugly American

16


tion by linking us to and strengthening the group fromwhich we derive our security, thus assuring the group’scontinuance.

Unfortunately it is also a destructive impulse fromwhich war, hate, oppression, and prejudice flow. Thereis little hope of ever being wholly freed from it be-cause it is a largely subconscious impulse and influ-ences our attitudes and behaviors without our beingaware of it.

But there are things we can do to control our ethno-centrism, and we will examine them one by one in thechapters that follow.

First, however, let’s take a closer look at one of theattitudes which crops up all too often as a stumblingblock to effectiveness overseas.

17

5Primitivism Reconsidered

“Primitive people have not yet reached the higher stagesof civilization.”

For anyone involved in international activities, thisis an especially insidious belief.

All of us, by virtue of our enculturation1 in Westernsociety in general, and in American society in particu-lar, have deeply embedded within us certain ideas re-garding what it means to be civilized and what it meansto be primitive.

Think, for a moment, of the dictionary definition ofthe words civilization and primitive.

We have been taught that civilization represents anadvanced state of human development, with an ex-tremely high level of achievement and sophisticationin the arts and sciences, technology, government, andsocial institutions. (To us, even our religion has longsince moved out of the morass of superstition andmagic.)

1 Enculturation is an anthropological term which refers to theprocess of being trained in the values and behaviors of one’sparent society.

18


Primitive, on the other hand, denotes a state of sim-plicity bordering on ignorance, or at least on the sim-plicity of the untutored child. That which is primitiveis rudimentary, unsophisticated, and superstitious.Primitive peoples, according to the common definition,are closer to the state of our primordial ancestors whowandered the forests on all fours looking for food andshelter.

The picture we carry in our minds looks somethinglike this:

Of course, we’re the ones who are civilized.This idea flowered in nineteenth-century Europe

when, under the influence of Darwin, theorists at-tempted to apply the concept of evolution to the de-velopment of society as a whole. One of the resultswas that Europeans at that time saw themselves as theend product and at the apex of human civilization.

This kind of thinking was graphically epitomized byLewis Morgan, a well-known anthropologist of the pe-riod, in his Pyramid of Human Development.

To accompany the pyramid, Morgan developed clearand precise definitions for each stage, from “lower sav-agery” to “higher civilization,” and then classified ev-ery known group of people within one of the stages.

This once-respected work now seems ludicrous. Itwould no longer be accepted by anthropologists any-

�Civilized

Primitive

19

where (that in itself is a sign we’ve made some ad-vances in cultural awareness!).

We know now that most societies once called primi-tive are in fact highly developed civilizations with com-plex and sophisticated social structures and culturalpatterns, each with its own peak achievements. Theyhave been judged too often, however, on their failureto encompass the technological and scientific accom-plishments of the West.

But Morgan’s basic ideas linger in our present atti-tudes toward non-Western peoples, even though manyof us have long since learned that it is not acceptableto refer to a specific country or its people as primitive,at least not to their faces. Yet the persistent problemof how we should refer politely to the people who areso different from ourselves remains.

Ethnocentrism being what it is, throughout historypeople have tended to conceptualize the outsider as

Lewis Morgan’s “Pyramid of Human Development”

Higher Civilization

Civilization

Lower Civilization

Higher Barbarism

Barbarism

Lower Barbarism

Higher Savagery

Savagery

Lower Savagery

Primitivism Reconsidered

20


some sort of lesser being than their own kin. The Chi-nese, historically and traditionally, conceived of ev-eryone outside their borders as “barbarians.” So didthe ancient Greeks. The Europeans, who thought it wasthey who discovered America, considered the peoplethey found there to be savages. A hundred years agothese words were used straightforwardly, descriptively,and without shame.

More recently, these outsiders were called uncivi-lized and primitive. Then, as we began to realize theinsults which were inherent in those terms, it becamepopular to speak of them as natives or aborigines.

Just as we began to become conscious about howwe referred to peoples of other cultures (and, espe-cially, the concepts behind the words), we becameequally uneasy about how we designated the countriesin which they lived. We called them, in turn, undevel-oped countries, underdeveloped countries, less devel-oped countries, or LDCs (without saying what the let-ters actually stood for), and then, developing coun-tries.

Undeveloped

Underdeveloped

Less Developed

Developing

��

21

In the end all these terms—even “developing”—wereconsidered disparaging and demeaning, implying theinherent superiority of developed countries and car-rying the seed of the idea that, of course, they wouldeventually aspire to becoming developed just like us.

In 1952 the French first coined the term Third Worldto indicate not two but three forms of political align-ment. The industrialized Western democracies werethe First World. The communist countries were the Sec-ond World. And those countries that chose not to alignthemselves with either the First or Second Worlds werecalled Third World. Gradually the term Third Worldbegan to take on an economic meaning instead of itsoriginal political meaning. In 1979 Time magazine wasthe first to point out that, economically speaking, thereare actually five worlds.2

In the 1990s, our concern to be politically correctcaused many people in the intercultural field and else-where to abandon the term Third World, mistakenlytaking it to imply “third best.” This created the ten-dency to substitute the politically correct but ofteninaccurate term newly industrializing economies to allof the Third-World countries, only a relative handful

2 By this expanded classification, the First and Second Worldsremained the same, while the Third World came to include coun-tries like South Korea and Taiwan which, economically, had al-most made it into the First World. The “Fourth World” becamecountries like Brazil and India, which were still far from “devel-oped,” but which had sufficient natural resources to eventuallybecome fully “developed,” or First World. The “Fifth World” wasmade up of countries like Bangladesh and Chad, which are sopoor that there is little hope that they will become First Worldin the foreseeable future.


22


of which (perhaps 20 or 25 of the 130 such countries)are actually on that road to industrialization and eco-nomic development, and it is false even to imply theirintention or desire to develop along the Western model.

Other recent attempts to devise acceptable alterna-tives to designate peoples and nations so different fromourselves include preliterate societies, preindustrialsocieties, NICs (newly industrialized countries) or NIEs(newly industrialized economies), nonaligned coun-tries, indigenous peoples, non-Western countries, non-Western peoples, host country nationals (or just na-tionals), or traditional societies.

Third-World countries or Third-World peoples areprobably the least derogatory designations currentlyin use, if only because they imply that their ways rep-resent a conscious alternative to our own and a legiti-mate choice.

All of these alternatives represent honest attemptsto deal with a problem that will not quietly go away:What do we call people who are so different from our-selves? They also point out the embarrassing fact thatthe ethnocentrism that lies behind Lewis Morgan’s pyra-mid still lurks deep within us all. We have an uncon-scious inclination to see the path our culture has takenas the normal one for all to take.

Another thing we can do to neutralize the effect ofMorgan’s ideas is to compare cultures on a coequalbasis, as in the diagram below. If we call the two cul-

23

tures X culture (instead of “civilized”) and Z culture(instead of “primitive”), we can show them withoutmaking assumptions of superiority:

Any areas of commonly held values which exist, andthere are usually many, may be diagrammed in thisway with the common features in the central diamond.

This takes us back now to our earlier question: Howdo you go about bringing your ethnocentrism undercontrol? The answer: you bring it to the surface, lookat it, and shift the emphasis from cultural inferiorityand superiority to cultural similarities and differ-ences—as we have done with our X and Z cultures.Another useful undertaking is to become acquaintedwith the nature of culture itself.



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6Culture Defined

The word culture has literally dozens of definitions—most of which will be ignored here. By culture, for in-stance, we do not mean that which characterizes theintellectually and socially “cultured” person, nor dowe refer to the arts—literature, painting, the opera,and so forth. These are valid meanings of the word,but not what is being referred to here.

Instead, we are using culture in the anthropologicalsense. For the purposes of this book here is the defini-tion we like best:

an integrated system of learned behav-ior patterns that are characteristic of themembers of any given society. Culturerefers to the total way of life of particu-lar groups of people. It includes every-thing that a group of people thinks, says,does, and makes—its systems of attitudesand feelings. Culture is learned and trans-mitted from generation to generation.

By this definition, we can see that a particular cul-ture would consist of at least the following:

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• Manners

• Customs

• Beliefs

• Ceremonies

• Rituals

• Laws (written and unwritten)

• Ideas and thought patterns

• Language

• Arts and artifacts

• Tools

• Social institutions

• Religious beliefs

• Myths and legends

• Knowledge

• Values

• Concept of self

• Morals

• Ideals

• Accepted ways of behaving

In short, culture is the total way of life of any group ofpeople.

It is obvious, therefore, that culture is woven intri-cately into the very fiber of every member of the groupand is a controlling influence in the way people live,think, speak, and behave. When these patterns of cul-ture, which are built into each of us, encounter otherand different patterns of culture (as occurs when yougo from your own culture group to live in another, forexample), conflict, dissonance, and disorientation arethe almost inevitable result.

27

Culture is central to the experience of living over-seas. The next several chapters will delve rather deeplyinto what culture is and how it affects you as an Ameri-can.

Now that we have a working definition of culture,we’re ready to make a number of generalizations whichfollow naturally one from the other.

1. By definition, to be human means to be part of aculture. It is impossible to conceive of humansoutside of culture. Humans create culture andculture shapes humans.

2. Most cultures developed separately, in isolation,thousands of years ago. The ways in which eacheventually developed were adapted and evolvedslowly and painstakingly, through trial and er-ror, by each group independently. The course ofthis evolution was based primarily on the abilityof each element in the culture to contribute tothe physical and psychological survival of thegroup.

3. The culture of any group represents an extremelycomplex and interrelated package where everyaspect is interwoven and enmeshed with all otheraspects. To change any one part of a culture in-evitably affects many other parts.

4. Every society, in developing its own culture, mustmeet the needs of the group in at least ten basicareas. The first three items on the following listare generally recognized as the necessities of life,especially important to the individual membersof the culture. If we speak of society as a whole,however, the next seven items may be seen asequally necessary to maintain culture.

Culture Defined

28


• Food

• Clothing

• Shelter

• Family organization

• Social organization

• Government

• Defense

• Arts/Crafts

• Knowledge/Science

• Religion

5. It was highly likely, indeed almost inevitable, thatdifferent groups would come up with differentsets of solutions to these ten basic needs.

6. There are no intrinsically right or wrong solu-tions, no objectively provable better or worseways of meeting these needs. There are no abso-lutes. For practical purposes, there are only dif-ferent solutions. This is a key point and a verycomplex issue. We are not advocating ethical ormoral neutrality. Approval of such practices ashead shrinking, human sacrifice, or cannibalismis not required or even recommended in orderto recognize that there is an inherent logic inevery culture. To understand different values andbehaviors, it is useful to approach them nonjudg-mentally, searching for that which is inherentlylogical rather than automatically either condemn-ing or accepting them.

7. Another key point is that every group of people—every culture—is, and has always been, ethno-centric; that is, it thinks its own solutions are

29

superior and would be recognized as superiorby any right-thinking, intelligent, logical humanbeing. It is significant that to each group, its ownview of the world appears to be the “commonsense” or “natural” view. Let’s take a brief look atAmericans and the cultural characteristic ofcleanliness by way of example. We generally con-sider ourselves among the cleanest people in theworld and are quick to criticize many other coun-tries and cultures as being dirty. Yet considerthe following:

• When Americans bathe, they soak, wash, andrinse their bodies in the same water—thoughthey would never wash their clothes anddishes that way. The Japanese, who use dif-ferent water for each of these steps, find theAmerican way of bathing hard to understand,even dirty.

• An orthodox Hindu from India considers itdirty to eat with knives, forks, and spoons in-stead of with his or her own clean fingers.

• Is it dirtier to spit and blow your nose on thestreet or to carry it around with you in a littlepiece of cloth which you keep in your pocketand reuse regularly?

• Many people around the world cannot under-stand why Americans invariably defecate inthe same room where they wash and bathe, orwhy, in so many modern American homes, thetoilet is placed so near the kitchen.

8. The process through which the accumulated cul-ture of any group is passed on to its offspring is

Culture Defined

30


called “enculturation.” Every person isenculturated into a particular culture. One couldsay that each society enculturates its own off-spring into its own “right way” of doing things.

9. People who stay strictly within their own cul-tures can go on indefinitely without ever havingto confront their ethnocentric or enculturatedselves.

10. Problems arise, however, when a person who isenculturated into one culture is suddenlydropped into another, very different culture.

It is at this point, as we mentioned earlier, that con-flict, dissonance, and disorientation set in. The com-mon term for this effect is culture shock. Everyone goingto live in a new environment will experience cultureshock in some degree. They will also be offered theopportunity to learn and grow in unique and excitingways.

We’ll talk about culture shock in more detail later.Right now, in order to provide you with a basis forboth coping with the overseas experience and exploit-ing it to the fullest for your own benefit, we need toexplore how best to interpret and analyze cultures.What you need are some tools—conceptual tools, inthis case—which will enable you to sort out the basicelements of culture and deal with them rationally andsystematically.

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7Comparing and

Contrasting Cultures

The husband and wife team of Clyde and FlorenceKluckhohn, along with fellow anthropologist FrederickStrodtbeck, have provided us with one of the neededtools. Looking at the phenomenon of culture analyti-cally and philosophically, they came up with five basicquestions that get at the root of any culture’s valuesystem, no matter how different or seemingly exotic.

1. What is the character ofinnate human nature?

2. What is the relation ofhumans to nature?

3. What is the temporalfocus (time sense) ofhuman life?

4. What is the mode ofhuman activity?

5. What is the mode ofhuman relationships?

=Human natureorientation

=Relationship tonature orientation

=Time orientation

= Activity orienta-tion

=Social orientation

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Consider for a moment the five orientations in theright-hand column. How would you describe the atti-tude of the majority of Americans toward each? Whatdo Americans think human beings are like basically?What kind of relationship do they have to nature? Whatdoes time mean to them? How important is action?What kind of relationship do they have with each other?

The chart below is an adaptation and simplificationof one developed by Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck. It in-dicates the range of possible responses to the five ori-entations. It is intended to be read horizontally, eachbox relating to one of the five orientations listed above.1

We recognize that in any culture consisting of a largenumber of people, the whole range of possible humanvalues and behaviors will probably be found, if only ina few individuals. When we talk of American or French

1 A full outline of the Kluckhohn-Strodtbeck Model is included inAppendix A.

Human Nature Mixture of Good and Evil

Basically Evil Basically Good

Relationship to Nature

Subject to Nature

Harmony with Nature

Mastery over Nature

Time Past-oriented Present-oriented

Future-oriented

Activity Being (stress on who you are)

Growing (stress on self-development)

Doing (stress on action)

Social Relationships

Authoritarian Group-oriented Individualistic

ORIENTATION BELIEFS AND BEHAVIORS

33

or Chinese values, we mean those which predominatewithin that group, those which are held by enough ofits members to make the values an evident and promi-nent part of the culture as a whole. Let’s take a look ateach of the five orientations to determine where a typi-cal middle-class American might be expected to fit.2

In respect to human nature, average, middle-class/mainstream Americans are generally optimistic, choos-ing to believe the best about a person until that per-son proves otherwise. Will Rogers, the American hu-morist, was being very American when he said, “I nevermet a man I didn’t like.” We would place the averageAmerican’s beliefs about Human Nature in the right-hand column (Basically Good). This classification ex-plains the interest Americans have in such activitiesas prison reform and social rehabilitation. Americansgenerally believe that in order to bring out the basicgoodness in human beings, all you have to do is changethe negative social conditions in which they exist.3 In-deed, deep down, Americans in general believe humansand human society are ultimately perfectible—if onlyenough effort is made in that direction.

2 Members of American minority groups would probably find theirvalues diverging in some significant respects from those dis-cussed here. If you are a member of a minority or have a strongethnic identification, attempt to identify ways in which yourvalues and behavior differ from those indicated here as char-acteristic of mainstream American culture.

3 The Kluckhohns placed Americans in the left-hand column (Ba-sically Evil), citing the Christian belief in original sin. This mayhave been an accurate reading for the 1950s, though I have mydoubts. But whether Americans see human nature as good orevil, it is certainly fair to say they accept it as changeable.

Comparing and Contrasting Cultures

34


In Relationship to Nature, Americans see a clear sepa-ration between humans and nature (this would be in-comprehensible to many Asians), and humans areclearly held to be in charge. The idea that people cancontrol their own destiny is totally alien to most of theworld’s cultures. Elsewhere people tend to believe thatthey are either (1) driven and controlled by fate andcan do very little, if anything, to influence it or (2) meantto live in Harmony with Nature. Americans, on the otherhand, have a strong drive to subdue, dominate, andcontrol their natural environment.

Concerning orientation toward Time, Americans aredominated by a belief in progress. We are Future-ori-ented. This implies a strong task, or goal, orientation.We are very conscious too that “time is money” andtherefore not to be wasted. We have an optimistic faithin the future and what the future will bring. We tend toequate change with improvement and consider a rapidrate of change as normal.

As for Activity, Americans are so Doing-oriented thatthey cannot even conceive what it would be like to beBeing-oriented. Indeed, we are hyperactive, to the de-gree that one sociologist has described the Americanas an “Electric Englishman.” We believe in keeping busyand productive at all times—even on vacation. The faithof Horatio Alger in the work ethic is very much withus. As a result of this action orientation, Americanshave become very proficient at problem solving anddecision making.

Our Social orientation is toward the importance ofthe individual and the equality of all people. Friendly,informal, outgoing, and extroverted, Americans scornrank and authority, even when they are the ones with

35

the rank and authority. American bosses are almostthe only supervisors in the world who insist on theirsubordinates calling them by their first names. We findit extremely easy to make friends, and we think thereare unlimited friendships out there just waiting to bemade. Extended family ties in America are weak due toour strong sense of individuality, especially when com-pared with the rest of the world. We have succeeded inreducing the family to its smallest possible unit—thenuclear family.

Look back at the Kluckhohn-Strodtbeck Model onpage 32. If we take the structure of compartments asshown there and fill in the areas into which the pre-dominant American values fall, we come up with a pic-ture of the American value system that looks like this:

Basically Good(changeable)

Humans the Masters of Nature

Future-oriented

Doing (stress on action)

Individualistic


American Value System

36


Now let’s look at the value systems of several othersocieties and compare them with the American.

We recognize that models of this kind are oversim-plifications and can only give approximations of real-ity. Their use is in giving rough pictures of the strikingcontrasts and differences that may be encountered insocieties where certain values predominate, eventhough these societies may be in the process of markedchange because of rapid modernization. Fundamentalvalues, however, have a way of persisting in spite ofchange. The evolution of values is a slow process, sincethey are rooted in survival needs and passed on, al-most fanatically, from generation to generation.

We see many of the world’s traditional cultures asfollows:

Mixture of Good and Evil

Basically Evil

HumansSubjugated by Nature

Past-oriented

Being (stress on who you are)

Authoritarian

Traditional Cultures’ Value System

37

Here’s how we view Arab cultures from a general-ized perspective. There would be important variations,of course, from one specific culture to another—Egyp-tian, Saudi, Lebanese, and so on. Notice that in onecategory (Relationship to Nature), Arabs seem to fallmore or less equally into two of the classifications.

Arab Value System

Here’s how we see the Japanese (a very complex cul-ture and even more “contradictory” than the Arabs):

Mixtureof Goodand Evil

HumansSubjugated by Nature

Past-oriented

Being (stress on who you are)

Authoritarian

Humans in Harmony with Nature

Mixtureof Good and Evil

Past-oriented

Authoritarian

Humans in Harmony with Nature

Future-oriented

Group-oriented

Growing Doing


Japanese Value System

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The Kluckhohn-Strodtbeck chart only shows threevariations out of an infinite variety of possibilities, andit only compares culture on five basic orientations. Itdoes not claim, therefore, to tell you everything aboutevery culture. Yet it is impressive in the differences invalues that it does reveal. In a sense, the values ex-pressed in the right-hand column can be said to be180 degrees away from the values in the left-hand col-umn.

Is it any wonder that putting Americans into cul-tures with complex and/or radically different value ori-entations sometimes causes stress, disorientation, andbreakdowns in communication?

In a very simple format, the Kluckhohn-Strodtbeckchart indicates where the problems are likely to lie.4

Plot the culture to which you are going in comparisonwith a middle-class American orientation (or to yourown orientation if it varies from the American norm).To do so may call for a little extra reading or a talkwith someone who knows the country well.

4 For a study that elaborates on the Kluckhohn-Strodtbeck Modeland includes some interesting cross-cultural comparisons, seeEdward C. Stewart and Milton J. Bennett, American Cultural Pat-terns: A Cross-Cultural Perspective (Yarmouth, ME: InterculturalPress, 1991).

For a source that explores appplications of the Kluckhohn-Strodtbeck Model, see Finding the Middle Ground: Insights andApplications of the Value Orientations Method, edited by KurtW. Russo (Yarmouth, ME: Intercultural Press, 2000).

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8What Makes an American?

The use of models, while helpful, tends to be an ab-stract, academic way of getting at the subject. Howcan we bring American values, which constitute thecore piece of cultural baggage you are taking overseaswith you, more sharply into focus?

Have you ever sat down and tried to make a list ofAmerican values? Or perhaps basic ideas held by mostAmericans? If you’re not an anthropologist or culturalhistorian, it probably won’t be easy. But since it’s rel-evant, give it a try.

Write in the space that follows as many Americanvalues or basic American ideas or beliefs as you canthink of. Wherever possible, condense them into one-or two-word phrases.

VALUES:

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How many did you get? If you have more than tenyou’re satisfied with, that’s good. There’s also anotherway to get at the concrete yet evasive values that guideour lives, a way so simple and integral to the experi-ence of growing up that you may be startled by howeasy it is to open a window on what makes us tick asAmericans.

In the space below jot down quickly as many prov-erbs, axioms, and adages as you can dredge up fromyour memory, sayings like “A watched pot never boils”or “A stitch in time saves nine.”

How many can you think of?

PROVERBS:

If your memory is deficient, don’t worry. We’ll help.But if you did get a list, go back over it before readingfurther and write down beside each proverb what valueyou think it is teaching—again in a one- or two-wordphrase.

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Cleanliness is next togodliness.

A penny saved is a pennyearned.

Time is money.

Don’t cry over spilt milk.

Waste not; want not.

Early to bed, early to rise,makes a man healthy,wealthy, and wise.

God helps those who helpthemselves.

It’s not whether you winor lose, but how youplay the game.

A man’s home is hiscastle.

No rest for the wicked(weary).

You’ve made your bed,now lie in it.

Don’t count your chickensbefore they hatch.

A bird in the hand isworth two in the bush.

The squeaky wheel getsthe grease.

Now, here is our list—the proverbs on the left andthe values they seem to be teaching on the right.

Cleanliness

Thriftiness

Time Thriftiness

Practicality

Frugality

Diligence; Work Ethic

Initiative

Good Sportsmanship

Privacy; Value of Per-sonal Property

Guilt, Work Ethic

Responsibility; Retalia-tion

Practicality

Practicality

Aggressiveness

What Makes an American?

42


Might makes right.

There’s more than oneway to skin a cat.

A stitch in time saves nine.

All that glitters is not gold.

Clothes make the man.

If at first you don’t suc-ceed, try, try again.

Take care of today andtomorrow will takecare of itself.

Laugh and the worldlaughs with you; weepand you weep alone.

Superiority of PhysicalPower

Originality; Determina-tion

Timeliness of Action

Wariness

Concern for PhysicalAppearance

Persistence; Work Ethic

Preparation for Future

Positive AttitudeOur proverbs list is by no means complete, but we

have already enumerated twenty basic American val-ues:

• Cleanliness

• Thriftiness

• Time Thriftiness

• Practicality

• Frugality

• Diligence

• Initiative

• Good Sportsmanship

• Privacy

• Work Ethic

• Responsibility

• Aggressiveness

• Physical Power

• Originality

• Timeliness of Action

• Wariness

• Physical Appearance

• Persistence

• Preparation for Fu-ture

• Positive Attitude

43

It is evidently much more potent in teaching practi-cality, for example, to say “Don’t cry over spilt milk”than “You’d better learn to be practical.” We have allheard this axiom hundreds of times, and it has madeits point.

What Makes an American?


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9To See Ourselves

“Oh wad some Power the giftie gie us/To see ourselsas ithers see us!” wrote Robert Burns. Robbie was in-spired to this thought by a louse crawling on the bon-net of a lady in the pew in front of him in church, butdown through the years we’ve gotten the message.

What Burns didn’t know is that we have had that giftall along but haven’t realized it. By lowering our de-fenses and viewing ourselves through the eyes ofpeople from other cultures—from what is called the“cross-cultural perspective”—we can get a strikinglyrefreshing view of ourselves. But we have to be readyto accept the reality of what we see, warts (or lice) andall.

We are doomed to carry our complete load of cul-tural baggage wherever we go. There will be no strip-ping down to lighten the burden or to make the tripeasier. It’s important, therefore, to know as much aspossible about what our culture has packed for us tocarry endlessly about the world.

We believe that every culture has a rough balancebetween positive and negative aspects. Therefore, to

46


point out the weaker or more negative aspects alongwith the positive in the process of examining a cultureor value system does not constitute an attack on thatculture. For me to become more aware of my culturalself in its fullest dimensions is a source of strengthbecause it reinforces my real worth rather than an eth-nocentric view of reality. To know ourselves better isto grow.

Let’s look at ourselves, then, from a cross-culturalperspective. Let’s listen to some opinions of Americansand American ways held by sensitive, observant, andessentially sympathetic foreign visitors.

In 1835 the Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville visitedAmerica and on his return to France wrote a book1 con-taining such astute observations about the new Ameri-can Republic that many are as valid today as they werethen.

Modern de Tocquevilles—from all over the world—are still intrigued by the intricacies and enigmas ofAmerican culture. Here is a selection of observationsby foreign visitors to this country.2 As you read them,take time to ask yourself in each case: (1) Is the obser-vation accurate? and (2) How would you explain thetrait in question?

1 Democracy in America is still well worth reading (London:Saunders and Otley, 1835-1840) (four volumes).

2 Examples 1–7 and example 9 are from John P. Fieg and John G.Blair, There Is a Difference (Washington, DC: Meridian Interna-tional Center, 1980); example 8 is from Anthony Scarangello,American Education through Foreign Eyes (New York: Dorman,1967); example 10 is from the film series Going International,produced by Griggs Productions, San Francisco.

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1. India

Americans seem to be in a perpetualhurry. Just watch the way they walk downthe street. They never allow themselvesthe leisure to enjoy life; there are toomany things to do.…

2. Australia

I am impressed by the fact that Ameri-can teachers never seem to stop going toschool themselves.

3. Turkey

Once we were out in a rural area in themiddle of nowhere and saw an Americancome to a stop sign. Though he could seein both directions for miles and no traf-fic was coming, he still stopped!

4. Colombia

The tendency in the U.S. to think that lifeis only work hits you in the face. Workseems to be the one type of motivation.…

5. Japan

Americans seem to feel like they have tosay something instead of having silence—even when what they say is so well knownthat it sounds stupid. They say thingsthat are so obvious. Japanese people re-alize that we have all observed thesethings so it is unnecessary to talk aboutthem.

To See Ourselves

48


6. Vietnam

Americans are handy people. They do al-most everything in the house by them-selves, from painting walls and doors toputting glass in their windows. Most ofthem showed me the pretty tables andbookshelves they made by themselves intheir spare time.

7. Iran

The first time…my [American] professortold me, “I don’t know the answer, I willhave to look it up,” I was shocked. I askedmyself, “Why is he teaching me?” In mycountry a professor would give a wronganswer rather than admit ignorance.

8. Japan

Unfortunately, I was given a bad impres-sion by some American students whospeak of their own country very poorly,especially of its foreign policy. I knew allthe foreign policy of America was notgood, but I did not want to be told so bya native. I hate people who speak badlyof their own land, even if they speak thetruth.

9. Colombia

I was surprised in the United States tofind so many young people who were notliving with their parents, although theywere not yet married. Also, I was sur-prised to see so many single people of

49

all ages living alone, eating alone, andwalking the streets alone. The UnitedStates must be the loneliest country inthe world.

10. The Netherlands

Imagine my astonishment when I wentto the supermarket and looked at eggs.You know, there are no small eggs inAmerica; they just don’t exist. They tendto be jumbo, extra large, large, or me-dium. It doesn’t matter that the mediumare little. Small eggs don’t exist [inAmerica] because, I guess, they think thatmight be bad or denigrating.

These observations are worth examining carefully.They reveal a great deal about us as Americans. Forexample, take number 7:

Most American professors take their status less seri-ously than Iranian professors do. They prefer to culti-vate informal, straightforward relationships with theirstudents, often to the point of accepting or even pro-moting virtual equality of status. This may go so far asviewing themselves as learners along with the students.

In Iran, where teachers are venerated, this attitudewould not be encountered. Students would lose respectfor teachers who behaved as American professors do.

American students, on the other hand, approve ofthe informal, equal-status behavior of their teachers.Americans in general tend to be somewhat skepticalof experts—though they depend heavily on them incrises. But they expect experts to cultivate an air ofmodesty. Those who are unafraid to admit their igno-rance gain our respect. In much of the rest of the world,

To See Ourselves

50


however, attitudes toward equality and expertise andformality and informality are quite different.

Before going on, try your hand at explaining the restof the modern “de Tocquevillisms” listed above.

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10Traveling by Objectives

It is common in management circles these days tospend a lot of time discussing and setting objectives.Yet how often do we think about setting objectives inour personal lives?

Indeed, how carefully have you examined the moti-vations which have led you to opt for the overseasassignment? It might be useful to stop for a momentand examine them again. They are very important be-cause if you are not clear as to exactly what your goalsare in going abroad, you will have no way of knowingwhether you have reached them. The result will be con-fusion, uncertainty, and the possible erosion of confi-dence in your decision to go.

Here’s a list of the objectives most common amongAmericans going abroad to live. Check those that ap-ply to you. Then put an “X” beside those that apply toyour spouse if you feel they are different from yourown. Have your spouse check the list too.

1. Advancement in job or profession

2. Challenge of the specific assignment overseas

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3. Opportunity to make more money

4. Pressure from superiors

5. Desire to expand the experience of the family

6. Desire to experience an exotic, foreign place

7. Desire to learn another language and culture

8. Desire to keep up with colleagues and friendswho have been overseas

9. Desire to get away from the fast pace of life inthe United States

10. Need for a change

11. Desire to get away from something in personalor professional life

12. Hope that the new setting will solve somethingdistressing in personal, professional, or familylife

13. Hope that foreign experience will stop the drift,uncertainty, or pointlessness in your personalor professional life and give it new direction andmeaning

14. Other

You’ve probably checked a number of motives, andthat’s okay. Plan to return to this list from time to timewhile you’re abroad to test whether the goals you’veidentified as yours are being achieved.

For the moment, however, go back over the list care-fully once more. Are there motivations on the list (orothers inside you) that you were unwilling to acknowl-edge? Almost everyone who goes abroad has mixedmotives, some of which he or she is not too comfort-able with. But if these motives are present within you,they will inevitably influence your experience. It’s bet-

53

ter to get them out on the table than to suppress them.In the open they can be managed and probably trans-formed by talking with a close friend, discussing themwith your spouse, or even getting the advice of a coun-selor. As long as you have your needs and goals clearlyand honestly stated in your own mind and can estab-lish your expectations realistically, they can do littleharm in your life overseas, even if they are less ideal-istic than you might wish them to be.

Traveling by Objectives


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11On Becoming a Foreigner

You’ve often had the experience of encountering for-eigners in the United States. Did any of them ever letdown their hair and tell you how uncomfortable theyfelt being a foreigner? If so, you probably have a senseof what those feelings are. Now the tables are turned.Suddenly, you’re the foreigner and you’ll experiencethe inevitable discomfort yourself.

This discomfort will grow as the apparent similari-ties between you and your hosts are revealed as rela-tively superficial and the deeper differences becomemore and more a factor in your daily personal and pro-fessional life.

In your own country, you are surrounded by manythings that define and reinforce your identity and role—who you are.

Symbols—like the country’s flag, which expresses ournational identity

Accoutrements of role—a briefcase, carpenter’s tools,chalk and eraser, a business suit

People—the president (of your company or country),certain quintessential Americans, a special friend

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or mentor, a local store owner, your minister orrabbi

Family—your immediate family members and the rela-tives who may stretch from coast to coast

Places you enjoy or love—a favorite restaurant, a quietpark, your office, the den in your home, a place ofamusement

Physical landmarks—a building, a street, a monument,a mountain in the distance, an ocean shore, or theold homestead

Although many of these may change—friends growapart, open fields turn into industrial parks—thosechanges occur within a context that you understandand are a part of. You belong. The fundamental pat-terns in your relationships and surroundings are gen-erally familiar and predictable.

Stop for a moment and think of the people and thingsin your life that mean the most to you, which, accord-ing to psychologists, reinforce your cultural identity.Jot them down in the space below if you wish.

IDENTITY REINFORCEMENTS:

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When we go overseas, most of these identity rein-forcements are suddenly withdrawn; they are replacedwith things and people that, at first, are all too for-eign. But what is really foreign is you.

There is an important exception to this rule—if yougo en famille, you take with you a central piece of homeidentity. Family members may serve as a core supportsystem for one another in confronting and sharing theexcitements, frustrations, problems, and rewards ofthe overseas experience.

Even with your family, however, being a foreigner isa new and, at least for a time, an uncomfortable, eventhreatening experience. It can produce a persistentsense of insecurity vibrating just below the thresholdof consciousness—something like a long-term, low-grade infection, not seriously disruptive but annoy-ingly debilitating. The best antidote is a strong senseof who you are. In the next chapter we’ll look at a fewways to neutralize the negative impact of being a for-eigner.

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12A Strategy for Strangers

One of Robert Heinlein’s science fiction novels has anintriguing title—Stranger in a Strange Land—whichcaptures the essence of the cultural experience abroad.What we’re going to offer here is a strategy for a strangerentering a strange land. If strategies work in business,war, and politics, why not in your venture overseas?

One of the first things learned in a map-reading classis to orient the map. “Orienting the map” means to getthe north indicator on the map pointing true north.The next step is to locate yourself on the map andmake sure you know in which direction you are pointed.But how?

Look ahead for a moment. Visualize yourself recentlyarrived, the settling-in process satisfactorily started.In what ways should you attempt to orient yourselfafter you are actually in-country? Here are a few sug-gestions.

1. Start with your apartment, home, office—what-ever is your spatial center—and work out fromthere in more or less concentric circles.

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a. What places are in the immediate vicinity—stores, shops, services, offices, and so forth?

b. Who inhabits the places nearby? The poor?The rich? The middle class? Are they friendly,hostile, or neutral?

c. Locate English speakers.

2. Next, explore further into the neighborhoodnearby.

a. Locate restaurants and other places wherepeople gather.

b. Locate transportation.

c. Locate government offices—the post office,the police, the U.S. embassy, administrativeoffices.

3. Begin to learn the basic names and phrases thatappear on the signs and the names of foods orservices. Learn to read the street signs. Learnthe monetary system.

4. Look for the differences. Are needs met differ-ently here from the way they are at home? Arethings organized differently? What’s the logic orcustom behind the naming of streets? Are theredifferent combinations of food or other goodsin the stores or markets? What goods are dis-played most prominently? What does that tellyou? What buildings stand out? How do you geta taxi? Pay on a bus? There is bound to be some-thing vital to you that seems to be totally miss-ing. Does this society ignore a basic human need?Don’t panic. The need is probably met in a dif-ferent way from what you’re used to.

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5. Talk to people. Identify friendly English speak-ers and develop an acquaintanceship. Don’t beafraid to ask questions. Most people are very anx-ious to tell foreigners about their country. Gosystematically into different stores and officesand strike up conversations with anyone whowill talk with you. (See the next chapter, “KnowThy Host Country,” for subjects to cover.)

6. Accept the help of other Americans, but.… Youwill almost certainly encounter other Americansvirtually the minute you arrive. You may havefriends anxiously awaiting your plane. All to thegood. Other Americans can provide you muchinformation quickly. Other Americans andfriendly host nationals, in fact, can help makeyour transition into the new society smootherthan it might otherwise be.

But it is important to remember that living in an-other country stirs up complex emotions and re-sponses. Each person’s reactions are very nearlyunique. Yours will be too. It is therefore important notto let your perception of your host country be filteredtoo much through the eyes and experience of otherAmericans. Accept their help and friendship, but bewary of their opinions, especially if they focus exces-sively on the alleged shortcomings of their hosts. Inshort, gather information only from Americans whohave a basically healthy and positive attitude towardthe country and its people. You don’t need otherpeople’s worn-out prejudices and stereotypes.

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13Know Thy Host Country

Your strategy will, of course, work perfectly. You willsoon be settled in. You’ll have a whole network of sourcesof information or, at least, willing conversationalists.You’ll be partying with friends, exploring fascinatingout-of-the-way places, and accomplishing great thingsat the office (if you’re the jobholder in the family).

All you have to do now is sit back and enjoy, right?Wrong. It just isn’t that easy. You have to put muchmore into it if you’re going to get out of your overseasexperience all that you can. Indeed, as with most things,you will derive from it a value more or less equal tothe time, involvement, and commitment you put intoit. But the effort will be worth it. Learning about a newcountry on site is a rewarding pursuit.

Of course, you will never feel you know all there isto know about the country. At first you’ll feel desper-ately ignorant. To speed up the process you shouldconsider adopting some sort of plan, like the one sug-gested below. Before going on, however, let’s considerwhere to gather your information.

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Before You GoThere are friends and acquaintances who have beenthere and nationals of the country living in or visitingthe United States. Your city or town may have an inter-national hospitality center through which you can meetforeign visitors. The country’s embassy (in Washing-ton, D.C.) will usually be helpful. Certainly its touristoffice (normally in New York City) will be. If there is acollege or university near you, there is bound to be atleast one professor who has studied the country andwould be flattered to have his or her expertise calledupon. And there may be a few students from the coun-try who would be willing to talk with you or even visityour home.

After You ArriveOf course you’ll develop your network and your friends.In addition, there are in most countries all kinds ofinformation available for tourists, some of it quite sub-stantive. If you’re in a large city, there will probably bea bookstore stocking books in English—with a goodsupply covering the host country and culture. Gobrowse. Look for magazines and newspapers edited inthe country but printed in English. If you read the lan-guage, of course, a wealth of material will be availableto you.

The best means of gathering information frompeople—whether they are Americans or host nation-als—is to ask questions. Talk with people every chanceyou get, and don’t hesitate to ask the questions forwhich you need answers.

It is disheartening to discover how little really ad-equate information is available in print about many of

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the countries and cultures around the world. If yourcountry or destination is among them, take heart. It’smore fun and educationally more sound to do it your-self. You’ll be discovering what you need to know fromthe best possible source—the people who are there—and you may even be able to write the guidebook thatwill help those who follow you.

But that can wait. First you have to collect the infor-mation that’s useful to you. There are at least nineimportant information-gathering areas.

1. History. Look for something brief unless you’re ahistory nut. Don’t get bogged down in a heavytome that would put an insomniac to sleep.

2. Basic factual information. Find out about natu-ral resources, family organization, religion, art,political structure, and so forth. Appendix B in-cludes a list of such subject areas.

3. A human profile. Develop a profile of an averagehost national the way we have done, in the courseof this book, of an average mainstream Ameri-can.

For only a handful of countries is a really goodprofile already prepared and packaged. Yet theprofile is the most useful of these devices forgetting to know the host country because it con-tains the “people facts.”

You will probably have to experiment to findthe best way to make up the profile, and it maytake quite a while and a lot of digging. One ap-proach is through the “Grandparent Exercise.”Assume you are a grandparent in the host coun-try. Then ask yourself what you would tell yourgrandchildren about the values, behaviors, and

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basic social processes of your country. Suggestedtopics for this exercise are listed in Appendix C.

4. Specific dos and don’ts for the stranger. As youknow, each culture has its own set of manners,expected behaviors, and unspoken rules. Findout what they are before going or as soon aspossible after arriving.

5. Present-day problems and current national af-fairs. This kind of information is necessary foran intelligent understanding of what’s going onaround you. Learning about current affairs is oneof the best ways to get a sense of how peopleevaluate events from different viewpoints andperspectives. In this process, collect your dataand remember to withhold judgment until you’resure you understand what everything means.

6. Problems you as an American are likely to en-counter. These are problems that are going toarise primarily out of what you bring with you,your cultural baggage. Neither you nor the hostculture is to blame, however. You need particu-larly objective information to begin to solve theseproblems. Here again, other Americans are prob-ably a good source for both the information andthe solutions. But beware of emotion-laden bi-ases.

Your best bet will be Americans who are es-sentially sympathetic to, yet able to be objectiveabout, the country. Don’t listen to those whomake judgments about the host culture accord-ing to its deviation from American standards.

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7. How to meet your logistical needs. American in-formants can help here too, though much per-sonal exploration will probably be necessary.Some resources are listed in Appendix E, andchecklists of needed information appear in Ap-pendix D. (These checklists are by no means ex-haustive, but they will get you started.)

8. Principal sights, monuments, and scenic areas.There is a high correlation between those for-eigners who function at their best overseas andthose with the keenest interest in exploring thecountry to which they are assigned. A nationalof the country will probably be your best resourcein this venture. Why not invite him or her alongas a guide-companion?

9. The nation’s heroes and heroines. As Americans,we might expect someone who had come to livein the United States to know about George Wash-ington or Abraham Lincoln (although we prob-ably wouldn’t ask). Familiarity with your hosts’myths, history, and famous men and women willendear you to them. This is the kind of name-dropping nobody minds.

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14Let’s Play Q and A

Here is a list of basic questions1 about your host coun-try and culture. It is not intended to be an inclusivelist. Many more questions will be suggested as youattempt to answer these. Nevertheless, when you havethe answers to the following, you may consider your-self well beyond the beginner stage.

Go through the list now and write down the answersto as many as you can. Return to the list periodically,both as a guide and as a check on the progress of yourquest for information.

1. What kind of government does your host coun-try have? Can you name people prominent in thecountry’s affairs (politics, athletics, religion, thearts, etc.)?

1 Adapted from a list developed by Joan Wilson, Foreign ServiceInstitute, U.S. Department of State. Another guide to what ques-tions to ask when learning about another country and culture“on site” is Bryan Grey, Ken Darrow, Dan Morrow, and BradPalmquist, Transcultural Study Guide (Stanford, CA: Volunteersin Asia, 1975).

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2. Who are the country’s national heroes and hero-ines? Can you recognize the national anthem?

3. What is your host country’s attitude toward trash?The environment? Conservation of resources?

4. Are other languages spoken besides the domi-nant language? What are the social and politicalimplications of language usage?

5. What is the predominant religion? Is it a statereligion? Are they tolerant of other religions?Have you read any of its sacred writings?

6. What are the most important religious obser-vances and ceremonies? How regularly do peopleparticipate in them?

7. How are animals treated? Are they householdpets? Which animals are household pets?

8. What are the most common forms of marriageceremonies and celebrations?

9. What is the attitude toward divorce? Extramari-tal relations? Plural marriage?

10. What is the attitude toward gambling? Towarddrinking? Toward drugs?

11. Do women work outside the home? In profes-sional jobs?

12. Is the price asked for merchandise fixed, or arecustomers expected to bargain? How is the bar-gaining conducted?

13. If, as a customer, you touch or handle merchan-dise for sale, will the storekeeper think you areknowledgeable? Inconsiderate? Within yourrights? Completely outside your rights? Other?

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14. How do people organize their daily activities?What is the normal meal schedule? Is there a day-time rest period? What is the customary time forvisiting friends?

15. What foods are most popular, and how are theyprepared? Who sits down together for meals?Who is served first?

16. What things are taboo in this society?

17. What is the usual dress for women? For men?Are slacks and/or shorts worn? If so, on whatoccasions? Do teenagers wear jeans?

18. Are there special privileges of age and/or gen-der? What kinds of group social activities arethere? Are they divided by gender?

19. If you are invited to dinner, should you arriveearly? On time? Late? If late, how late? Is beingon time an important consideration in keepingdoctor’s appointments? Business appointments?

20. On what occasions would you present (or accept)gifts from people in the country? What kinds ofgifts would you exchange?

21. Do some flowers have a particular significance?

22. How do people greet one another? Shake hands?Embrace or kiss? How do they take leave of oneanother? What does any variation from the usualgreeting or leave-taking signify?

23. Can women vote? Travel alone? Drive a car?

24. What are the important holidays? How is eachobserved?

25. What are the favorite leisure and recreationalactivities of adults? Children? Teenagers? Are

Let’s Play Q and A

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men and women separated in these activities?Where are these activities held?

26. What is the attitude toward adoption? Beggars?The homeless?

27. What kinds of television programs are shown?What social purposes do they serve?

28. What is the normal work schedule? Is it impor-tant to be on time?

29. How will your financial position and living con-ditions compare with those of the majority ofpeople living in this country?

30. How are children disciplined at home? At school?Are they catered to?

31. Are children usually present at social occasions?At ceremonial occasions? If they are not present,how are they cared for in the absence of theirparents?

32. How does this society observe children’s “com-ing of age”? Are boys preferred over girls?

33. What kind of local public transportation is avail-able? Do all classes of people use it?

34. Who has the right of way in traffic? Vehicles?Animals? Pedestrians?

35. Is military training compulsory?

36. Are the largest newspapers generally friendly intheir attitude toward the United States?

37. What is the history of the relationship betweenthis country and the United States?

38. How many people have emigrated from thiscountry to the United States? To other countries?Are many doing so at present?

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39. Are there many American expatriates living inthis country? Where do they live?

40. What kinds of health services are available?Where are they located?

41. What are the common home remedies for minorailments? Where can medicines be purchased?

42. Is education free? Compulsory? Are girls encour-aged to attend high school? College?

43. In schools are children segregated by race? Bycaste? By class? By gender?

44. What kinds of schools are considered best? Pub-lic? Private? Parochial?

45. In schools how important is learning by rote?

46. Where are the important universities of the coun-try? If university education is sought abroad, towhat countries and universities do students go?

47. Is there a strong belief in fate?

Let’s Play Q and A


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15Speaking of Learning

the Language

Many people faced with a new assignment overseasvow, in a state of high anticipation, that they’ll notonly go and explore this faraway and exotic land, butthat they’ll learn the language as well. They will getthe books and start tomorrow. For many, though, thattomorrow never comes. A smattering of phrases is allthat results from the good intentions and howevermany months or years spent abroad.

Many people judge themselves too harshly when theyfail to learn the language. The resulting guilt, however,probably does more harm than the failure itself. Thereare a number of reasons why people don’t learn thelanguage of their host country. One is that, particu-larly for an adult, learning another language fromscratch is just plain hard; for some, agony. It takestime and effort and leaves you open to embarrassment,if not humiliation. It’s a forbidding prospect to manypeople.

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What about you? Should you try to learn the lan-guage of your new country? That’s a question only youcan answer, but it’s one you should face squarely.

If English is widely used or if your work setting orliving environment is an English-speaking one, you canprobably manage without the language. But if you’regoing to countries like Libya or Uruguay or Indonesia,where little English is spoken, it’s another matter.

Having just given you permission not to feel guiltyif you fail to learn the local language, we would like tobadger you a little about the value of doing so. Althoughlearning another language as an adult may be one ofthe most difficult tasks you’ve ever undertaken, it willbe worth every ounce of effort it takes. There is a highcorrelation between those who learn the language andthose who adjust best to, and function most effectivelyin, the country.

The ability to speak just a few phrases expressingthe common courtesies to the people you are livingamong says a great deal. In fact it speaks volumes;above all, “I respect you and your culture and I’m do-ing my best to learn all I can about it.”

Americans should take no pride in the fact that theyhave a poor reputation as foreign language learners.Most people born in the United States are monolin-gual, and many have the attitude, “If they want to speakto me, let them learn English.” Fortunately for us, En-glish is the most widely spoken second language inthe world, but that’s a poor substitute for being able totalk to a person in his/her native tongue.

Actually, Americans have a rich linguistic back-ground, brought with them as immigrants. Many havegrown up in bilingual homes, speaking two languages

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from childhood. But this richness of experience hasdeclined as the country strove to assimilate immigrantfamilies into the English-speaking society. We now re-alize that the child who learns two (or more) languagesfrom early childhood is fortunate. Even in the busi-ness world, Americans are recognizing that the com-pany representative who is fluent in both English andthe language of the country of assignment, all else be-ing equal, is worth far more than the one who mustmake do with English only. There is even an aphorismfrequently heard in the corporate world: “If you’re go-ing to buy, you can do it in your own language. If youwant to sell, you’d better do it in the local language.”

Once you’ve decided to make the commitment, don’thold back. Put the effort into it that is needed. Also beassured that anything you learn will be of value, evenif it never comes easy. Words, phrases, fragments ofsentences—understood or spoken—open windows onthe society, revealing the richness that lies within anyculture. Don’t worry about what the host nationals thinkof your modest, fumbling efforts. Most will be de-lighted.

Every language has words and phrases that cannotbe readily translated, only explained. Such phrases arecarriers of culture because they represent special waysa culture has developed to view some aspect of hu-man existence. Through language people classify theworld around them. Finding out how one group ofpeople, one culture, makes those classifications is oneof the most enjoyable and rewarding aspects of livingoverseas. It would be sad to miss these through anunwillingness to take at least a stab at learning thelanguage.

Speaking of Learning the Language

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A number of books have been written precisely toassist in making the language-learning process morecomprehensible and easier to manage. Look them upand spend a few hours browsing.1

1 Some of the best are Donald N. Larson and William A. Smalley,Becoming Bilingual: A Guide to Language Learning (Lanham,MD: University Press of America, 1984); Thomas and ElizabethBrewster, Language Acquisition Made Practical: Field Methodsfor Language Learning (Colorado Springs, CO: Lingua House,1976); and Terry Marshall, The Whole World Guide to LanguageLearning (Yarmouth, ME: Intercultural Press, 1990).

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16Getting Down to the

Nitty-Gritty

Now it’s time to get down to the nitty-gritty, to askwhat it is that really bothers Americans about living ina foreign country and what it is that most bothers hostnationals about working closely with Americans.

What Bothers Americans?At an institute on intercultural communication held atStanford University some years ago, a group of experi-enced cross-cultural specialists brainstormed the firstquestion and came up with the following:

• Language barriers

• Lack of mobility

• Indirectness

• Formality, protocol, rank

• The slow pace of life

• Lack of conveniences

• Social customs and expectations


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• Alcohol and drug problems

• Family problems

• Health problems

• Emotional instability

Many of these problems are obvious or have beentouched upon earlier and need no further comment.Several, however, deserve an additional word or two.

Lack of mobility

In societies with tighter controls over political activityand movement within the country, Americans oftenget a feeling of imposed isolation. In some countriesthere may be severe restrictions on freedom of move-ment for women or for teenagers. Many non-Westerncountries have radically different concepts of the waymales and females should behave toward each otherin public. Frustration may result if basic transporta-tion services are inadequate.

In some instances psychological immobility may befelt, especially in countries where the freedom to dis-cuss issues openly, to engage in lively political discus-sions, or to argue your opinions in a friendly way withthe nationals is restricted. All of these can have theeffect of making an American feel unduly hemmed in.

Indirectness

In some cultures American directness is a source ofirritation. In some societies confrontations are avoidedat all costs. This can confuse and trouble an outspo-ken American.

Sense of time and pace of life

For action-oriented Americans it is not easy to adjust

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to a slower pace. Nor do they appreciate putting upwith red tape, bureaucratic delays, and missed appoint-ments.

Lack of conveniences

These will include many luxuries which you may havecome to expect as necessary for the full enjoyment oflife: your favorite TV programs and sports events, ad-equate heating or air conditioning, pure water rightfrom the tap, special foods, modern appliances, etcetera.

Just remember, it’s a trade-off. For everything youare forced to give up, you will be able to discover, ifyou’re open to it, some new dimension of life you havenot experienced before. For example, you may have togive up some familiar convenience to work in Brazil,but it will be more than compensated for by the lessonin “loosening up” which Brazil has to teach you.

Alcohol and drug problems

Under the stresses of life in a new environment, somepeople turn to drink. When it becomes excessive, coun-seling and closer attention to the psychological im-pact of the cross-cultural experience are called for. Atthis point culture shock is transformed from a minorailment to a major sickness.

The easy availability of drugs and the harsh druglaws in some countries have created explosive situa-tions for teenagers, who are at a vulnerable age any-way. Most families do well overseas but, given the natu-ral stresses, the family unit can become a tinderboxdemanding careful attention to see that the needs ofall its members are met.

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Family problems

Marital and other family problems which existed priorto departure will rarely improve under the strains ofoverseas living. Indeed, they will almost certainly getworse. Even the most stable of families can expect newstresses. Solve your marital and family problems be-fore you leave home.

What Bothers Host Nationals?Now to the second question: What is it that most both-ers host nationals about working with Americans?Here’s a list gathered from a variety of sources overthe years:

1. Americans expect to accomplish more in the lo-cal environment than is reasonable.

2. They are insensitive to local customs and cul-tural norms.

3. They resist working through normal administra-tive channels.

4. They often take credit for joint efforts.

5. They think they have all the right answers.

6. They are too abrupt and task-oriented; insensi-tive to the feelings of others.

It may sound harsh, but it’s the way Americans toooften have been perceived. It’s the stuff of stereotypeswhich only you and others like you can sweep away.

In the months ahead, return to this checklist occa-sionally. Cultural behaviors are so ingrained and sodifficult to recognize in ourselves that we need waysof periodically testing whether or not we’re still on theright track.

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17A Handy Guide to

Intercultural Communication

We’re not trying to develop experts in interculturalcommunication. It’s a hard skill to master completely.Also, it will come to you little by little. By the timeyou’re ready to return home, if you’ve had your anten-nae out, you’ll be a pretty good handyman orhandywoman at communicating across cultures.

What we can do is introduce you to some of the pro-cesses and alert you to the basic dynamics of intercul-tural communication.1

1 The best general books currently available on intercultural com-munication are: Larry A. Samovar and Richard E. Porter, Com-munication between Cultures (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2000);Larry A. Samovar and Richard E. Porter, eds., Intercultural Com-munication: A Reader (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2000); GaryWeaver, Culture, Communication and Conflict, rev. 2d ed. (OldTappan, NJ: Pearson, 2000); Richard W. Brislin, UnderstandingCulture’s Influence on Behavior (Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Col-lege, 2000); Richard W. Brislin, Kenneth Cushner, Craig Cherrie,and Mahealani Yong, Intercultural Interactions: A Practical Guide(Beverly Hills, CA: Sage, 1986).


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When you’re talking to someone, how often are youaware of the process of communication that is takingplace? If you’re like most of us, virtually never (unlessit breaks down!). Why not? One reason is that we havebeen doing it for so long and because it seems so simpleand natural. But there’s another reason. Communica-tion takes place in the medium of one’s culture, whichfacilitates and reinforces it but also hides it. It’s likeone of those pictures in children’s fun books wherefigures of animals are hidden in a scene and the kidshave to find them. Communication is buried in ourown cultural scene and is difficult to extract and lookat.

Not so abroad. Communication becomes a major is-sue. We stumble over it continuously—even if we havelearned the language. That’s because not only do lan-guages vary from country to country, but so do com-munication styles and, especially, codes of nonverbalcommunication (more on that in a moment). Also,words don’t always translate from one language toanother as precisely as we would like.

Perception is at the heart of intercultural communi-cation. Down deep, we assume that under normal cir-cumstances we all think about and perceive the worldin basically the same way and, therefore, that what-ever I say will mean the same to you as it does to me.

Fair assumption? Of course not. We misperceive,misinterpret, and misunderstand each other all thetime, even when we share many values, attitudes, be-liefs, and ways of doing, being, and thinking.

Doesn’t it stand to reason that there are going to begreater possibilities of misperceiving and misunder-standing when in a foreign country? It does indeed.

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Look at the illustration below. If there are peoplewith you, let them look at it too. Study it for a momentand then go on to the questions on the following page.

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1. What do you see?

2. If there are others with you, what do they see?

3. Do you and the others see something different?

You probably saw a woman. If you were a young manabout town would you be interested in getting a datewith her? Did you by any chance see more than onewoman? If not, go back and look again. Study the pic-ture carefully. Talk about it with someone else if pos-sible.

Shown in the picture are the heads and shoulders ofboth an old woman and a young woman, though nor-mally you can only see one at a time. For some people,seeing both women even in sequence is very difficult.

Which brings us to

Point 1

Our perceptions play tricks on us. Even though we knowintellectually that this is true, in our everyday lives weassume an objectivity and a reliability that is not borneout by events. Things are not always as they seem.

Research on responses to this picture has turned upsomething else interesting: that young people usuallysee the young woman and older people see the oldwoman.

Which brings us to

Point 2

We are selective in what we perceive (psychologists callit “selective perception”). In fact, most of what we areseeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, or feeling at anymoment is screened out by our conscious minds. Wetend to perceive consciously only that which is impor-tant to us.

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But what, for the most part, determines what it isthat we consider important? It is our enculturation,our cultural training. This culturally determined per-ceptual set is the great steamer trunk in the culturalbaggage we haul abroad with us.

When the picture of the two women (sometimescalled “The Ambiguous Lady”) is shown to a group ofpeople, those who can’t see both women are subjectedto much good-natured teasing and joking and end upfeeling a little stupid.

Which brings us to

Point 3

When you’re in a situation (your host culture, for in-stance) where everyone perceives something in waysyou don’t, you feel stupid, which can be pretty depress-ing. Antidote: get comfortable with feeling a little stu-pid when you’re overseas. It happens to everyone. You’lleventually find out what’s going on, and in the mean-time you’ll save a lot of useless anguish.

Is there anything you can do (being a good, action-oriented American) to get yourself ready to charm yourhosts abroad with intercultural communication skills?There certainly is.

Find an acquaintance who is willing to carry on anexperimental conversation with you—a neighbor, anoffice colleague, or perhaps a stranger on the plane; itshouldn’t be a family member or a close friend. Hereare the rules of the experiment.

1. Pick a subject of some importance to you (a po-litical issue, juvenile delinquency, stock marketinvestments, sex, taxes, etc.).



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2. Discuss it for two minutes without interruptionwhile your partner listens.

3. At the end of the two minutes ask your partnerto summarize as accurately as possible what yousaid.

4. If the summary is inaccurate in any way, correctit and ask your partner to resummarize it.

5. Continue this until your partner has repeatedyour meaning exactly.

6. Reverse the roles and repeat the exercise.

What does this experiment prove? Mainly, that it is hardto listen well. Too simple? Not at all.

Listening is something of an art. A high percentageof miscommunication occurs because the listener ei-ther isn’t listening or is listening to the words, not themeaning. The question of effective listening (or “ac-tive” listening, as it is sometimes called) becomes criti-cal when talking with people from other cultures.

When you are in your own culture there are dozensof little cues which help convey meaning—gestures,facial expressions, body motions (body language), eyecontact, voice inflection—all of which in the speakeroccur automatically and are interpreted immediatelyby the listener without conscious thought. We’ve alllearned, for example, that “catching the person’s eye”is important in some situations. In similar situationsabroad, direct eye contact may be considered impoliteor disrespectful. It may, however, be entirely correctin a different context, and that may seem strange toyou.

Overseas, many if not most of these nonverbal meth-ods of elaborating and reinforcing the meaning of a

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verbal message are different, sometimes very differ-ent. Combine this with the fact that the meaning mustbe interpreted from a different cultural perspective andyou have the obvious proposition:

Overseas you have to listen two or threetimes as hard to people in order to findout what they really mean.

There’s another way to help you get at real meaningwhen you’re abroad. This one’s basically easy, but willtake some courage.

Ask the person you’re talking with what he or shemeans. Another oversimplification? We don’t think so.If you want the technical term, it’s called “perceptionchecking.” The way to find out if you’ve got somethingstraight—if you’ve “perceived” it accurately—is to checkit out, to ask if something meant what you thought itdid.

It takes courage because overseas you may feel stu-pid or embarrassed to do so. The challenge is to find away to check your perceptions which does not makeyou feel uncomfortable and which is not offensive toyour hosts.

One of the reasons we give all this attention to com-munication is because it is central to building cross-cultural relationships. And building relationships withhost nationals is, in many respects, what it’s all about.

Much of your effectiveness on the job and satisfac-tion in the overseas living experience will depend onhow well you build working and social relationshipswith host nationals.

Skillful intercultural communication is a medium forfinding out what expectations your hosts have of youand for getting across your expectations of them. It is



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a means of creating trust and communicating your sin-cerity and goodwill. It is a method of anticipating prob-lems and solving those which arise. It is a channel forreaching out and establishing links with people.

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18Culture Shock: Occupational

Hazard of Overseas Living

In preparing for the big move, you’ve probably had—or will soon have—all the vaccinations, inoculations,and shots required. These will keep you safe from thedreaded diseases that can still be found in some partsof the world.

There is no vaccination, however, for one conditionyou are likely to encounter—culture shock. In all prob-ability, the doctor who gave you your other shotswouldn’t even have been able to talk intelligently aboutit.

Culture shock is the term used to describe the morepronounced reactions to the psychological disorienta-tion most people experience when they move for anextended period of time into a culture markedly dif-ferent from their own. Today, nearly everyone has atleast heard the phrase “culture shock.” This was nottrue when the first edition of this book was published.Well-read people who have never ventured out of theirown country are now as aware of the term as the mostexperienced world travelers. There remains, however,


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a great deal of confusion regarding just exactly what itis, why it happens, and how to get yourself safelythrough it. This chapter and the next address the finepoints of this experience and will hopefully move youfrom thinking of culture shock as a kind of illness—which is the most common perception of it—to seeingit as a learning opportunity and a natural occurrencein the process of adjusting to a culture that is differ-ent from your own. Culture shock can cause intensediscomfort, often accompanied by hyperirritability, bit-terness, resentment, homesickness, and depression.In some cases distinct physical symptoms of psycho-somatic illness occur.

For some people the bout with culture shock is briefand hardly noticeable. These are usually people whosepersonalities provide them with a kind of natural im-munity. For most of us, however, culture shock is some-thing we’ll have to deal with over a period of at leastseveral months, possibly a year or longer.

In a sense, culture shock is the occupational hazardof overseas living through which one has to be willingto go in order to have the pleasures of experiencingother countries and cultures in depth. All of us haveknown frustration at one time or another. Althoughrelated and similar in emotional content, culture shockis different from frustration. Frustration is always trace-able to a specific action or cause and goes away whenthe situation is remedied or the cause is removed.

Some of the common causes of frustration are

• the ambiguity of a particular situation,

• the actual situation not matching preconceivedideas of what it would be like,

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• unrealistic goals,

• not being able to see results because of the enor-mity of the need, the nature of the work, or theshortness of time of one’s involvement, and

• using the wrong methods to achieve objectives(i.e., methods that are inappropriate to the newculture).

Frustration may be uncomfortable, but it is generallyshort-lived compared with culture shock.

Culture shock has two quite distinctive features:

1. It does not result from a specific event or seriesof events. It comes instead from the experienceof encountering ways of doing, organizing, per-ceiving, or valuing things that are radically dif-ferent from yours and which threaten your ba-sic, unconscious belief that your enculturatedcustoms, assumptions, values, and behaviors are“right.”

2. It does not strike suddenly or have a single prin-cipal cause. Instead it is cumulative. It builds upslowly, from a series of small events which aredifficult to identify.

Culture shock comes from

1. being cut off from the cultural cues and knownpatterns with which you are familiar—especiallythe subtle, indirect ways you normally have ofexpressing feelings; all the nuances and shadesof meaning that you understand instinctively anduse to make your life comprehensible are sud-denly taken from you;

2. living and/or working over an extended periodof time in a situation that is ambiguous;

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3. having your own values (which you had hereto-fore considered as absolutes) brought into ques-tion, which yanks your moral rug out from un-der you; and

4. being continually put into a position in whichyou are expected to function with maximum skilland speed but where the rules have not beenadequately explained.

Regarding being cut off from your own cultural cues,Kalvero Oberg, the man first credited with diagnosingculture shock, says,

These signs and clues include the thou-sand and one ways in which we orientourselves to the situations of daily life:when to shake hands and what to saywhen we meet people, when and how togive tips, how to give orders to servants,how to make purchases, when to acceptand when to refuse invitations, when totake statements seriously and whennot.…1

These are just a few examples, but they show how per-vasive is the disorientation out of which culture shockemerges.

The Progressive Stages of Culture ShockAs indicated above, culture shock progresses slowly.One’s first reaction to different ways of doing thingsmay be, “How quaint!” When it becomes clear that thedifferences are not simply quaint, an effort is frequently

1 Kalvero Oberg, “Cultural Shock: Adjustment to New CulturalEnvironments,” Practical Anthropology 7 (1960): 177–82.

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made to dismiss them by pointing out the fundamen-tal sameness of human nature. After all, people are re-ally basically the same under the skin, aren’t they?

Eventually, the focus shifts to the differences them-selves, sometimes to such an extent that they seem tobe overwhelming. The final stage comes when the dif-ferences are narrowed down to a few of the most trou-bling and then are blown up out of all proportion. (ForAmericans, standards of cleanliness, attitudes towardpunctuality, and the value of human life tend to loomespecially large.)

By now the sojourner is in an acute state of distress.The host culture has become the scapegoat for thenatural difficulties inherent in the cross-cultural en-counter. Culture shock has set in.

Of course, no two people experience culture shockin exactly the same way. Some are less affected thanothers, but there is an interesting pattern that you mayobserve in yourself and in others’ reactions. In situa-tions in the host culture that cause culture shock reac-tions, you may notice that either you have a tendencyto withdraw from the unpleasant situation or you maybecome aggressive and strike back. We all tend to re-act in one way or the other. A few people try both ap-proaches, but people generally favor the approachwhich best fits their personality.

Reactions to Culture Shock SituationsThe chart on the following page lists the multiple re-actions which people normally have to culture shock.



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Overall Symptoms Withdrawal Symptoms Aggressive Symptoms

Physical and/or psychological withdrawal

Spending excessive amounts of time reading

Need for excessive amounts of sleep

Only seeing other Americans or Westerners

Avoiding contact with host nationals

Short attention span

Diminished productivity

Loss of ability to work orstudy effectively

Quitting and returning to your home country early

Anxiety

Homesickness

Helplessness

Boredom

Depression

Fatigue

Confusion

Self-doubt

Feelings of inadequacy

Unexplained fits of weeping

Paranoia

Physical ailments and psychosomatic illnesses

Compulsive eating

Compulsive drinking

Exaggerated cleanliness

Irritability

Family tensions

Marital stress

Excessive chauvinism

Stereotyping

Hostility toward host nationals

Verbal aggressiveness

Physical aggressiveness

Deciding to stay but permanently hating the country and its people

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Not everyone will experience a severe case of cul-ture shock, nor will all the symptoms be observed inany single individual. Many people sail through cul-ture shock with relative ease, only occasionally expe-riencing the more serious reactions. But many othersdon’t. For them it is important to know that (1) theabove responses can occur, (2) culture shock is in somedegree inevitable, and (3) their reactions are emotionaland not easily subject to rational management. Thisknowledge should give those individuals a better un-derstanding of what is happening to them and but-tress their resolve to work at hastening recovery.

Before we examine what you can do to counteractculture shock, let’s spend a few minutes fitting it intothe whole overseas experience. Some time ago inter-cultural specialists began to recognize that there weredistinct stages of personal adjustment which virtuallyeveryone who lived abroad went through (no matterwhere they came from or what country they were liv-ing in). These stages are

1. initial euphoria,

2. irritability and hostility,

3. gradual adjustment, and

4. adaptation or biculturalism.

1. Initial euphoria

Most people begin their new assignment with greatexpectations and a positive mindset. If anything, theycome with expectations which are too high and atti-tudes which are too positive toward the host countryand toward their own prospective experiences in it. Atthis point, anything new is intriguing and exciting. But,for the most part, it is the similarities that stand out.



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The newcomer is usually impressed with how peopleeverywhere are really very much alike. This period ofeuphoria may last from a week or two to a month, butthe letdown is inevitable. You’ve reached the end ofthe first stage.

2. Irritability and hostility

Gradually, your focus turns from the similarities to thedifferences, and these differences, which suddenlyseem to be everywhere, are troubling. You blow up little,seemingly insignificant difficulties into major catas-trophes. This is the stage generally identified as cul-ture shock, and you may experience any (but rarelyall) of the symptoms listed in the chart on page 96.

3. Gradual adjustment

The crisis is over and you are on your way to recovery.This step may come so gradually that at first you willbe unaware it’s even happening. Once you begin toorient yourself and are able to interpret some of thesubtle cultural clues and cues that passed unnoticedearlier, the culture seems more familiar. You becomemore comfortable in it and feel less isolated from it.

Gradually, too, your sense of humor returns and yourealize the situation is not hopeless after all.

4. Adaptation and biculturalism

Full recovery will result in an ability to function in twocultures with confidence. You will even find a greatmany customs, ways of doing and saying things, andpersonal attitudes that you enjoy—indeed, to whichyou have in some degree acculturated—and that youwill definitely miss when you pack up and return home.In fact, you can expect to experience “reverse culture

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shock” upon your return to the United States (see Post-script 1 beginning on page 133). In some cases, par-ticularly where a person has adjusted exceptionallywell to the host country, reverse culture shock maycause greater distress than the original culture shock.

The interesting thing about culture shock is that it willaccommodate itself to the amount of time you intendto spend in the host country. That is, it will spreaditself out if you’re going to stay for a longer period orcontract if your initial assignment is for a shorter time.You can’t say that’s not accommodating!

A graphic illustration of the “adjustment curve” canlook something like that appearing on the followingpage.

How long will culture shock last? As we have sug-gested, that varies with the length of your assignment,but it also depends to some extent on you and yourresiliency. Most people feel the worst of their cultureshock beginning to dissipate during the fourth month.

Stop a moment and consider what you can do tocombat the onset and alleviate the effects of cultureshock. What we have written so far in this book holdsthe key. The next chapter offers our suggestions forworking your way through culture shock.



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Predeparture1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 etc.

etc.Normal Levelof Feeling

Early Weeks In-Country

Typical Pattern of the Adjustment Cycle(the lower portion of the arc represents culture shock)

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19Responding to Culture Shock

Culture shock is virtually inevitable in some degree,and there are no magic charms to escape it altogether.There are, nevertheless, things you can do, positivesteps you can take to minimize the impact—and thesooner you take them, the better. Here’s our prescrip-tion for action.

1. Realize that in fact practically everybody whogoes overseas for a substantial period of timeexperiences culture shock in some form and/orto some degree. It’s natural and not a sign thatyou’re deficient or strange—and you’ll livethrough it as thousands of others have.

2. Be ready for the lesson culture shock teaches.Culture is a survival mechanism which tells itsmembers not only that their ways of doing thingsare right but also that they are superior. Cultureshock stems from an in-depth encounter withanother culture in which you learn that there aredifferent ways of doing things that are neitherwrong nor inferior. It teaches a lesson that can-not be learned as effectively by any other means,


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that one’s own culture does not possess the singleright way, best way, or even a uniformly betterway of providing for human needs and enjoy-ments. Believing it does is a kind of imprison-ment from which the experience of culture shock,as painful as it may be, can liberate you.

3. Pack your copy of Survival Kit for Overseas Liv-ing and reread it when you’re feeling down oruncertain about what is happening.

4. Return to chapter 13, “Know Thy Host Country,”and pursue your information gathering assidu-ously. Go back to chapter 14, “Let’s Play Q andA,” and search out the answers you missed be-fore. Develop a structured plan and a daily sched-ule for doing your research. Use all the nativeinformants, sympathetic expatriates, and help-ful books you can find as sources.

5. Select one or two areas of interest and investi-gate them more thoroughly than the other top-ics. If you are a fan of American football, for ex-ample, don’t just sit around and grouse aboutmissing games. Cultivate an interest in their foot-ball (soccer) or other national sports.

6. Begin (if you haven’t done so already) to lookconsciously for logical reasons behind everythingin the host culture that seems strange, difficult,confusing, or threatening. Take every aspect ofyour experience and look at it from their per-spective. Search for patterns and interrelation-ships. You may be surprised to find that thepieces fit together once you discover where theygo. Relax your grip on your own culture a little

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in the process. There’s no way you can lose itany more than you could forget your knowledgeof English by learning another language.

7. Try to trace every “strange” action you observein your new culture to its underlying value orvalues. An illustration in reverse, out of our ownculture, will make the point.

An Egyptian visitor to the United States wasshocked at what he witnessed, firsthand, in theAir and Space Museum gift shop in Washington,D.C. There, he saw a young American mothersquatting to bring herself down to more or lessthe eye level of what he took to be her six-year-old son. He overheard her saying to him, “Now,Tommy, if you buy that model airplane now, thenyou’re not going to have enough money to buy aCoke when your sister wants to stop and have aCoke later in the morning, and then you’re goingto be very unhappy.” He said he was shocked.No Egyptian mother would ever have said such athing to her vacationing son. In the first place,the Egyptian mother would not have given thelittle boy “his own” money to manage; nor, whenhe failed to spend it for what the mother thoughthe should, would she intervene to teach him howbest to spend it. The Egyptian mother would haveheld on to the money; then when her son wantedthe model airplane, she would have bought itfor him. Later, when he and his sister wanted aCoke, she would have bought them a Coke. Thenwhen they wanted something else, she wouldhave bought them whatever else they wanted.They were, after all, on a holiday, and they weren’t

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poor or they wouldn’t have been able to go onvacation. But he could see that it was “natural”for the American mother to act the way she did.And from this enlightening observation, he wasable to identify several American values in ac-tion:

• Independence

• Self-help and individual responsibility

• Future orientation

• Delayed gratification

• Control over oneself and one’s environment

In the same way, the interactions you observein the foreign culture can reveal that country’svalues, provided you are as skilled as our Egyp-tian visitor in analyzing what lies behind whatyou see.

8. Make a list of all the positive things you can iden-tify about your present situation. (Ignore thenegative—which you’ve probably been concen-trating on too much anyway.) Then tack the listup somewhere where you’ll see it during thecourse of your day.

9. Avoid those Americans or other foreigners whoare in a permanent state of culture shock andwho spend their days seeking company to com-miserate with. Finding new people to infect withtheir illness is the only way they have of provingthat their negative analysis of the host countryis correct. Consequently, they wait for each in-coming boatload of Yankees to pounce on in or-der to convince them of the “stupidity of the

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natives.” Avoid these people. The sickness theyare attempting to spread is far worse than asimple case of culture shock.

10. Don’t succumb to the temptation of disparagingthe host culture. Resist making jokes and deni-grating comments like “Well, what else would youexpect from these people?” They only reinforceyour beleaguered sense of self or shaky feelingsof superiority and slow down the process of ad-aptation and of recapturing the true feelings ofworth you are searching for. Avoid other peoplewho make such jokes too. There is always one(or more) in every gathering of foreigners whowill trade on jokes that denigrate the local cul-ture, but like ethnic jokes back home, this typeof humor is not worthy of being listened to.

11. On the other hand, work at maintaining a healthysense of humor. Especially, be ready to laugh atyourself. It’s one of the best antidotes to cultureshock. Making silly mistakes because of your un-familiarity with the culture may cause you to feelfoolish or childish, but the embarrassment willpass. Share your gaffes with family and friendsand get them out of your system with a goodlaugh.

12. Find an American who has been there longer,gone through culture shock, and has a positiveattitude toward the host country, and use thisperson as a sounding board to help you get someperspective on the experience you are having.

13. Make friends with host nationals and try to de-velop a deeper, more intimate relationship with



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one or two of them. Discuss with them the prob-lems you’ve been having, taking care to presentthem in a way that doesn’t sound like you’re criti-cizing their culture. It is a truism that Ameri-cans who spend their time associating only withother Americans or other Westerners never doadjust to the host country.

14. When you look for advice, focus on how you arefeeling—what is going on inside you—rather thanon what you consider the causes of your prob-lems, especially when you’re inclined to thinkthey lie in what is wrong in the host culture.

15. As you adjust to and function more comfortablywithin the value system of your host country,don’t worry that you may lose your own values.This is a thought that comes quite naturally atsome point or other to most people who liveabroad. Your values are much deeper and morepermanent than that. To act according to thecustoms of your host country (when and whereit is appropriate) does not make you less of anAmerican. Instead, it makes you more comfort-able, enables you to feel more at home, and addsdimensions to your way of perceiving the worldaround you.

16. Keep busy, keep active, and keep your mind oc-cupied. Don’t sit around and feel sorry for your-self.

17. During the deepest plunges into culture shock,take a trip, get away to a scenic spot or a nearbycountry. When you return, be open to havinggood “coming back home” feelings.

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18. Prepare some kind of presentation about theUnited States for your hosts, using slides, film,or some other kinds of visuals (you will have toprepare for this eventuality before you leavehome). Become an “unofficial ambassador”1

whose mission it is to correct some of the manymisconceptions which replays of Beverly Hills90210, Baywatch, and NYPD Blue have createdin people’s minds overseas.

19. Even during the worst times—and especially atthe worst times—have faith that you will workyour way through culture shock to the brighterdays that lie ahead—even if you do nothing butwait. Effective cross-cultural adaptation has a wayof sneaking up on you as you accumulate bit bybit the knowledge you need.

20. If your spouse has accompanied you but is notworking outside the home, be especially con-cerned about his/her welfare. Nonworkingspouses can soon become bored and dissatis-fied if they are not challenged to get out andexplore the new environment.

There you have it: a twenty-point program to getyou safely through culture shock and to make surethat the rewards which come with the overseas experi-ence will be yours to relive for the rest of your andyour children’s lives.

1 An excellent book called Citizen Ambassadors: Guidelines forResponding to Questions Asked about America, by Charles T.Vetter (Provo, UT: Brigham Young University, Center for Inter-national and Area Studies,1983), will help you develop yourown answers to the often pointed and sometimes embarrass-ing questions you are likely to be asked about the United Stateswhen you are overseas.



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20Skills that Make a Difference

Some people seem to take to another culture morenaturally than others. And some foreign cultures seemto be easier for Americans to adjust to than others. Butthere are certain skills or traits that you may have—or,with a little effort, may develop—that will facilitateyour more rapid adjustment.

Before going on, jot down in the space below someof the skills—they are usually attitudes, ways of re-sponding, and styles of behaving—which you thinkmight be most helpful in the overseas adjustment pro-cess.

SKILLS:


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Here are the skills our experience has shown to bethe most important:

• Tolerance for ambiguity

• Low goal/task orientation

• Open-mindedness

• Nonjudgmentalness

• Empathy

• Communicativeness

• Flexibility; adaptability

• Curiosity

• Sense of humor

• Warmth in human relationships

• Motivation

• Self-reliance

• Strong sense of self

• Tolerance for differences

• Perceptiveness

• Ability to fail

Add to these any of yours which we did not list.Then on a scale of one (low) to five (high), rate your-self on each of these characteristics. Write the numberbeside each one and total them. If you scored less than55, you’ve got some work to do.

Now circle the three traits you think are the mostimportant.

Our choices:

1. Sense of humor

2. Low goal/task orientation

3. Ability to fail

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A sense of humor is important because there is go-ing to be much to weep or get angry or annoyed orembarrassed or discouraged about. No matter howmany of the other traits you have, the ability to laughthings off will be the ultimate weapon against despair.

Americans abroad too often undertake tasks that areunrealistic and set goals for themselves that are unat-tainable. It is one of the major causes of failure. To theextent that you set your goals too high and refuse toadjust them to the realities of what can actually beaccomplished in a foreign environment, you’re goingto be disappointed. Experience shows that Americanswho are less goal-oriented or task-driven and more ableto relax and ride with events tend to be more effectiveand enjoy themselves more overseas.

The ability to tolerate failure is critical because (1)everyone fails at something overseas; it is absolutelybuilt-in, (2) the highest stars in the American firma-ment of values are achievement and success, and (3)the American most likely to be selected to go overseasis the person who has been most successful at home.Some people sent abroad will have virtually never ex-perienced failure. If, in addition, they have little toler-ance for it, they are in for trouble, as are those whowork for or live with them.

One of the largest international cultural exchangeorganizations in the United States (AFS International/Intercultural Programs) uses “a sense of humor” and“the ability to fail” as principal selection criteria forthe thousands of people they choose for internationalexchanges.

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21Husbands, Wives, and Children

In many, even most, cultures, the roles people play intheir daily life—that of wife or husband, eldest son, orgrandmother, for example—are much more clearly andrigidly defined than they are in the United States. So farthis survival kit has dealt only with the general sorts ofadaptation problems which any American citizen livingabroad can expect to encounter. Now we turn to thespecial problems men, women, and children have liv-ing in a foreign country.

Husbands

Unfair though it is, men receive preferential treatmentalmost everywhere in the world—in the Middle East,in all of Asia and Latin America, even in Western Eu-rope—yet an expatriate man will not lack problems.

A man often feels caught in the middle. Historically,in most cases of the family going abroad, it has beenthe man whose company, organization, or agency hassent them abroad; therefore he feels responsible, par-ticularly if anyone in the family is experiencing ad-justment problems.


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At the office, too, he may be the man in the middle.He is likely to be managing a staff whose culture andlanguage are unfamiliar, and he finds himself eithertrying to impose his ways upon them or attempting—clumsily at first—to adapt to theirs. At the same time,he has to serve as liaison with a headquarters officethousands of miles away where his superiors typicallyhave little comprehension of, or sympathy for, the cul-tural chasm separating the two operations.

Even if the man is not a workaholic in the UnitedStates, he may become one overseas just to functionadequately in the new environment. The result, ofcourse, is that he spends less time than usual with hiswife and children who, because of their own adjust-ment difficulties, probably need more, not less, of hispresence.

Even the male college student without the burdensof organizational responsibility (or, indeed, any singlemale) can experience special stress engendered by thedifferent and often conflicting attitudes toward male-female relationships and roles.

Wives

The problems faced by the American wife abroad areusually many times greater than those faced by herhusband. The achievements of the women’s movementin the United States are still too revolutionary for mostof the rest of the world, and the more progress towardliberation the individual American woman has madeat home, the more unbearable she may find regres-sion from these goals overseas. And she will becomemore frustrated if she goes to the overseas assignmentthinking that she is going to bring the ideals of themovement to an unenlightened people.

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This is true for female college students and singlewomen in other roles, but it is a special dilemma forwives who have accompanied their husbands overseas.The woman who realizes what awaits her and decidesto accept her role as housewife and full-time motherhas a rich opportunity to learn and grow. But she walksa fine line on the far side of which lie the resentment,frustration, boredom, and depression that are oftenidentified with culture shock. Haggling over prices,managing children who are adjusting to their own un-familiar and uncomfortable world, discovering differ-ent foods (and realizing that many family favorites willno longer be possible to enjoy in the new environment),and surviving the unfamiliar experience of supervis-ing servants for the first time can be gratifying experi-ences once you’ve mastered them, but they’re oftendebilitating while in the process.

One of the subtle difficulties to be faced by theAmerican woman living abroad as the spouse of a work-ing husband is the perceived loss of identity she mayexperience. In many countries foreign spouses are notpermitted to work, and the status of women remainsrooted in traditional values and behaviors which Ameri-can women are likely to find objectionable. The struggleto overcome being “the wife of so-and-so,” rather thana person in her own right, can be a major insult orblow to her self-esteem.

Our best advice: throw yourself wholeheartedly intoexploring the new culture and the new language. Con-sider the rewards you can get from these new oppor-tunities as a trade-off for the temporary loss of free-dom and for the absence of professional opportuni-ties you would be able to pursue back home.

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And for the husband, a caution. Don’t think that be-cause you are the one who is out there doing the pro-fessional work, earning the money, furthering yourcareer, and getting all the recognition, you are some-how engaged in something more important or—andhere is where the breakdown most often occurs—moredifficult than your wife is. Indeed, the man’s involve-ment in work-related activities actually makes it easierfor him to adapt. The husband who brings home sin-cere understanding and concern for his wife and theproblems she is struggling with will help both of themsucceed in getting through culture shock to the joysthat lie on the other side of the adjustment cycle.

If the wife decides that the sacrifices which the trade-off involves are not worth it, then other arrangementsshould be considered by the couple. Note also that itis far better to face this issue squarely before the com-mitment to go overseas is etched in stone.

Single women and the childless spouse who are notstudents have their own special problems. In manycountries outside Western Europe and North America,an unmarried woman living independently is an odd-ity who will be plied incessantly with questions re-garding the whereabouts of her husband, why she isn’tmarried, or whether her father approves of her beingthere alone. The childless woman will also be subjectedcontinually to the question, “Why don’t you have chil-dren?” And she will find the answer, “I have decidednot to have children,” utterly incomprehensible to herhosts.

Children

Children who grow up overseas as the offspring of dip-lomats, military personnel, or missionaries and oth-

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ers whose parents’ careers keep them abroad for mostor all of their formative years inevitably experience arootlessness that constitutes a major personal andpsychological challenge. This is particularly evidentin the difficulty they have in identifying with theirhomeland (more correctly it should be called the “home-land of their parents”), which, over the years of theiryouth, they may have visited for only short periods.Many get their first real opportunity to experience theUnited States when they are sent there to attend col-lege.

Yet studies show that these people—commonlycalled “third-culture kids”—mature faster, are moreindependent and introspective, more sophisticated andcosmopolitan, and far more knowledgeable about theworld. Perhaps most important, virtually all of them,once they are grown, say they would not trade theirinternational growing-up experience for anything else.

Parents who raise their children, in whole or in part,in another country should get in touch with a veryhelpful organization named Global Nomads,1 which isconcerned with the special needs of such children asthey become adults.

Many aspects of the development of children whospend their formative years growing up in a foreigncountry are also shared, but to a lesser degree, by chil-dren who spend only two or three years abroad. Thisis especially true of teenagers who, in all likelihood,had to be dragged kicking and screaming onto the planeat the initial departure time. If they are of school age,

1 Global Nomads International, PO Box 9584, Washington, DC20016; telephone 202-466-2244; e-mail: [email protected]

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they will probably find that they have to work harderin the international school than they did in the publicschool back home. If they attend a local school in theirhost country, they may find they are expected to domuch more memorizing than is done in the States andthat discipline is harsher.

American children overseas will also have to be pre-pared to give up many personal and social pleasuresthey are sure they cannot do without—the latest popmusic, favorite TV programs, current movies (thoughthese are increasingly available in countries aroundthe world), and sometimes even e-mail and the Internet.Parents will want to help them scout out replacementactivities in their new home. They need to be prepared,beforehand, to expect more restrictions on their be-havior than they would have at home. Few cultures inthe world give children as much freedom as Americanculture does.2

2 For the reader wishing to explore in greater depth the issuesdealt with in this chapter, there are two particularly useful booksavailable: Nancy J. Piet-Pelon and Barbara Hornby, Women’s Guideto Overseas Living, 2d ed. (Yarmouth, ME: Intercultural Press,1992) and Rosalind Kalb and Penelope Welch, Moving Your FamilyOverseas (Yarmouth, ME: Intercultural Press, 1992).

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22Minding Other People’s Business

Ordinarily, you’re advised to mind your own business,but in the event that you or someone in your familyhas been sent abroad to represent one of your country’sorganizations or companies, you would be well advisedto pay considerable attention to other people’s busi-ness, especially how people manage their businesses.The evidence indicates that four out of every five mid-and large-sized companies in the United States cur-rently send personnel overseas to represent them, soif you are a member of that large army of profession-als who are being paid to mind other people’s busi-nesses, this chapter is for you.

Selecting, sending, and supporting an overseas rep-resentative, when all the related expenses are tallied,adds up, easily, to a six-digit figure. In all likelihood,such an individual’s salary and maintenance costs maybe a company’s largest personnel expense except forthe CEO.

In spite of the high cost of sending an employee andfamily abroad, the sending organization may not al-ways get much return for their investment. Between


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10 and 20 percent of all employees placed on over-seas assignments return early, not because they don’tknow their profession thoroughly, or because they havenot done an excellent job of managing in their owncountry before, or because they don’t thoroughly un-derstand their company’s “corporate culture.” The rea-son these families are sent home early is because ei-ther they or their family find themselves unable toadjust to the culture of the host country. Another 30or 35 percent of those sent on an overseas assignmentcan be expected to remain in-country but to operatefar below their level of performance in their home coun-try.

Many, if not most, people who are chosen to fill as-signments abroad have been selected because theyhave always done a superlative job at their previousStateside assignments. What they are often not told,though, is that if they continue to do everything attheir foreign assignment exactly as they have alwaysdone it at home, they will surely fail in their new post-ing. One of the common misconceptions about man-aging people is that, human nature being what it is,the business of managing people is the same no mat-ter where you might find yourself. Nothing could befurther from the truth. Expectations of managers varyfrom country to country, like every other aspect ofculture. If your job abroad is to be a manager of a localor diverse workforce, you had better try to find out allyou can about what works best where you’re going.

Another area where mistakes are likely to be madeis by the human resources divisions of corporationsand organizations in selecting the right person to fillthe position abroad. Most HR people have never had

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overseas living experience themselves. If they had, theywould know that serving in a foreign land requires fardifferent generic skills than are needed when workingand living at home, and that the skills needed to adaptto the work environment in general and to manage oth-ers in particular are unique to every country—basedon the values and culture-based assumptions about“how the world works.”

The broad-based, generic skills that are required formanaging in any country other than one’s homeland, aslisted in chapter 20, include empathy, curiosity, warmthin human relationships, tolerance for ambiguity, toler-ance for differences, nonjudgmentalness, and flexibil-ity and adaptability (see page 110 for a complete list).These skills can, incidentally, all be put to equally gooduse in one’s home country, but they are critical to one’ssuccess in managing in a foreign culture.

In addition to the generic skills just listed, there area number of work-related skills that will ease your wayno matter where your assignment is. If you have beendescribed in at least some of the following ways, youare likely to perform well in a management positionabroad:

• In addition to being a specialist, you also have areasonably good general understanding of all ofthe processes of your company’s business. (Farmore often on the overseas assignment, you willbe asked questions beyond your specialization,and you will be expected to know the answers tothese questions without having to look them upor turn to another authority.)

• You

—delegate responsibilities well,

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—have demonstrated an ability to manage cre-ative people (in previous domestic assign-ments),

—are able to see more than one possible solu-tion to any given problem,

—are willing to consider the adoption of solu-tions suggested by others,

—are a “natural” at getting along with many typesof people and have a wide range of friends,

—are a “healer” of relationships and morale ratherthan being overly critical or demanding per-fection,

—are diplomatic, not confrontational,

—have a solution for every problem rather thana problem for every solution,

—are able to “suffer fools gladly,”

—exhibit a healthy curiosity to explore new man-agement styles and alternative personnel poli-cies, and

—can be described as relatively sophisticated andcosmopolitan.

If few or none of the generic skills that were listedearlier or the bulleted items immediately above seemto describe you, it doesn’t necessarily mean you arethe wrong person to represent your organization. Itdoes mean that you should begin right away to developthe more flexible and sensitive side of your personal-ity, and luckily, most of these are abilities one can de-velop if one has a strong enough desire to do so.

Even more fundamental to your success than thesegeneric social and work-related skills is an awareness

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of the specific, country-based cultural characteristicsthat are peculiar to the particular country or region ofyour assignment. Perhaps one example will suffice ina book that is too brief to provide a complete culturalprofile of all of the nearly two hundred countries inthe world.

In order for a Westerner to manage effectively in thecountries of East Asia (e.g., China, Japan, or Korea),one must have a full understanding of the concept of“face” and how serious, even tragic, the consequencesare for a person there to suffer loss of face. Until oneunderstands this concept thoroughly, one may do morepermanent damage to the reputation of the organiza-tion he or she represents than can ever be repairedafter the act has been committed. Face must come tobe seen not as evidence of excessive and overbearingself-pride on the part of the Asian (as it may well beinterpreted if we apply only the rules of our own West-ern culture) but instead, as an absolute and thoroughlycompassionate concern for the human dignity of theother person, so much so that nothing could ever bringone to destroy a person’s face in an Asian country, ei-ther willingly or unintentionally.

Carrying this example further, the Westerner aboutto begin managing Asian employees would do well togive additional thought to what face might have to dowith determining the termination procedures withina, say, Japanese company or how it might affect theacceptance of written performance evaluations there,a common practice in Western companies.

Most of what has been said so far in this chapterconcerns identifying the characteristics that are con-sidered valuable for adapting to and working in any



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host country. In addition there are certain conditionsthat exist within the country that also have an effecton business and management—such as how rich orpoor the country is, how large or small, whether it wasever part of a colonial empire, what religious tradi-tions have affected the country’s culture, whether mendominate the power system, what sort of political andeconomic systems are in control, the ready availabil-ity of banking facilities, how fair the justice system is,what the literacy rate and levels of education are—allof these leave their marks on business and manage-ment procedures. You will find several considerationsof this type listed in Appendix F for your consideration.

You should also investigate such questions as thefollowing: What are the legal restrictions and laws thataffect business there? To what extent do bribery, kick-backs, nepotism, and other evidence of what Western-ers perceive to be corruption exist? What decision-making processes are most prevalent? How are nego-tiations carried out when differences of opinion or dis-agreements occur? What specific taboos are there thata newcomer should be aware of not violating?

It should be clear by now that not only will living inand adapting to a foreign country be a challenge, butmanaging people there also will be. Since the periodbetween one month and four months after arriving iswhen you will be most vulnerable to culture shock,this is an especially dangerous time for verbalizingyour personal evaluation of the culture of the hostcountry and also for making major decisions, becausethey are likely to be extremely biased and erroneous.

The best way to prepare yourself for the challengeof management abroad is to learn as much as you can

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before you leave home. Scour the bookstores and theInternet to find materials that describe how businessis conducted in your host country. Since these are of-ten published by small publishing companies and videoproducers, finding them may require more effort thanyou might expect. There are, however, likely to be any-where from two or three to more than ten resourcesthat describe the indigenous business procedures ofyour new host country.

Try also to learn about different management styles.Experience has shown that many American managersdo have difficulty in shifting their own managementstyle to a more conservative, more authoritarian onethan the more “participative” style they may have cometo prefer and even to consider more “modern” and more“advanced.” Yet, many countries—even some in West-ern Europe—seem to prefer a somewhat more authori-tarian style than that which predominates in the UnitedStates. Or they may find the host country’s manage-ment style more consensus-driven, with a flatter struc-ture than they are accustomed to (in Scandinavian coun-tries, for example). This being the case, it may be help-ful for you to consider, before going, in what specificways such a shift in management procedure might af-fect your office behavior. Then, as soon as possibleafter your arrival in-country, talk to as many expatri-ates from your own country as you can to inquire aboutthe specific ways management in the host country dif-fers from the expectations back home.

Before leaving the topic of managing in a foreignculture, there are a couple of related bits of adviceworth offering. The first is that while you are awayfrom your company’s headquarters, you would be well



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served by asking a fellow employee based in the homeoffice to look out for your interests in your absence, tobe your eyes and ears as well as your mouthpiece whileyou are away. It is so easy, otherwise, to be out of sightand out of mind. If someone there is not looking outfor you and reminding the right people that you arestill alive and well, your interests are likely to be over-looked. That person can keep you informed aboutmajor changes in the office that take place in your ab-sence and mention your name once in a while so youwill not be forgotten. It goes without saying that youwill need to keep this person well informed about yoursituation during your absence.

Even more important is your role in explaining tothe key people in the main office, the entire time youare serving abroad, just how vast the cultural differ-ences are. Describe in detail how those cultural differ-ences cause people to view the world in such radicallydifferent ways, which are, of course, played out in theworkplace. In a very real sense, this part of your jobwill be even harder than adjusting to the culture your-self. After all, you are there, and you are being bom-barded with cultural differences every minute of theday, but the home staff can’t even imagine the realityof your host country. So you have to keep bringing upcultural issues and providing dozens of examples toconvince them. It also helps for you to suggest rea-sons why the people in the top levels of managementback in the home office should come for an occasionalfield visit to see you and your work environment, sothey can witness the culture firsthand and be convincedfor themselves that you have not gone stark ravingmad. In your new position overseas, these visits from

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upper management are one of the special “perks.” Whenone is working back in the home office, there aren’tmany opportunities for the average manager to asso-ciate with such high-ranking officials on such a fre-quent or “equal” basis.

Another bit of advice: ask, and prepare to be ratherinsistent in demanding, that your company provideyou with a repatriation briefing upon your return tothe home office (see Postscript 1). To the people whohave been home all the while you have been overseas,it seems illogical that you would even need such a brief-ing; and it is far more difficult to convince the humanresources development staff that people really do needspecial help to return home, just as they needed brief-ings to prepare them to operate in a strange country.At first thought, it seems illogical that someone re-turning home to the same country, the same company,often the same job position, to friends and relatives,perhaps to the very same house, and to their nativelanguage would need to be trained to return to famil-iar surroundings. But even in a couple of years of liv-ing in such a different environment, especially one inwhich you have lived those differences so intensely,the return can be traumatic. And your experience oftaking on another culture and functioning in it hasmade you a different person from the one who lefttwo or three years earlier. On the overseas assignment,you are likely to have had far more responsibility thanat the time you left home, and learning how your hostculture has solved the problems of existence in suchfundamentally different ways has left its imprint andwill take some careful and compassionate readjustmentbefore you really feel “at home” again.



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About half or more of the returnees report the re-turn home to be far more troubling than the overseasadjustment. At first this is unexpected and frustrat-ing. The person assumes that coming home will beeasy; after all, it’s one’s home turf. And the disturbingtruth is that those who have done the best job of ad-justing to and fitting into the foreign culture abroadare the very ones who can be expected to have thehardest time readjusting upon arrival back home. Thisis especially true if, as most often happens, those inthe home office are not even aware of, and certainlynot expecting or sympathetic to, the idea that the per-son should have any trouble at all. Even if they be-come aware of the returned employee’s difficulties,they are far more likely to attribute them to a personalweakness in the returnee’s character than to a phe-nomenon that is natural. Furthermore, given the like-lihood of reentry shock, office staff should expect andmake preparations to ease the returnee’s readjustment.That is at the root of the previously mentioned wordsof advice for you to be “rather insistent in demanding”a repatriation briefing upon your return home. Makethe request early to give the home office time to pre-pare.

Finally, the people back at the home office are likelyto be totally unaware of the many new skills you havegained through the overseas management experience,skills that now give you new capabilities and that canbe applied to almost equal advantage at home. Youmust point this out, both before you leave to go homeand after your return. Operating solo, as the higheston-site representative of a major corporation or organi-zation, you have gained invaluable experience work-

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ing at a higher level than you ever would have at home.Abroad, you associate daily with the highest echelons,not only from the country in which you are servingbut also from most of the major countries of the world,and in a much wider range of fields and areas of knowl-edge. Not the least of these new skills are the ones youhave gained in working with diverse ethnic popula-tions, a talent the value of which we have certainlycome to realize at home. Diversity has become not onlyour domestic reality but also one of America’s greateststrengths and perhaps the very one that will allow usto maintain our economic advantage into the future.By all means don’t be shy about listing your new skillsto the human resources staff, for unless they have hadwork experience abroad themselves (and as we haveindicated, most of them probably have not), they can-not be expected to know that you are not the sameperson you were when you left home originally.

The proof that living and working abroad is worth-while lies in the witness of those hundreds of thou-sands of your own compatriots who swear, after it’s allover, that their overseas assignment was the best thingthat ever happened to them, and they wouldn’t tradeit for anything in the world. What a pity that none ofthis exhilarating experience can be conveyed to any-one who hasn’t had it for themselves.



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23The Challenge

We have called this book a survival kit because it dealswith the personal pitfalls that await you overseas. Wedon’t, by using the word survival, envision you at theend of your tour abroad crawling on your hands andknees toward the plane, gaunt, clothes in tatters, ahostile landscape behind you. On the contrary, we ex-pect you to survive the overseas experience very muchon top.

But it probably won’t be easy. Living in a foreignculture is like playing a game you’ve never played be-fore and for which the rules haven’t been explainedvery well. The challenge is to enjoy the game withoutmissing too many plays and learning the rules anddeveloping skills as you go along.

You’ll learn a great deal, though much of it will beintangible and difficult to define. In negotiating theunfamiliar and uncharted territory of another culture,change and growth occur at deep levels, leaving youmore competent, more self-assured, and more knowl-edgeable about yourself and about how the worldworks.

Bon voyage!


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Postscript 1: So You’re ComingBack Home?

Why does a book on overseas living have a chapterabout coming back home? Because the traveler needsto consider coming home as part of a complete cyclethat includes leaving, settling overseas, and returning.

Just as the success of your overseas experience andyour cross-cultural adaptation doesn’t need to be leftto luck, neither does the success of your return home,though you may reasonably wonder what you couldpossibly need to do beyond taking care of the barelogistics of the move. You know the language, the waysto get things done and, most likely, you will be return-ing to family, friends, and a familiar setting.

What you may not be aware of is the degree to whichyou have been changed by the experience and nowcarry with you a whole new load of cultural baggage.Further, during your absence changes have taken placein the United States—rapid and sometimes radicalchanges—and reading about them in Time or Newsweekisn’t the same as experiencing them. You may think it

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will be easy to pick up where you left off; that’s wherereentry shock comes in.

What Is Reentry Shock?Some call it reverse culture shock. The culture shockadjustment curve (page 100) is somewhat similar forreentry, though the time frames will probably differ.You’ll recall we said the four stages of the adjustmentprocess are

1. initial euphoria,

2. irritability and hostility,

3. gradual adjustment, and

4. adaptation or biculturalism.

In Stage 1, you may be very pleased, even euphoric,to be back in your own country, and others may beequally delighted to have you back. But after peopleexpress their pleasure at seeing you again and listenpolitely to your stories for a few minutes, you maysuddenly and/or painfully realize that they are notparticularly interested in what happened to you abroadand would much prefer to talk about their own activi-ties. You may also find that the support system youencountered when you first arrived overseas—peoplewho were willing and ready to help you settle into yourown community—is not accessible back home. Peoplemay help if you ask, but they’re busy and you feel em-barrassed about being so dependent, especially in yourown country!

You may, therefore, find yourself entering Stage 2more rapidly than you did overseas. Suddenly you areirritated with others and impatient with your own in-ability to figure out why the way you are doing thingsdoesn’t work.

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While some people move readily into the adjustmentand adaptation stages, others continue to feel alien-ated, even though they put on the outward appear-ance of doing well. Underneath, resentment, loneliness,disorientation, and even a sense of helplessness maybe pervasive as they experience the kinds of cultureshock symptoms identified in chapter 18. Depression,marital stress, or, in children, regression to earlierstages of development may also be associated withreentry shock.

The gap between you and your family and friends,or your social group at college if you’re a student, maybe a source of significant irritation. So much that isdifferent will have happened to you and to them thatfinding common ground will almost certainly be harderthan expected.

You also will have learned new things: a foreign lan-guage, perhaps, or some local folk dances, or how tobargain in a market. But there’s no outlet for them athome. Ways to use your skills can be found, but it takeseffort and patience, and the frustrations tend to mount.You may feel let down because daily life in the UnitedStates doesn’t readily provide the opportunity to meetas many kinds of people as you’ve known overseas.And the people you do meet seem very provincial anduninterested in things international.

The United States is also different. The politics isshoddier, the pace is more hurried and hectic, there ismore violence on TV and more crime in the streets. Inyour job you may seem to have less authority, andyour work experience abroad may seem irrelevant orat least unappreciated by your colleagues and superi-ors.

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Your status in general is lower, your standard of liv-ing goes down. You look like an American but you feellike a stranger. Your spouse feels lonely and out ofplace—at home! Your children are out of step with theirclassmates. If you’re a college student, your previouslyselected major may now seem boring, or you may becompletely out of sync with your girl- or boyfriend. Inshort you will inevitably return from abroad bearing awhole host of expectations which, just as inevitably,will—at least to some degree—be disappointed.

What can you do to counteract reentry shock? In fact,the battle is mostly won when you understand thatreturning home involves an adjustment process simi-lar to the one you experienced when first going abroad.Indeed, the practical steps we are going to recommendare quite similar to those we suggested for overseasadaptation.

1. Start your exploration of home through sympa-thetic friends or family members. Share withthem some of the feelings you have had whileliving overseas. Sharing feelings instead of ex-periences sounds less like bragging.

2. Find informants about the United States just asyou did about your overseas country. Be thelearner. Ask questions about current issues: theprice of common products and services, popu-lar entertainment, politics and U.S. foreign policy,the effect of recent changes on the society. Inother words, play the foreigner. You really are,in some ways. Learn your “new” culture just asyou did your foreign culture. Don’t let your newattitudes, values, and perceptions (see chapter17) block that learning process.

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3. Ask a friend to make a list of new terms and fadsto help you figure out what the current trendsare.

4. Research various groups that may interest you:churches, clubs, student or professional organi-zations, international and intercultural groups.

5. Explore places where you might find others withinternational experience, or seek foreign nation-als with whom you can speak the language you’velearned and continue to share common experi-ences you’ve enjoyed. (Most large and many smallcolleges and universities have foreign studentsand scholars on campus, along with active inter-national programs.) You may want to host anexchange student.

Sometimes we get trapped by our emotional re-sponses and misjudge situations and the people aroundus. When a situation makes you feel uncomfortable,this simple three-step formula may help you deal withit.

1. Describe (if only to yourself) the situation. Whatdo you actually see happening?

2. Interpret what you see. What do you think aboutthe situation?

3. Evaluate the situation. How do you feel aboutwhat has taken place?

For example, let’s say you have been invited to din-ner by an American friend to celebrate your return.You’re offered a well-prepared meal consisting of twocourses: meat with vegetables and salad followed bydessert. But you have just come from a country whereguests are treated with special and elaborate hospital-

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ity and are routinely offered a three- or four-coursemeal (and salad is never served with hot dishes!). Youmay find this meal disappointing.

1. Describe: This is a two-course meal and the foodis good.

2. Interpret: This is a customary American mealserved to guests and friends and is not an ex-pression of disdain for a guest.

3. Evaluate: I feel a little insulted (it doesn’t seemspecial enough for the occasion), but when I getused to this custom, I probably won’t react thisway.

Now let’s try it again with another scenario. You re-ceive a phone call in the office from someone whoknows you and hasn’t seen you in a few weeks. Heidentifies himself and immediately makes a businessrequest. You have just come from a country wherepleasantries are always exchanged before transactingbusiness. It’s really difficult for you to launch into abusiness discussion without first engaging in somesocial conversation. Using the describe/interpret/evaluate system, you may come up with somethinglike this:

1. Describe: This person is calling for specific in-formation.

2. Interpret: The purpose of this call is business,and Americans tend to limit their social interac-tion during working hours.

3. Evaluate: I would rather reestablish personalcontact before discussing business so that I won’tfeel simply like an object in the transaction, butsince the caller’s style doesn’t imply a lack of

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regard for me as a person, I will try to readapt tothis American style.

Or, to put it in the context of our earlier discussionof cultural differences, these Americans have somepeculiar customs, but they fit together in a logical pat-tern and are not intended to be offensive. Feelings ofdisillusion with their own culture sometimes afflictreturnees. But take heart, American culture is just dif-ferent, not wrong!

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Postscript 2:Jaunts and Junkets

Although the principal audience for this survival kit isthe American who is going to spend a substantialamount of time living in a country other than the UnitedStates, we don’t want to ignore entirely the short-termvisitor—perhaps a tourist on vacation, a young personexploring another part of the world, or a professionalor business executive on a brief assignment abroad.There are many things such a person can do—before,during, and after the trip—to ensure getting the maxi-mum return from the experience.

Predeparture Preparations

1. Check both national and local holidays. Especiallyif your stay is short, you don’t want to be immo-bilized because everything is shut down. Holi-days may be specific to a city or region as wellas national. In Catholic countries (such as Italy,Spain, and Latin American countries), for in-stance, many cities celebrate their patron saint’s

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day by shutting down businesses for severaldays. On the other hand, you may actually wantto time your visit to coincide with an especiallycolorful, unique, or interesting holiday.

2. Check linguistic variations within the country. InChina, for example, while Mandarin is the offi-cial language, there are ten major regional dia-lects and minor linguistic variations. The differ-ences in the major languages are as great as be-tween European languages. There may also betensions within the country over language use.In Spain, for instance, speakers of Catalán in andaround Barcelona are proud of their linguisticheritage. Using even a smattering of Catalán (es-pecially if you are able and intend to speak Span-ish) will make a favorable impression.

3. Research special customs or cultural traits of theregion you are going to. Nothing will have agreater payoff among the nationals of that re-gion than evidence, through some comment orother, that you realize how special the peoplethere are.

4. Read at least one general history of the country(or at least the history section of a good travelguide).

5. Check out the current political situation and eco-nomic conditions, especially as they might relateto the United States.

6. Line up your contacts, personal or business, wellahead of leaving the States.

If you do not receive confirmation of appoint-ments before you leave, try when you are there

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to make contact anyway. There are many rea-sons (technical and intercultural) why people failto respond to appointment requests from abroad.

Even if there are no logical contacts (those di-rectly related to your business, professional, orpersonal purposes for traveling abroad) for youto arrange ahead of time, you might want to trythe Internet. Just making one special contact isworth the effort, since it may be an opening toothers.

Once you have arrived, the commercial attachéof the American embassy or consulate may bewilling to arrange appointments for you. If youwant more than one or two, contact the attachébefore departing from the United States. If thepurpose of your visit merits it, it may be pos-sible for you to receive special briefings fromthe political and economic officers at the Ameri-can embassy as well.

7. Take gifts. It is not easy to find small gifts whichcannot also be purchased around the world thesedays. The time when people everywhere werethrilled to receive a disposable ballpoint penfrom an American visitor is long gone, but witha little ingenuity you will be able to come upwith some good ideas. Here are a few sugges-tions: something with your company’s oruniversity’s logo or some other special emblemon it; coffee-table books focusing on the UnitedStates, your city, or perhaps your host’s specialinterests; cassette recordings or CDs that fit thetastes of the recipients; books, for people whospeak English, on American slang or American

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idioms. Artifacts made by Native Americans areparticularly appreciated and unavailable in mostforeign countries.

Larger gifts, perhaps for homestays or for some-one who has done you a big favor, might includea small Native American-made rug or a patchworkquilt. Two of the things which even European visi-tors (who can buy practically anything at home)appreciate from the United States are top-qualityTurkish towels and percale sheets. One unusu-ally ingenious friend took the gift I wish I hadthought of: an uncut sheet of dollar bills (whichcan be purchased directly from the U.S. TreasuryDepartment in Washington, D.C.), framed to turnit into a unique piece of American pop art.

8. Attend to logistics. Consult your travel agentabout ground transportation from the airport atyour destination to your hotel. This informationis very helpful to know in advance, especially ifyour trip entails stopovers in several cities. Don’tforget that American Express in practically ev-ery major city in the world can, for a price, pro-vide such special services as meeting you at theairport with prearranged transportation, localcity guides and guided tour arrangements, in-terpreters (if needed), and so forth.

Know where your hotels are located. Avoid thesurprise upon arrival of finding the hotel you’vechosen (perhaps because it was cheaper) is alsooutside the city, a long way from most of yourappointments or places you wanted to see. Erron the side of clothing that is more, rather thanless, formal.

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In-Country1. Communication

Even in countries where the lingua franca is English,watch out for communication problems. Don’t assumethat everything you say will be understood as you in-tended it. Check, verify, and paraphrase in order tosee that what you meant is what was actually under-stood by the other party. In a foreign culture, it oftentakes twice the time and effort to communicate effec-tively.

Small talk can be especially difficult for the short-term visitor. It may surprise you to learn that in somecountries it is inappropriate to ask your host, “Are youmarried?” or “Do you have any children?” Such ques-tions are considered—in France, for instance—far toopersonal to ask someone you are meeting for the firsttime. (In other countries, e.g., those of the Arab world,these kinds of questions are the most appropriate!)Some research on small-talk customs in the countriesyou are visiting is needed. It may interest you to knowthat in many parts of the world questions that are ta-boo in the United States—like “How old are you?” “Howmuch do you weigh?” “What price did you pay for yoursuit/your car/your home?” or “What is your salary?”—are not taboo at all.

Even on a short visit you should attempt to makesome penetrating observations of your host country.One way is to go armed with one or two (no more)questions that, from your predeparture research, youhave identified as significant to the country and of in-terest to you personally (though not too politicallycharged). Then ask everyone you meet in that countrythe same one or two questions. The insights you get

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from this brief and simple polling exercise will be strik-ing and will provide you with the ability to make someremarkably cogent observations on your return home.

2. Scout

A helpful device to process experiences and informa-tion gathered during your time abroad is a procedureknown by the acronym SCOUT.1 It is a five-step pro-cess.

1. Suspend judgment.

Suspend judgment in your interactions with yourhosts. Otherwise, you will be passing judgmentaccording to cultural assumptions you are famil-iar with—most likely those of mainstream Ameri-can culture—but which simply do not apply inthe foreign culture as they do at home.

2. Collect data.

Gather information about events that occurwhich you don’t feel you understand. Check thecontext and look for details you might havemissed.

3. Organize information.

What are all the possible alternative explanationsand interpretations of your data?

4. Utilize resources.

Tap into your network of contacts for help inreading the situation in the context of the newculture, that is, ask for advice from people whounderstand the culture.

1 Created and copyrighted by Claude Schnier of Global VisionGroup, Oakland, California.

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5. Test results.

Evaluate the data you obtained from the priorfour steps, come up with an explanation, thentest your thesis in future similar situations. Cor-rect any misjudgments as you gather new infor-mation and make new, more accurate interpre-tations.

3. Customs

Invitations. Look for differences in the way dinner orother social invitations are extended and get adviceon the social protocol in your host country.

The same goes for receiving invitations, though wesuggest one general principle: accept. Socializing withcolleagues is typically more obligatory in most partsof the world than it is in the United States. Also check,if necessary, whether spouses are included. In somecultures they are not.

Respect for authority. Few countries are as egalitar-ian in social conduct as the United States. How do yourespond in cultures where one is expected to demon-strate more respect and deference than you are usedto demonstrating to those who hold positions of au-thority? The best approach is simply to watch howother people do it.

Formality and informality. The casual style of Ameri-cans often offends people in other countries withoutour being aware of it. The alternative style, being dip-lomatic rather than bluntly direct, unfortunately doesnot come naturally to most Americans. Abroad, it helpsto moderate our directness with a little sensitive indi-rectness.

Time. In many parts of the world, time is a different

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commodity from what North Americans perceive it tobe. Being an hour late for an appointment may not beconsidered late, or the person with whom you have anappointment may cancel at the last minute withoutconsidering it rude. These are different kinds of cul-tural behaviors, not attempts to insult you. The bestresponse: cultivate your patience, and be prepared tofill the time productively.

Follow-UpAfter returning home (or on the way), spend a littletime cataloguing what you’ve discovered about thecountry or countries you visited. You will probably besurprised at the insights you generate in this kind ofafter-the-fact diary and how useful it will be in conver-sations with friends and colleagues or in reports toyour supervisors. Use the data gleaned from the infor-mal poll recommended earlier.

Write or phone (as seems to be preferred in mostLatin countries) key people you met on your trip. Sendprints of the snapshots you took of them.

Finally, in the months after returning home, readinga few novels set in the country or countries you vis-ited will fuel the interest started by your trip abroad.The Traveler’s Reading Guide by Maggy Simony (seeAppendix E) include lists of excellent novels which takeplace in the world’s countries, and your local librarianwill probably be able to recommend more.

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The Kluckhohn Model

Human Nature Mixture of Good and Evil

Basically Evil Basically Good


Subject to Nature

Harmony with Nature

Mastery over Nature

Time Past-oriented(Tradition-bound)

Present-oriented(Situational)

Future-oriented(Goal-oriented)

Activity Being (Expressive/Emotional)

Being-in-Becoming*(Inner Development)

Doing (Action-oriented)

Social Relationships

Lineality**(Authoritarian)

Collaterality***(Collective Decisions)

Individualism****(Equal Rights)

ORIENTATION RANGE

Mutable ImmutableImmutable MutableMutable Immutable

Neutral

Explanations of Terms Used Above* Being-in-Becoming—The personality is given to containment and control by means of such activities as meditation

and detachment, for the purpose of the development of the self as a unified whole.** Lineality—Lines of authority clearly established and dominant-subordinate relationships clearly defined and re-

spected.*** Collaterality—A human being is an individual and also a member of many groups and subgroups; he/she is inde-

pendent and dependent.**** Individualism—Autonomy of the individual.

Source: Florence Kluckhohn and Frederick Strodtbeck, Variations in Value Orientations (Evanston: IL: Row, Peterson, 1961). (See espe-cially chapter 1.)

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In terms of the values they represent, the Kluckhohn Model would look like this:

Human Nature Most people can’t be trusted. Most people are basically pretty good at heart.


Life is largely determined by external forces, such as God, fate, or genetics. A person can’t surpass the conditions life has set.

Humans should, in every way, live in complete harmony with nature.

Humans’ challenge is to conquer and control nature. Everything from air condition-ing to the “green revolution” has resulted from having metthis challenge.

Sense of Time Humans should learn from history and attempt toemulate the glorious ages ofthe past.

The present moment is every-thing. Let’s make the most ofit. Don’t worry about tomor-row, enjoy today.

Planning and goal setting make it possible to accom-plish miracles. A little sacri-fice today will bring a bettertomorrow.

Activity It’s enough to just “be.” It’s not necessary to accomplish great things in life to feel your life has been worthwhile.

Humans’ main purpose forbeing placed on this earthis for their own innerdevelopment.

If people work hard and apply themselves fully, theirefforts will be rewarded.

Social Relationships Some people are born to leadothers. There are leaders and there are followers.

Whenever I have a serious problem, I like to get the advice of my family or closefriends on how best to solve it.

All people should have equal rights and completecontrol over their owndestiny.

ORIENTATION RANGE

There are both evil people and good people in the world, and you have to check people out to find out which they are.

Appendix A


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Appendix B

Information-Gathering Checklistabout Your Host Country

The following is a guide to help you gather basic factsabout the country you are going to. It is not essentialthat you follow the exact sequence given here. If you’reespecially interested in Section F, for example, startthere.

A. Symbols

Symbolism of flag

National anthem

Myths and legends ofethnic group(s)

National flower, etc.

National holidays

Traditional dress

B. Human and natural resources

Geography and topog-raphy

Regional characteris-tics

Major cities

Natural resources(flora, fauna,minerals)

Climate

Demographic information

Transportation system

Communications system

Mass communication me-dia

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E. Education

School system

Colleges and universities

Vocational training

Proverbs

Superstitions

C. Family and social structure

Family life

Role differentiationamong family mem-bers

Social classes

Male/female relation-ships

Friendships

Social organizations

Social welfare

Customs (re: birth, mar-riage, death, etc.) andcourtesies

D. Religion and philosophy

Religious beliefs (indig-enous and borrowed)

Philosophy (Cartesian,inductive, pragmatic,collectivist, individu-alistic, fatalistic)

General approach (e.g.,rote memorization vs.problem-solving ap-proach)

F. Fine arts and cultural achievements

Painting

Sculpture

Crafts

Folk arts

Architecture

Music

Dance

Drama

Literature

Poetry

Cinema

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Inventions andachievements

G. Economics and industry

Principal industries

Exports/imports

Foreign investment

Cottage industries (ifany)

Industrial development

Modernization (if appli-cable)

Urban and rural condi-tions

Agriculture (crops and ani-mal husbandry)

Fishing (if it is a major ac-tivity)

Marketing systems

Money

H. Politics and government

Current political figures

Police system

Military

System of government

Political parties

Government organiza-tion (national and lo-cal)

I. Science

Medicine

Research

J. Sports and games

Sports unique to thecountry

Modern world sports

Traditional children’sgames

K. Foods

Dietary restrictions

Unique products

Special cooking tech-niques

L. Language

Local dialects/lan-guages

Appendix B


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Appendix C

A Human Profile

Questions about social processes, values, and behaviors forthe “Grandparent Exercise”

What would you teach your grandchildren about:

• Whom they should obey?

• How many children they should have?

• Who makes decisions (at home, in school, in thecommunity)?

• What is expected of children when they areyoung? And after their parents get old?

• How to behave with others (public officials, fam-ily members, neighbors, old people, other chil-dren, salespeople, etc.)?

• What to depend upon others for?

• When to be self-sufficient?

• Whom to respect and how to show respect forothers?

• What they can expose to others and what shouldbe kept private or secret?

• How they should act in public so they will be acredit to or bring honor upon the family?

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• How to plan for the future?

• What should be remembered from their heritage?

• How important they are and can expect to be inthe community?

• What was better when you were young?

• Whom they should seek advice from when theyneed it?

• What you wish for your grandchildren that youcould not be or have?

• Whom to trust?

• What it means to be successful in life?

• What it is they can depend upon as always beinggood or important?

• What the signs of success are?

• What provides “security”?

• Why people work?

• What they should be wary or afraid of?

• What type of work they should prepare to do?

• How they can improve on what they are or have?

• Who their friends should be?

• Where they should live?

• What things in nature are beautiful?

• Whom they should marry and at what age?

• What they should be willing to sacrifice to en-sure a better life for more people?

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Appendix D

Logistics ChecklistsThe following lists are suggestive rather than exhaus-tive. You will probably add items which fit the particu-lar country you are entering.

Preparations for Assignment AbroadOfficial documents

Apply for passport and any necessary visas. It is advis-able to have separate passports for each family mem-ber. If the children are on the mother’s passport, nei-ther mother nor children can travel outside the coun-try independently.

Doctors

Make appointments for medical examinations for eachfamily member well in advance, three months ahead ifpossible, in order to be finished with any needed se-ries immunizations a month before departure date.

Request copies of important records, X rays, or pre-scriptions to go with you. Have prescriptions writtenin generic terms rather than with brand names.

Be sure to have each person’s blood type in case atransfusion is needed.

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Inquire about gamma globulin shots as a preventivemeasure against hepatitis.

Arrange to have copies of eyeglass prescriptions forany member of the family wearing glasses, as well asan extra pair of glasses for each.

Make dental appointments for each family memberwell in advance so all needed work can be completedby your dentist. Request instructions on fluoride treat-ment abroad for children. Ask for copies of records, Xrays, and a statement of any recommended orthodon-tic treatment.

See your veterinarian for required shots and certifi-cates if you are taking a pet with you. Write ahead tothe U.S. embassy in your country for current informa-tion on pet entry requirements, especially quarantineregulations. Consult with your veterinarian about pre-ferred travel arrangements for your pet. Determinewhether it will be necessary to inform someone abroadif the pet is to arrive in advance of the family.

Lawyer

Each adult member of the family should have an up-to-date will, properly witnessed and signed with the origi-nal placed in a safety deposit box, a copy for your law-yer, and a copy in your possession.

Draw up a power of attorney and leave it with a re-sponsible relative or friend so that you have someonewho can act legally in your behalf while you are abroad.

Bank

Arrange with your home bank to mail your monthlystatements to you via airmail. Original naturalizationpapers can never be replaced, so it is best to travel

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with copies only of these documents. Arrange powerof attorney for someone within easy traveling distanceof your bank to have access to your safety deposit box.The bank will need to register authorization and sig-nature.

Obtain a supply of local currency for those countriesto which you will be traveling to cover porters’ tips,taxi fares, and so forth.

Purchase traveler’s checks (preferably in small de-nominations) to cover hotel, restaurant, and sightseeingexpenses while en route.

Put credit cards in a safety deposit box until yourreturn, except for credit cards you expect to use whileabroad.

Schools

Notify your children’s teachers of departure date in casespecial examinations must be scheduled to allowcompletion of term work. Obtain grade reports, testresults, teacher evaluations, samples of work, et ceterato facilitate placement in the new school.

Write schools in the new city for information or, ifyou are able to make a school selection prior to ar-rival, notify the school of your children’s anticipateddate of arrival, indicate their grade level, and requestthat space be held for them.

Insurance

Arrange for adequate personal liability insurance (tocover injuries to people on your property while youare gone) and insurance to cover your household ef-fects and luggage. Marine insurance for automobilesshould be specific. If keeping your automobile insur-

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ance from the United States, check to see if it coversyour country of assignment. Some insurance compa-nies abroad will give reduced rates if you produce aletter from your own company showing an accident-free record.

Ascertain that you have appropriate health insurancecoverage for yourself and your family.

Post office

Complete a change of address card for your local postoffice. Obtain a supply of these to send to the InternalRevenue Service, Department of Motor Vehicles, maga-zine subscriptions, et cetera.

Notify all charge accounts and cancel magazine andnewspaper subscriptions or change to your new ad-dress.

Provide your family and friends with specific infor-mation on how to mail letters and packages to you. Insome countries the duty will exceed the value of thepackage, so you may want to warn against sending gifts.(This information may be hard to obtain before youarrive overseas.)

Check absentee voting procedure in case any specialregistration is required.

Obtain an international driver’s license through theAmerican Automobile Association (AAA).

Give notice of your moving date to all utility compa-nies—gas, oil, water, electricity, telephone, et cetera,and discuss arrangements for billing and/or discon-tinuing service. Also notify any other delivery serviceyou may use, such as Federal Express or UPS.

Keep records of official expenses involved in themove.

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Important Papers to Accompany YouOn your person:

• Passport

• Shot records

• Internationally recognized credit cards

• U.S. and international driver’s licenses (plan torenew U.S. license by mail, if possible)

In your briefcase:

• Copies of insurance policies

• School records

• Medical and dental records

• Power of attorney

• Will

• Inventories of personal luggage, air freight, andhousehold shipments

• Extra passport photos

• Record of your car’s serial number

Embassy InformationConsular officials and their duties

The chief of mission with the title of ambassador, min-ister, or chargé d’affaires and the deputy chief of mis-sion are the heads of diplomatic missions. They areresponsible for all parts of the mission within a coun-try, including the consular post or posts.

The economic/commercial officers represent all thecommercial interests in the country to which they areassigned. Their responsibilities include the promotionof trade and exports, arranging appointments for theircitizens with local businesspeople and government

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officials, and providing the maximum possible assis-tance to their country’s businesses within the hostcountry.

Political officers study and report on local politicaldevelopments and their possible effects on theircountry’s interests.

Labor officers are well informed on labor in their par-ticular countries and can supply information on wages,nonwage costs, local security regulations, et cetera.

The consular officers are the ones with whom you,as an expatriate, will have the most contact. Their func-tion is to give you and your property the protection ofyour government.

They maintain lists of their citizens living in the area,have lists of local attorneys, and act as liaison withpolice and other officials.

The administrative officer is in charge of the normalbusiness operations of the post, including all purchas-ing for the embassy or consulate.

When you first arrive in your host country, registerwith the embassy or consulate nearest you. If there isan emergency, your relatives and friends will be ableto locate you easily.

In addition, it will be useful to inquire about:Weather/climate conditions: What fabrics wear longer,

what special care personal and household items re-quire?

Postal system: Dependability and efficiency of thepostal system, location and appearance of post boxes,cost of mailing letters and packages.

Clothing sizes and availability: What will have to becarried with you, what clothing sizes translate into asize 12 dress or 9 shoe, the advisability of havingclothes tailored?

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Electricity: What voltage is used in the host country,can your appliances (including hair dryers) be adapted,which appliances are best left at home?

Housing: Can arrangements be made prior to arrival;if not, where will you stay temporarily, how do yousearch for housing, what agreements with landlordsare customary?

Furnishings and appliances: What “travels” well, howmuch shipping weight will you be allowed, when canshipped household items be expected to arrive, whatis supplied in your new home (if you have acquiredone)?

Servants: Are servants available, how many will youneed, how are they engaged, what are the customarywages, benefits, and obligations of employers, whatbonuses or special gifts are given, how are unsatisfac-tory servants dismissed?

Food restrictions (if any): What foods are unavailable,what are appropriate substitutes, what items will youwant to import?

Health and hospitals: Where do you get emergencyand other health care in-country?

Schools: Can your children attend public schools,what alternative schools are available, what are regis-tration procedures, will uniforms be needed, is it nec-essary to place children in boarding schools at homeor in a nearby country?

Shopping: Who does the shopping, how often doesone shop for food, what kinds of stores for food andother necessities are available?

Baby-sitting arrangements: Who baby-sits, how is asitter hired, what are the customary rates, are sitterspicked up and returned home?

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Laws and legal systems: What are the traffic laws,driving customs and conditions, obligations in case ofan accident? We trust that you will not encounter thelaw in other instances but it is useful to know if thereare any unfamiliar laws that you might break, literallyby accident. For example, is it illegal to have liquor inyour possession?

Employment possibilities for spouses: In most coun-tries it is illegal to work without official permission. Inmany cases those who accompany a spouse employedby a foreign firm are not permitted to work.

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Appendix E

Additional ResourcesAfrican American Institute publishes one-page sum-

mary sheets of each African country (periodicallyupdated). African American Institute, 833 UnitedNations Plaza, New York, NY 10017.

Background Notes contain a few pages of demographicdata, geographic and historical overviews, traveltips, and a brief summary of American relationswith over 180 countries. Distributed by the Su-perintendent of Documents, U.S. GovernmentPrinting Office, Washington, DC 20402, for a mini-mal cost.

Bibliographic Surveys are annotated bibliographies pre-pared by the Department of the Army for certainareas of the world. Such volumes are available fromthe Superintendent of Documents, U.S. GovernmentPrinting Office, Washington, DC 20402.

Business Customs & Protocol series, produced for busi-nesspeople, concentrate on how to get started, howto get things done, and how to facilitate mutualunderstanding. Produced by and available fromStanford Research Institute International, 333Ravenswood Ave., Menlo Park, CA 94025.

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Cities of the World is a publication on more than 140countries of the world, covering over 2,000 majorand minor cities in Africa, Europe, the Americas,Asia, and Australia. Gale Research, Book Tower,Detroit, MI 48226.

Country Studies have superseded the former AreaHandbooks. Each volume of the series covers aspecific country. These provide detailed geographi-cal, historical, ethnological, and political data.Published by the Federal Research Division of theU.S. Library of Congress. Available from the Su-perintendent of Documents, Washington, DC20402.

Cultural Atlas series capture the immense diversity andrichness of the countries they cover. Available fromFacts on File, 460 Park Ave. South, New York, NY10016.

Culture Shock! [specific country] is a series of publica-tions with general as well as specific tips on cul-tural adjustment to the country and its customs.Available in most U.S. bookstores or, for a com-plete catalogue, write Graphic Arts Center Publish-ing, PO Box 10306, Portland, OR 97210.

Do’s and Taboos around the World: A Guide to Interna-tional Behavior (edited by Roger Axtell) gives a lim-ited and uneven but nonetheless useful coverageof protocol, jargon, customs, and etiquette formore than 90 countries. Compiled by the ParkerPen Co. and available from John Wiley, 605 ThirdAve., New York, NY 10158. Also available fromAudio Forum.

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Economist Intelligence Publications provide a varietyof materials, including the Quarterly Economic Re-view, covering more than 150 countries; specialIntelligence Unit Reports; Quarterly Energy Review;and much more. Available from The EconomistIntelligence Unit, 75 Rockefeller Plaza, New York,NY 10019.

Encyclopedia Britannica provides extensive demo-graphic, historical, geographic, and social coun-try and area data. Current demographic data andsignificant political events are provided in theBritannica Book of the Year. EncyclopediaBritannica, 3105 Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60604.

The Encyclopedia of Peoples of the World contains morethan 2,000 alphabetical entries on all peoples andethnic groups of the world. Published by HenryHolt, 4375 W. 1980 South, Salt Lake City, UT 84104.

The Encyclopedia of the Third World by George T. Kurianis published by Facts on File, 460 Park Ave. South,New York, NY 10016. There are three volumes inthe series, sold only as a set, so you will probablywant to check a library for this one.

The Europa World Yearbook, two volumes, publishedby Europa, Ltd. of London and distributed by GaleResearch, Book Tower, Detroit, MI 48226. This isan excellent source for listings of internationalorganizations. Europa, Ltd. also publishes otherregional titles in their Regional surveys of theWorld series including: Middle East and North Af-rica; Far East and Australasia; Africa South of theSahara; and South America, Central America andthe Caribbean.

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Expat Exchange offers a free online chat room, avail-able to expatriates at www.expatexchange.com

Health Information for International Travel is an an-nual publication that includes helpful informationfor travelers. Available from the Department ofHealth and Human Services, Public Health Service,Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, At-lanta, GA 30333.

Human Relations Area Files/The Outlines of WorldCultures indexes, on microfiche, cover every areaof the world from an anthropological perspective.Detailed information is presented on many of theethnic groups of each country. Available at majoruniversity libraries throughout the United States.Human Relations Area Files, 755 Prospect St., NewHaven, CT 06511.

InterAct series. Available for Eastern Europe, Africa, theArab world, and eleven individual countries: Aus-tralia, China, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Ja-pan, Mexico, Russia, Spain, and Sweden (more vol-umes in press; inquire for complete current list).Synthesize cross-cultural conflict analysis, ethnicpersonality characteristics, social relationships, sexroles, family and communication styles, and atti-tudes. Format compares and contrasts the specificcountry with the United States. Published by Inter-cultural Press, PO Box 700, Yarmouth, ME 04096.

(Craighead’s) International Executive Travel and Relo-cation Service provides essential, up-to-date in-formation for people on overseas assignments. In-ternational Executive Update Service, PO Box 149,Darien, CT 06820.

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Internet websites are too numerous to mention, andthey are expanding so rapidly that any list wouldbe out-of-date before the ink is dry. Their imme-diate access from anywhere in the world makesthem especially useful.

Lands & Peoples, published by Grolier in six volumes,covers history, geography, sociology, anthropol-ogy, economics, and the political situation in eachof the countries covered. Grolier, Sherman Turn-pike, Danbury, CT 06816.

Living Abroad Publishing has online profiles on morethan 75 countries available on the Internet atwww.livingabroad.com

Managing Cultural Differences by Phillip R. Harris andRobert T. Moran details strategies for managersand specific area guidelines and resources.Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford, UK.

Moving Your Family Overseas by Rosalind Kalb andPenelope Welch. Designed for use by the entirefamily, this book discusses the challenges of mov-ing abroad faced by each member of the family.Available from Intercultural Press, PO Box 700,Yarmouth, ME 04096.

The Nations around Us. Volume 1 includes CulturGrams(4-page briefings) on 50 nations of North and SouthAmerica and Western and Eastern Europe. Volume2 covers 39 countries of the Middle East, Africa,Asia, and the Pacific. Each contains informationabout such things as customary greetings, con-versational styles, gestures and their meanings,customs and background of the population, land,economy, religion, history, climate, and govern-

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ment. CulturGrams are also available individually.Available from Garrett Park Press, PO Box 190B,Garrett Park, MD 20896.

Political Handbook of the World, edited by Arthur S.Banks, has up-to-date information about everyindependent country in the world. CSA Publica-tions, Center for Social Analysis, SUNY at Bingham-ton, Binghamton, NY 13902.

The Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature allows oneto search recent magazines and periodicals forpertinent articles on each country. Available inmost libraries.

A Selected Functional and Country Bibliography for [spe-cific country] is the basic title for excellent bibli-ographies on eight major geographic areas of theworld. They are updated regularly and are usefulfor creating your own up-to-date bibliography.Available from the Center for Area and Commu-nity Studies, National Foreign Affairs Training Cen-ter, 4000 Arlington Blvd., Arlington, VA 22204.

Snowdon’s Global Protocols: The Americas and Snowdon’sOfficial International Protocols. The latter has threevolumes—Asia-Pacific Rim, Europe, and the De-finitive Guide to Business and Social Customs ofthe World. Irwin Professional Publishing, 1333 BurrRidge Pkwy., Burr Ridge, IL 60521.

Statesman’s Year-Book provides background informa-tion on every country in the world, including briefhistories and explanations of government andmonetary systems.

The World Today series consist of six volumes cover-ing Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and South

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Asia, the Far East and the Southwest Pacific, the(former) Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, andEurope. You may purchase them from Stryker-PostPublications, 888 17th St., NW, Washington, DC20006.

Third World Economic Handbook by Stuart Sinclair pro-vides country surveys of more than 20 majorThird-World countries with emphasis on theireconomies and state of development. Publishedby Euromonitor Publications, Ltd., London. Avail-able from Gale Research, Book Tower, Detroit, MI48226.

The Traveler’s Reading Guide: Ready-made Reading Listsfor the Armchair Traveler, edited by Maggy Simony,provides bibliographies for the world’s countriesin three volumes. Volume 1 covers Europe, Vol. II,the Americas, and Vol. III, the rest of the world.References include fiction set in the countrieslisted as well as significant articles from past is-sues of National Geographic. Facts on File, 460Park Ave. South, New York, NY 10016.

WeEuropeans by Richard Hill offers a qualitative andobjective assessment of the different tempera-ments present in the European community. Avail-able from EuroPublic, Brussels, Belgium.

Where in the World Are You Going? by Judith M. Blohmis an entertaining activity book for children agesfive to ten that helps them prepare to move abroadwith their families. Published by InterculturalPress, PO Box 700, Yarmouth, ME 04096.

Whole World Guide to Culture Learning by Dan Hess isa text for culture learning. It offers a substantive

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introduction to the ideas that provide the frame-work for culture learning along with extensivepractical guidelines on how to extract the desiredlearning from the cross-cultural experience. Inter-cultural Press, PO Box 700, Yarmouth, ME 04096.

Women’s Guide to Overseas Living by Nancy Piet-Pelonand Barbara Hornby is a sensitive examination ofissues critical to women and families who goabroad to live. Available from Intercultural Press,PO Box 700, Yarmouth, ME 04096.

World Cultures Database (published on diskettes injournal installments) is a working tool for cross-cultural research and instruction. Published byWorld Cultures, PO Box 12524, La Jolla, CA 92037.

The World Factbook contains brief fact sheets with de-mographic data on most countries. Updated an-nually. Central Intelligence Agency, Washington,DC 20505 (and at www.odcia.gov/cia/publica-tions/factbook/index.html).

The World in Figures (published annually) provides sta-tistical and marketing information on each coun-try. Featured are population figures, national in-come, standard of living, main commodities, worldtrade, inflation rates, currency, political and eco-nomic summaries, and much more. Published bythe Economist, available through Rand McNally &Co., PO Box 7600, Chicago, IL 60680.

World Weather Guide is a country-by-country guide tothe average temperature and climatic conditionsat any time of the year. New York Times Books,229 W. 43rd St., New York, NY 10036.

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Worldwide Business Briefings publishes reports ondoing business in more than 50 countries. Avail-able on the Internet at www.businessculture.com

Many of the major search engines on the Internet listlinks to the world’s countries and cultures. Someexamples are www.lycos.com “Society and Beliefs”;www.yahoo.com “Society and Culture”; andwww.nbci.com “Society and Politics.”

Many classic studies of specific peoples of the worldare found in major libraries. A few representative titlesinclude:

The Arab Mind, by Raphael Patai.

The Chrysanthemum and the Sword (Japan), byRuth Benedict.

The French, by Theodore Zeldin.

The Germans, by Gordon Craig.

The Italians, by Luigi Barzini.

The Japanese Mind, by Charles Moore.

Korean Patterns, by Paul Crane.

The Russians and The New Russians, by HedrickSmith.

The Ways of Thinking of Eastern Peoples (India,China, Tibet, and Japan), by Hajime Nakamura.

Travel PublicationsNames of some of the more widely used travel guidesseries are: AAA, Access Guide, All the Best, AmericanExpress, A to Z (by Robert Kane), Bazak, Baedeker, Benn,Berlitz, Birnbaum, Eye Witness, Fielding, Fodor (whichnow includes People Briefings section, which is excel-lent), Ford, Frommer, Handbook Series, Insight, Knopf

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Guides, Let’s Go, Lonely Planet, McKay, Michelin, Moon,Myra Waldo, Nagel, New Horizons, Olson, Pan Am,Phaidan, Putnam, and Rand McNally.

The Travel Book: Guide to the Travel Guides (by John O.Heise and Julia Rinehart) is an index with shortdescriptions of the travel guides on the market. Asecond part of the book suggests which travelguide should be used for each country. ScarecrowPress, 52 Liberty St., Metuchen, NJ 08840.

The Traveller’s Bookstore stocks travel books plus his-tories and novels on many countries. Traveller’sBookstore, 22 West 52nd St., New York, NY 10019.

Weissmann Travel Reports will provide a current re-port on any single country in the world. Thesereports are especially useful for the less acces-sible countries (like North Korea or Laos, or theformer Soviet Central Asian republics) for whichinformation is particularly difficult to get. Dataare updated four times per year, so it is reliable.Weissmann Travel Reports, Box 49279, Austin, TX78765.

Films and VideosFilms and videos are often difficult to locate becausefew master sources reference all the films availablefor any particular country. Selections often must bemade from the brief description given in a listing ratherthan through viewing the film or video.

The Educational Film Locator of the Consortium ofUniversity Film Centers is unquestionably the bestsingle source for identifying films on any subject,including countries and areas. Although it lists

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large numbers of films by title for each country(well over 200 for Japan, for example) and whereeach is available, its single shortcoming is the fail-ure to give annotated descriptions of the films.The publisher is R. R. Bowker, 245 West 17th St.,New York, NY 10011. This source is available inmajor libraries; be sure to locate the latest edi-tion.

Crossing Cultures through Film by Ellen Summerfield.Describes over 70 classic films in detail includinghow to make most effective use of them in class-room and training situations. Available from In-tercultural Press, PO Box 700, Yarmouth, ME 04096.

Film and Video Resources for International EducationalExchange (2d ed.) by Lee Ziegler. Provides briefannotations on over 350 films and videos. Pub-lished by Intercultural Press, PO Box 700,Yarmouth, ME 04096.

The latest edition of the Video Source Book is up-to-date, but there is less available commercially onvideo than there is on film. The most useful sec-tion in locating country-specific videos is titled“Subject Category Index.” Published by the NationalVideo Clearinghouse, 100 Lafayette Dr., Syosset,NY 11791.

Since more country and regional videos are releasedall the time, be sure to check with local video rentaloutlets as well as local library branches.

Additional ServicesThe embassies and consulates of the world’s nationsare generally willing to provide informative materials

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and respond to specific questions. However, the useful-ness of the publications and the level of responsive-ness to inquiries varies greatly. This is often due to thefinancial resources available for any given country. Ja-pan, Germany, and Saudi Arabia are particularly knownfor the extensive publications they produce. The morespecific you can be in your request, the more likely youare to get what you need. Many countries also operatespecial tourist offices which concentrate on attractingtourists to their countries. Colorful booklets and attrac-tive posters are available from many of them. Up-to-date addresses for all these embassies, consulates, tour-ist-trade offices, et cetera can be located in major pub-lic or university libraries. For example, check the Fed-eral Staff Directory (published annually), CongressionalStaff Directory Ltd., Mt. Vernon, VA 22121.

MapsExcellent editions of maps are available for all areasand countries and most cities of the world. Allow timefor receiving your order.

American Map Co., H6-35 57th Rd., Maspeth, NY 11378,is a well-stocked map store.

Atlas of the World Today, edited by Neil Grand and NickMiddleton, provides a world picture in politicaland social framework maps. Harper Collins, 10 E.53rd St., New York, NY 10022.

The Central Intelligence Agency publishes many un-classified maps, making them available to the gen-eral public for purchase through the GovernmentPrinting Office in Washington, DC. (Be aware thatthe GPO may take several months to fill mail or-ders, so allow plenty of time.)

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Defense Mapping Agency (formerly known as the ArmyMap Service), 6101 McArthur Blvd., Washington,DC 20315, is another government-sponsoredsource of maps from which anyone may order.

Hagstrom Map and Travel Center, 57 West 43rd St., NewYork, NY 10036, is an excellent source for maps.In addition, it publishes a free quarterly newslet-ter full of information on new maps from manypublishers.

Library of Congress Map Room will provide informa-tion by phone [(202) 278-6277] on where a mapfor any city in the world may be obtained. Libraryof Congress Map Division, James Madison Memo-rial Bldg., LMB101, Washington, DC 20540.

A. J. Nystrom Co., 3333 Elston Ave., Chicago, IL 60618,is a source for raised relief maps.

Rand McNally Co., 150 East 52nd St., New York, NY10022, has maps of the world. Branches are lo-cated in major U.S. cities.

Travel Centers of the World, PO Box 1788-JA, Holly-wood, CA 90078, is perhaps the most completesource of world maps. It offers maps and travelguides of cities and countries. Their 350-page cata-logue is expensive, but is well worth the invest-ment.

An extremely useful map resource is The Map Catalog(Joel Makower, editor). New York: Vintage Books,201 E. 50th St., New York, NY 10022. In additionto making you aware of an amazing number oftypes of maps which are available, it also includesa helpful section on where to find indigenous mapsin more than 135 countries around the world.

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Appendix F

Template for Gathering Informationabout Doing Business in

Your Country of Assignment[Much of this information can be gathered fromInternet sites or at any comprehensive library beforeyou leave home.]

A. Demographics

Geographic region

Neighboring countries (those, especially, thatmost affect, influence, or threaten this coun-try)

Topography

Seaport access?/Port facilities

Population

Distribution of population

Workforce

Ethnic groups

Language(s)

Dominant religious beliefs

Literacy rate

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Educational levels (by percentages)

Life expectancy at birth

Infant mortality (per 1,000 live births)

B. Description of your host country

Total land area (in square miles)

Size comparison (e.g., “about the size of Texas”or “a little larger than France”)

Rural/Urban ratio

Large cities/Metropolitan areas

Type of government/Political system

Head of state

When and how independence was achieved

Political parties

Legal system

Economic system

Inclusion in international economic system?

Access to banking services

Access to Internet

Membership in regional organizations

Membership in international organizations

Economic performance

Gross domestic product

World ranking of GDP

Per capita GDP

World ranking of per capita GDP (by purchasing-power-parity)

Major natural resources

Level of exports

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Major items exported

Balance of exports and imports

Transportation systems

Communication systems

Infrastructure condition

Energy (electricity, nuclear, crude oil, natural gas,coal, etc.)

Number of national holidays per year

Monetary unit and current exchange rate (and isit a “hard” or “soft” currency?)

C. The broader cultural environment

Level of technological development

Degree of participation in self-government

Openness and reliability of the media

Major educational institutions

System of weights and measures used

Social control systems (laws, police, courts, pe-nal institutions)

Countries with which this country has diplomaticrelations

Military strength

Military alliances

Health-care systems

Climate and weather conditions

D. Accepted business practices and procedures

Recruitment and hiring

Initial job assignment (for newly employed per-sonnel)

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Job rotation

Training

Evaluation

Promotion and promotion expectations

Salary criteria

Income tax requirements in effect

Bonus expectations

Incentive systems/Motivation

Welfare

Employee layoffs/Firing

Retirement

Labor relations/Unions

Job assignment and reassignment procedures

Internal structure of local corporations/Organi-zational patterns

Decision-making system

Negotiation processes

E. Legal concerns impacting management

Tariffs, duties, and restrictions

Import quotas

Export commitments

Limits on expansion

Price controls

Financing restrictions

Restrictions on sending profits outside country

Restrictions on nationality of management

Foreign ownership limitations

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Local sourcing requirements

Technology transfer

Intellectual property protection

Nationalization and expropriation

Local manufacturing requirements

Local environmental restrictions

Capital repatriation restrictions

Dividend remittance restrictions

Abrogation of right of royalties

Restrictions on spouse working

F. Risk analysis

Estimate of political risk of continued operationin-country

Estimate of economic risk of continued opera-tion in-country

Current extent of the country’s security or ter-rorist risks

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About the Author

Robert Kohls has been a cross-cultural trainer formore than thirty years as well as an intercultural con-sultant to the corporate and academic sectors of Ameri-can society. He was one of the founders of the inter-cultural field in the mid-1960s. Among his clients aremore than seventy of the Fortune 500 companies,where he has trained their top executives and theirspouses.

He has also trained diplomats serving around theworld, Fulbright scholars, teachers and students of allages, military personnel, Peace Corps volunteers, mis-sionaries, and foreign nationals from 150 countries.He is one of the few cross-cultural trainers who canclaim to have prepared tens of thousands of people tofunction effectively in countries around the world.

For ten years, Kohls was a Foreign Service Officerwith full responsibility for the training and develop-ment of the Cultural Attachés and Press Attachés serv-ing at U. S. embassies around the world, and from 1983through 1987, he was Executive Director of The Wash-ington International Center, the oldest organization

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anywhere in the world designed to prepare people tounderstand the institutions, values, and customs ofpeople from other countries. He is currently Professorof East Asian Studies at the University of San Francisco’sCenter for the Pacific Rim.

Kohls has lived, worked, and conducted research inmore than ninety countries in Europe, Asia, the MiddleEast, Africa, and Latin America. He holds a bachelor’sdegree from Drake University, a master’s degree fromColumbia University, and a Ph.D. from New York Uni-versity. In 1974 he was one of the founders of the In-ternational Society of Intercultural Education, Train-ing and Research [SIETAR International], from whichhe was the first to receive the Society’s highest honor,the Primus inter pares Award in 1986.

In 1990 he was named one of the “top two or threecross-cultural authors” in an open-ended poll to iden-tify The Most Influential Writers in the Field of Cross-Cultural Studies, conducted by The International Jour-nal of Intercultural Relations. In 1996 the Associationof International Educators in Washington, D.C. namedhim “America’s Leading Interculturalist.” In 1997, hewas inducted into the International Academy for Inter-cultural Research as a Founding Fellow.