Multicultural Manners : New Rules of Etiquette for a Changing Society

From Booklist
"English Only" and anti-immigration folks won't like it, but readers who hope with Rodney King that we can "all just get along" will want to learn what Dresser--the Los Angeles Times' "Multicultural Manners" columnist--has to teach. We don't all speak the same language or have the same cultural assumptions; even caring, thoughtful people offend others unintentionally. Dresser's longest section--on communication--addresses a broad range of issues: body language, child-rearing practices, classroom behavior, clothing, colors, gifts, luck and supernatural forces, foodways, male-female relations, prejudice, time, and verbal expressions. Shorter chapters discuss holidays and worship and health issues in terms of specific ethnic groups and religious denominations. A longtime college ESL teacher, Dresser views her subject as a folklorist or anthropologist, seeking to inform rather than to make judgments; her style is lively and anecdotal. Given Los Angeles' demographics, Dresser focuses on more recent immigrants, particularly those from Asia and Latin America, rather than on groups that have been in the U.S. for generations. Her advice will help businesspeople, teachers, neighbors--anyone who recognizes the value of knowing about and respecting others' cultures. Mary Carroll


Midwest Book Review
Multicultural Manners is an etiquette book which applies equally to business and personal relationships, covering social interaction protocol among people from different cultures and covering body language, word choices, entertaining, and gift giving. Avoid problems at work and home with this important guide.


Book Description
Your friend's mother-in-law is visiting from Korea. When greeting her, do you bow, shake hands, or kiss her on both cheeks?

The meeting with his international customers is going well for the corporate president—until he gives the thumbs-up sign. Why?

You welcome your new neighbors with a bouquet of your prize-winning daffodils. Yet, your beautiful yellow blossoms are met with looks of shock and horror. Why?

Discover the answers in this incisive guide to etiquette for today's multicultural society. This informative and entertaining book gives you the understanding you need, the perfect words to say, and the correct behavior to use in a wide range of cross-cultural situations: The do's and don'ts of successful business and social interaction with people from different cultures Appropriate etiquette involving body language, food, child rearing, clothing, word choices, colors, entertaining, romance, and gift giving Detailed tips on avoiding embarrassment at work, in the classroom, at meals, and at weddings and funerals Important rules and traditions in Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant churches; in Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform synagogues; in Buddhist and Hindu temples; and more


Book Info
Informative and entertaining book gives you the understanding you need, the perfect words to say, and the correct behavior to use in a wide range of cross-cultural situations. Paper.


The publisher, John Wiley & Sons
The "Multicultural Manners" columnist for the Los Angeles Times, Dresser has written a lively and entertaining guide on the etiquette necessary for effective and comfortable cross-cultural exchange. She addresses multicultural manners relating to food, time, body language, male/female relations and verbal expressions using a wide range of situations. Hundreds of amusing, first-hand accounts of cultural gaffes illustrate how cultural miscues happen and how they can be avoided.


From the Back Cover
Your friend's mother-in-law is visiting from Korea. When greeting her, do you bow, shake hands, or kiss her on both cheeks?

The meeting with his international customers is going well for the corporate president—until he gives the thumbs-up sign. Why?

You welcome your new neighbors with a bouquet of your prize-winning daffodils. Yet, your beautiful yellow blossoms are met with looks of shock and horror. Why?

ANNOTATION

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

FROM THE PUBLISHER