Cultural Portraits: A Synoptic Guide, 2nd Edition
Publisher: B & B Educational Consultants, Inc.
Published: January, 2010
Place of publication: United States of America
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 351
Description: Cultural Portraits is a reference guide that helps bridge the cultural gap with persons whose cultures differ from ours. It is an easy-to-use, instant-access source of information that can be readily used by Social Studies and ELL teachers, guidance counselors, school administrators, supervisors of organizations that employ foreign workers, police and border patrol officials, tourists, and generally all who come in contact with persons from different cultural backgrounds. It will help avoid embarrassing incidents and improve cross-cultural understanding and communication and result in better productivity--be that in the classroom, in the factory, or in neighborhoods where there are English Language Learners.
Table of contents: title: In Cultural Portraits you’ll find accurate, research-based data on 80 countries, presented in 80 portraits. Each portrait, a two-page spread, contains basic statistical information (geography, religions, and potential political conflicts, et al.) and subjective information in a number of critical areas (caveats, name structure, forms of address, gender relations, diets, long and short dates, numbers, body language, the concept of time, and national traits). A separate section, Educational Profiles, provides K-12 descriptions and schematic sequences, and offers grading scale equivalents to help evaluate foreign transcripts and make accurate student placements. The above information is further complemented by an extensive Glossary that offers succinct explanations of terms found in the book, and by an Appendix of information related mostly to education, thus making it a complete and valuable resource on foreign cultures and education.