Culture Smart: Germany Review

What is the difference between defining a culture and defining a stereotype?  Awareness of, and interest in, other cultures is lauded as a valuable trait that should be cultivated, quite unlike stereotypes, which are almost universally condemned, but they both arise from similar origins.  Culture is a kind of emergent gestalt from the distinctive characteristics of a given population; stereotypes, likewise, arise from observation of distinctive characteristics in a given population and their application to individuals.  And perhaps that is the difference: stereotypes apply cultural ideas to individuals, whereas culture applies to a larger population, without the added connotation and context of applicability to specific individuals within that population.

Neither, by itself, is right or wrong – such moral judgements arise only in application, and both are arguably useful tools so long as one is aware of the proper circumstances for implementation, and the limitations, of the tools in question.  I thought about these ideas significantly while reading Culture Smart: Germany, and during my (limited) time in-country.  Like stereotypes, cultural descriptions can be too generalized to be applicable to individual interactions…but you can also find many examples where certain cultural traits are on plain display.

Like Culture Smart: Japan, this book is perhaps more intended for a business traveler, but it remained well written and applicable for other types of travelers, as well.  Through no fault of its own, I found it less interesting than Japan, probably because I have far more background knowledge about Germany than I do Japan.  Between reading history, studying linguistics (Twain’s essay probably doesn’t count as “study,” for all its apt observations), and the relatively greater influence of German culture on cultures closer to home, most of what Germany had to say did not come as a surprise.

It’s not the author’s job to surprise me with trivia, however, and this remains an excellent reference material for the would-be German traveler.  I do wish that Tomalin included a brief list of common German phases, as is present in the Japanese book, but otherwise, I think you’ll find Culture Smart: Germany a handy piece of literature with which to start your explorations.