The German Way the German Way: Aspects of Behavior, Attitudes, and Customs in the German-Spaspects of Behavior, Attitudes, and Customs in the German-

I love this book! I am taking a German language class just for the fun of it, and I have since become more interested in Germany and German culture. This book is very interesting and has quite a bit of factual material. It is organized well (alphabetically by subject), and each section is short enough to read a few at a time, or a section or two while waiting in line or on my lunch break. The material presented is fascinating and gives you a look at a culture that appears similar to our own on the outside, but on the inside has many differences, and just as many 'idiosyncrasies' as our American culture.

I mean the following remark in a very positive sense: German Way is one of the best bathroom readers I have ever bought. While some of it is common sense or common knowledge to anyone who knows anything about German Europe, some was not, and all of it was presented in a lively way. Most important, because it is broken into short segments, it was easily digested over "spare moments". Sometimes I started somewhere and read straight through, sometimes I jumped around using the table of contents. My wife and teen-age son read it and enjoyed it the same way. I look forward to reading other books in this series as the occasion arises.

I lived in Germany for over three years. My German acquaintances in general liked Americans; but they greatly disliked our cultural ignorance. I also did part-time work as a tour guide and a portion of "tour guiding" is to educate people on the culture, and saw the extent of this ignorance first-hand. While German/Austrian/Swiss society is in a "big picture" sense similar to American, (guilt vs shame-based culture, individuality vs collectivism) there are major differences in personal and business relationships. Anyone who really wants to know Germany or succeed in business dealings with Germans ignores these differences at their peril. This book does an outstanding job of clearly explaining all aspects of German society from Government through economy, consumerism, to social relationships. It also spells out the contrasts between German and American ways of thinking, and between German and Austrian/Swiss world-views. Bottom line is if you want a better vacation experience in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, a better business trip, or are just interested in other cultures, get this book.

This is an excellent book. We plan to recommend it to our international employees in Germany, and those considering a move to Germany.The optimum, however, especially if you are interested in brand-new, current information, is to use the outstanding companion Website (sorry, URL not allowed here, but simple to guess) in parallel with the book. I think the right combination of printed and electronic media is the future, and that has already become a reality here.