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Old World/New World: Bridging Cultural Differences: Britain, France, Germany and the U. S.

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This book is for Americans who need to understand Europeans better—and vice versa. Through a series of 51 brief intercultural encounters—presented in the form of short (8- to 10-line) conversations between an American and someone from Britain, France, or Germany—readers watch as speakers from the New World and the Old World fail completely to understand each other. In three separate chapters, speakers from the United States and each of the target countries repeatedly misinterpret each other in 15-20 different business conversations, which are then analyzed to reveal the misunderstandings (which are unknown to the two speakers) and to identify the key cultural differences at work. Readers come away with a much keener understanding of the cultural chasm between Americans and the English, French, and Germans.

“Craig Storti’s brilliant insights into the cultural differences of these uniquely diverse nationalities both educate and entertain.”

— Library Journal

“Craig Storti assembles fifty-one cross-cultural dialogues and analyses on the differences in ways of life for people in America, Britain, France and Germany. [I]t makes most fascinating reading, even for armchair travelers who never leave their home country. Old World/New World is very highly recommended for anyone interested in comparing and contrasting the different ways of thinking in different nations.”

— Wisconsin Bookwatch

“Long ago, when I was still wet behind the ears from washing up onto these European shores, I could have really used a book like this one.”

— James R. Chamberlain, director of the
Language Center at the Bonn-Rhein-Seig University

“The conversations are so well-crafted and subtle—Storti goes far beyond the glaring clashes that are the stuff of stereotype—that often it is not apparent until we read the discussion that there has been a conflict at all.”

— France Today