Posts Tagged ‘cross-cultural’
Cultural faux pas
Virgin Media has an online feature about cultural faux pas to avoid in different countries and regions of the world. A sample: * The “a-ok” sign has positive meaning in Britain and in the USA. It’s also the internationally-recognised way that scuba divers say to each other “I’m just dandy, thanks for asking.” But in [...]
History, patience and fatalism in Egypt
Egypt has a history that stretches back thousands of years. It’s a boon for the tourist industry, which draws millions of annual visitors to the Pyramids, the Valley of the Kings and other such sites, but the country’s long past also has an interesting cultural influence as it seems to induce a sense of fatalism in the [...]
Learning about age and culture in Korea
Students who take advantage of study abroad programs have a wide variety of experiences. In the best scenarios, they not only have a fun and enriching life experience, but also come away with nuggets of insight into the culture of a new country. That’s what happened for Laura Corser, who was recently profiled in the [...]
Re-thinking Islamic banking
As the global financial system tries to right itself after staggering to the brink of collapse, one banking sector finds itself in somewhat better shape than most of the world. That would be the Islamic banking system, which credits its steadiness to practices that are unique to Islamic finance, such as banning interest and shying away from excessive [...]
Koreans learn to embrace adoption
Some countries easily embrace the concept of adoption. In the United States, for instance, adoption has long been commonplace and even foreign born children find easy acceptance in this multicultural society. In some other nations, though, people have struggled with the idea of adoption. This is especially true in a place like Korea, where family and ancestry are [...]
Soccer-loving Brazilians
Brazil is a country that is mad for soccer (or football, as most of the world calls the sport). Now, that passionate love for the game has been permanently documented in a new National Football Museum in Sao Paulo, Brazil. What’s unique about this museum is that it not only celebrates Brazil’s star players and team [...]
Link between your decorating habits and your politics?
Does the look of your workplace or your living space reveal anything about your political ideology? According to this story in Live Science, it just might. A person may hide their political ideology from others, including from pollsters, but the researchers were delighted to learn that a peek into subjects’ living quarters or even workspaces [...]
Four Seasons in Rome
I just finished reading a book called “Four Seasons in Rome,” by Anthony Doerr. One the surface, it’s the tale of a husband and wife who move to Rome for a year (for a writing fellowship) with their two children. The catch is that the children are twins and are only a few months old [...]
How the French see America
It’s no surprise that the French have a complicated relationship with the United States. One that is certainly reciprocated, as the Americans and the French seem to both love and detest what is most unique about the other’s country. This love-hate dynamic is uniquely examined through the prism of politics in a recent essayby Steven Erlanger in the [...]
The culture of Italian food
I came across a great article about a movement that has sprung up in Italy to preserve the country’s culture of cooking and serving good food. Ah, but Italian food is always good, you might say. Perhaps, but the members of the Home Food movement contend that something of the country’s heritage is being lost – [...]
Tribes and clans in Afghanistan
There is a short but thoughtful article in The Atlantic about the current U.S. engagement with Afghanistan and the story contains some useful pieces of information about Afghan culture. Specifically, it speaks about the tremendous importance of tribes and clans in the nation’s social structure, while suggesting that the U.S. strategy is on the wrong track [...]
The geography of personality
A few months ago, I had a post about the personality traits of cities. Now along comes a study on the personality traits of states, so perhaps there is something to this whole concept. The Wall Street Journal has the story. Certain regional stereotypes have long since become cliches: The stressed-out New Yorker. The laid-back Californian. [...]
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Bob Riel is a writer and a traveler. Go here to read more about Bob, his work and the Travels in the Riel World blog.
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