The Art of Crossing Cultures, 2nd Edition Quotes

“ethnocentrism is a fundamental fact of the human condition.”
― Craig Storti, The Art of Crossing Cultures

“The student of Arabic, for example, learns that “God willing” (N’sha’llah) is automatically added to any statement about the future (just as “thanks be to God” accompanies any reference to fortunate events of the past), that many common given names—Abdullah, Abdelsalam, Abdelwahid—translate as slave (abd) of God, appreciating, as a consequence, the essential fatalism of Arab culture. Similarly, the student of Nepali, struggling to sort out the myriad nouns for family members—there are four words for uncle, denoting whether the man in question is the brother of one’s father or mother and whether he is older or younger than said parent—readily appreciates the importance of the family in Nepali society and may even intuit the relative insignificance of the individual. Language is not simply how people speak; it is who they are.”
― Craig Storti, The Art of Crossing Cultures

“To stop expecting other people to behave like we do is actually a two-step process: first we have to realize that we have this expectation, and second we have to start expecting the local people to simply be themselves. The first step, realizing we expect others to be like us, is in many ways the most difficult, for it requires that we somehow become aware of behavior that is completely subconscious.”
― Craig Storti, The Art of Crossing Cultures

“You have no idea, in short, that what is normal to you is not also universal, that much of what you think of as human nature is only cultural.”
― Craig Storti, The Art of Crossing Cultures

“Because of our cultural conditioning, we not only think our actions are normal, the way everyone behaves; we also think what we do is right, the way everyone should behave. We therefore regard any behavior that is different from ours as wrong. Naturally, this puts cultural incidents into a whole new light.”
― Craig Storti, The Art of Crossing Cultures

“people who have the least contact with the locals are often the most critical of them.”
― Craig Storti, The Art of Crossing Cultures

“Any time you try to fix something before you understand how it works, you will only succeed by accident,”
― Craig Storti, The Art of Crossing Cultures

“because of cultural differences—different, deeply held beliefs and instincts about what is natural, normal, right, and good—cross-cultural interactions are subject to all manner of confusion, misunderstanding, and misinterpretation. In a word, they are often unsuccessful.”
― Craig Storti, The Art of Crossing Cultures

“If you need a spare part in Pokhara (Nepal) and it has to come from Khatmandu, ninety miles away, you can take off the rest of the week.”
― Craig Storti, The Art of Crossing Cultures