I am a great believer in reading novels, poetry and cookery books from the country you are planning to visit or reside in, as they are very revealing of national character. However, some of these may not be easily available in translation, or the translation itself might not quite give you the full flavour of the original. I read two such different translations of Dostoyevsky in my childhood that I was convinced for a while that these were two distinct stories, albeit with similar plot and characters. Also, how do you confidently choose which are the most representative novels out of the entire French or English or Russian literary canon (my husband was put off by one of Balzac's lesser novels and has refused to read anything French since)?
Textbooks on intercultural communication or anthropology may be fascinating to me, but I recognise that they might not be to the taste of everyone. So here are some riveting and amusing reads that I recommend to my workshop attendees or coaching clients.
1) For French or Belgian people moving to Switzerland:
'Le modele suisse' by Francois Garcon - a polemical piece of work that dares to criticise the French system of government, administration, education and so on, while debunking some of the negative myths surrounding Swiss tax evasion, neutrality, position during the Second World War etc. In this case, I was a neutral observer, having lived in both countries, but not identifying fully with either, so it is a handy book to quote from.
2) For Germans and Swiss moving to Austria:
'6 Osterreicher unter den ersten 5' by Dirk Stermann. A German stand-up comedian who goes to live in Vienna, this is a partly fictional, partly autobiographical and extremely funny piece of work. As a quasi-Austrian myself, I found some of the observations surprising at first, as they uncovered a bit of a personal blind spot. However, most of the elements were instantly recognisable, and also revealed a lot about the German character.
3) For English speakers moving to Switzerland:
'Swiss Watching' by Diccon Bewes. A quirky, personal travel guide that packs in an awful lot of history, geography, politics and economics in a very readable, engaging way.
4) For anyone working with English people:
'Watching the English' by Kate Fox. This book is instruction dressed as entertainment: a delightful and very perceptive read by an author who makes no effort to disguise her own Englishness and laugh at herself. Reading it, I realised just how English I have become in many respects.
5) For anyone working with Romanians (but sadly, to date, it is only available in Romanian):
'Tur-retur' by Zoltan Rostas and Sorin Stoica. This book has appeared in two volumes and is based on a series of ethnographic interviews with Romanian work migrants, ranging from students working at camps in the US to strawberry pickers in Spain or social carers in Italy. Not only is it very revealing about intercultural encounters, but it also raises some very pertinent questions about poverty, minimum wage labour, economic migrants and interdependency in a globalised world.
There are many, many more amusing, informative and valuable books in this field of 'intercultural understanding' and I do not have time or space to do justice to them all here. Which ones have been particularly useful or eye-opening or fascinating for you? Which ones do you recommend to others?
