American Ways
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ISBN: 978-1-877864-99-5
A Guide for Foreigners in the United States
Gary Althen
Paperback - 328 pp. More details... |
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Product Details
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Traveling to America soon? If the thought of extended exposure among Americans seems daunting, let American Ways: A Guide for Foreigners in the United States help you prepare.
In this revised edition, Gary Althen has added material to provide the clearest insights yet into the American psyche and culture, including the rewritten chapter “Ways of Reasoning,” which provides one of the best-organized and clearest presentations of American thought processes to date, and a new chapter on race and ethnic relations that compares how foreign visitors and Americans alike perceive American subcultures. Within most chapters Althen has included a new section, “Suggestions for Foreign Visitors,” adding another practical dimension to the book.
American Ways covers all the basic needs of the foreign student or businessperson, covering the trends and customs of day-to-day activities like driving, shopping and verbal and nonverbal communication as well as the more esoteric customs regarding cultural values, politics, education, religion and male-female relationships.
As a comprehensive introduction to American culture, American Ways will prepare you for living, studying and working in America.
“It's that little tiny stuff that can affect how people get along....[T]here are lots and lots of different [cues] on an underlying, unspoken level.”
—Gary Althen
“Althen gives advice to foreign visitors to the U.S. that is intended to help them understand the motivations, attitudes, communication styles, and actions of Americans. Emphasizing the interpretation of observed behavior, he covers ways of reasoning and American ideas about politics, family life, education, religion, the media, social relationships, racial and ethnic diversity, male-female relationships, sports and recreation, driving, shopping, personal hygiene, and organizational and public behavior. Over-generalization is an understandable danger in such a work as this, but Althen does make an effort to emphasize that there are variations among Americans, while he concentrates on the similarities.”
—Book News
Contents
Preface to the Second Edition
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I: General Ideas About American Culture
1 American Values and Assumptions
2 The Communicative Style of Americans
3 Ways of Reasoning
4 Differences in Customs
Part II: Specific Aspects of American Life
5 Politics
6 Family Life
7 Education
8 Religion
9 The Media
10 Social Relationships
11 Racial and Ethnic Diversity
12 Male-Female Relationships
13 Sports and Recreation
14 Driving
15 Shopping
16 Personal Hygiene
17 Getting Things Done
18 Behavior in Public Places
19 Studying
20 Business
Part III: Coping With Cultural Differences
21 Some Helpful Ideas
22 Activities for Learning About American Culture
Conclusion
Bibliography
About the Author
About the Author
Gary Althen served for thirty years as a foreign student adviser at the University of Iowa, as well as director of the Office of International Students and Scholars. He has been president of NAFSA: Association of International Educators and received its Marita Houlihan Award for his contributions to the field of international educational exchange. He is the author of The Handbook of Foreign Student Advising and is author, editor, or coauthor of many publications concerning international education and intercultural affairs. He has lived and worked in Peru and Malaysia.
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