In her book, Foreign to Familiar, Sarah Lanier paints some
broad stoke cultural differences that can be helpful to anyone engaging a
different culture. This very simple read is helpful in giving some basic
guidelines for navigating on foreign soil.
Each chapter of the book explores some major differences
between what she calls hot climate and cold climate cultures. Although she
boldly admits that there are exceptions to the rules, Sarah shows how most
cultures fit nicely into her categories. For example, hot climate cultures
(Nicaragua, Mexico, Africa, etc.) tend to be more relationship based while cold
climate cultures (North America, Northern Europe, Israel, etc.) are more task
oriented. Knowing and understanding such a basic distinction can help us avoid
some common cultural blunders as we are trying to connect in different
environments. Other chapters describe the differences in terms of direct versus
indirect communication, individualism versus group identity, inclusion versus
privacy, etc. In each chapter she does a nice job of giving personal examples
of misunderstandings that could easily be avoided by and better understanding
of the cultural distinctives.
This short book (130 small pages) is a good first step to
understanding some of the common cultural differences that exist in various
countries around the world. And although the categories are wide sweeping
generalizations, they do provide a framework to help understand some basic
differences. We recommend this book for anyone who plans on going on a
short-term Culturally Engaged trip in the coming years.
-Grace Church staff
-Grace Church staff