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Rating: 
Summary: The premier guide to cross-cultural adaptation
Review: After fifteen years and sales of over l40,000 copies, SURVIVAL KIT FOR OVERSEAS LIVING is still one of the most popular books ever published on an intercultural subject.
In this third edition, Robert Kohls has extensively updated and revised the book and elaborated on a number of critical elements in the cross-cultural adaptation process -- reactions to culture shock, for instance. Further, in response to suggestions from readers of the earlier editions, he added two entirely new chapters.
One is for families, focusing on the concerns of nonworking spouses and children. Here Kohls offers useful insights for women struggling with the difficulties and restrictions of living abroad and discusses the challenges of raising children overseas, with suggestions for a more successful transition and adaptation.
The other added chapter, "Jaunts and Junkets," is for short-term visitors, tourists on vacation, young travelers exploring a new country, or businesspeople on brief assignment -- those who can enrich their experiences through the application of some of the more basic cross-cultural communication and adaptation techniques he prescribes for long-term sojourners.
As in previous editions, the book offers practical information and penetrating insights into the process of cross-cultural adaptation combined with hands-on suggestions for coping with the overseas experience. It explains how to avoid stereotypes and explore the mysteries of culture and how different values and ways of thinking influence behavior. It offers basic strategies for getting to know your hosts, managing culture shock, and developing intercultural communication skills. Finally, it gives the reader guidelines on how to deal with reverse culture shock upon returning home.
Rating: 
Summary: Practical Information
Review: I have lived overseas for a year now and this book has been a wonderful help. It clearly and practically explains what it is to be an American and how that effects how others see us. I would recommend this book for every American planning to work or study outside the United States.
Rating:
Summary: Practical Information
Review: I have lived overseas for a year now and this book has been a wonderful help. It clearly and practically explains what it is to be an American and how that effects how others see us. I would recommend this book for every American planning to work or study outside the United States.
Rating: 
Summary: A bit of redundant, but immensely practical.
Review: Survival Kit starts out a bit slow- it is helpful for someone who has done no studying of other cultures, and cross-cultural interactions. Indeed, superbably so- what it means to be American, what other cultures are, how to relate to people. But if you have studied anthropology or sociology or other cultures, you will find the first 2/3rds of the book largely old hat. It's the final third that really gets into some profound detail. This final third is immensely practical, looking at how to recognize culture shock, how to deal with it, how to respond with love to others around you in your new culture. Kohls presents interesting ideas on how we view the world, as individuals, though I must confess I am still experiencing a great deal of trauma at having to spend an hour to see a particular perspective of a picture he presents. He then provides the cues we can expect within a new culture, even to the point of the likely dual-cyclic time periods of culture shock; how to deal with this as a family; and how to respond to reverse culture shock when you return "home". I plan on looking back to this book at the appropriate time in about 3 months, when I am scheduled to enter my first bout of culture shock.
Rating:
Summary: A bit of redundant, but immensely practical.
Review: Survival Kit starts out a bit slow- it is helpful for someone who has done no studying of other cultures, and cross-cultural interactions. Indeed, superbably so- what it means to be American, what other cultures are, how to relate to people. But if you have studied anthropology or sociology or other cultures, you will find the first 2/3rds of the book largely old hat. It's the final third that really gets into some profound detail. This final third is immensely practical, looking at how to recognize culture shock, how to deal with it, how to respond with love to others around you in your new culture. Kohls presents interesting ideas on how we view the world, as individuals, though I must confess I am still experiencing a great deal of trauma at having to spend an hour to see a particular perspective of a picture he presents. He then provides the cues we can expect within a new culture, even to the point of the likely dual-cyclic time periods of culture shock; how to deal with this as a family; and how to respond to reverse culture shock when you return "home". I plan on looking back to this book at the appropriate time in about 3 months, when I am scheduled to enter my first bout of culture shock.
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Summary: Former Peace Corps Volunteer
Review: This book was a gift given before my overseas service with the US Peace Corps. It ended up being the most valuable resource I had in my overseas experience. Over the years I've referred back to it (even in moving across the US) to deal with cultural changes.
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Summary: Former Peace Corps Volunteer
Review: This book was a gift given before my overseas service with the US Peace Corps. It ended up being the most valuable resource I had in my overseas experience. Over the years I've referred back to it (even in moving across the US) to deal with cultural changes.
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Summary: Survival Kit helps in decions to be an expat
Review: This book was invaluable in my decision making process to take a position in Germany. The Appendices helped to focus my qestions both those for my future employer and for myself. It provided a needed reality check on the implications of cultural differences and culture shock that I am sure I will feel in the next few weeks.
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Summary: Highly Recommended!
Review: This book, first published in 1979, is still timely and useful, though it shows a few signs of age. It's hard to believe that any Americans in the CNN age are quite as ignorant of the world abroad as they were in the 1970s. However, diversity training and exposure to Thai and Mexican cuisine only goes so far to inoculate Americans against their own inherent cultural assumptions. Yes, this is written for people from the United States and addressed to them directly, but it would be useful to any sojourner trying to shake off hometown assumptions and adapt to life abroad. This volume treats every reader as a neophyte, a Dorothy in the Land of Oz. Author L. Robert Kohls offers a useful series of self-tests and questionnaires, psychological and anthropological frameworks, and practical guidance on routine matters. The book, which is engagingly written, with a wry and sometimes ironic touch, also contains useful appendices. We believe that it merits a place in the library of anyone, particularly any American, who is taking an overseas assignment, however brief.
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