American Ways: A guide for Foreigners in the United States

Reading this book, you will "visualize" American culture and society through the experiences in each page! Although there are certainly passages that are very useful entangled in some American notions, mostly abstract, such as American individualism. The book is really meaningful to you, when you decide to come to the United States to travel or study.

American Ways: A guide for Foreigners in the United States

Althen,Gary, Doran,Amanda R.

Intercultural Press

2003

Abstract

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....

There 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.

Contents Preface to the Second Edition Acknowledgments Introduction.

Part I: General Ideas About American Culture American Values and Assumptions, The Communicative Style of Americans, Ways of Reasonng Differences in Customs.

Part II: Specific Aspects of American Life, Politics, Family Life Education Religion, The Media Social Relationships, Racial and Ethnic Diversity Male-Female Relationships, Sports and Recreation, Driving Shopping Personal Hygiene Getting Things Done, Behavior in Public Places, Studying, Business.

Part III: Coping With Cultural Differences, Some Helpful Ideas, Activities for Learning About American.