Vietnam - Culture Smart!: The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture

Geoffrey Murray

Kuperard, Sep 5, 2006 - Travel - 168 pages

Culture Smart! provides essential information on attitudes, beliefs and behavior in different countries, ensuring that you arrive at your destination aware of basic manners, common courtesies, and sensitive issues. These concise guides tell you what to expect, how to behave, and how to establish a rapport with your hosts. This inside knowledge will enable you to steer clear of embarrassing gaffes and mistakes, feel confident in unfamiliar situations, and develop trust, friendships, and successful business relationships.

Culture Smart! offers illuminating insights into the culture and society of a particular country. It will help you to turn your visit-whether on business or for pleasure-into a memorable and enriching experience. Contents include


* customs, values, and traditions
* historical, religious, and political background
* life at home
* leisure, social, and cultural life
* eating and drinking
* do's, don'ts, and taboos
* business practices
* communication, spoken and unspoken


"Culture Smart has come to the rescue of hapless travellers." Sunday Times Travel

"... the perfect introduction to the weird, wonderful and downright odd quirks and customs of various countries." Global Travel

"...full of fascinating-as well as common-sense-tips to help you avoid embarrassing faux pas." Observer

"...as useful as they are entertaining." Easyjet Magazine

"...offer glimpses into the psyche of a faraway world." New York Times

What people are saying

Review: Vietnam - Culture Smart!: the essential guide to customs & culture

User Review  - Nessie - Goodreads

This was pretty much as the cover says, quick! Focused largely on the business traveler it is still a worthwhile read for anyone planning to be in-country. I found the information to be simply stated and focused on not embarrassing yourself or (more importantly) your host.

Review: Vietnam - Culture Smart!: the essential guide to customs & culture

User Review  - Osho - Goodreads

There aren't a lot of books focused on customs and etiquette in the economically emergent nations of Southeast Asia. This is too bad because the information is sorely needed but the available ...

About the author

GEOFFREY MURRAY has worked in Asia for more than forty years as a journalist, author, and teacher, including long stays in China, India, Japan, and Singapore. So far, he has published fifteen books on a wide range of business and socioeconomic issues, mostly about China, but also including Vietnam: Dawn of a New Market and Simple Guide to the Customs and Etiquette of Vietnam, both in 1997. He has closely followed developments in Vietnam ever since he served as a news agency war correspondent with the Australian army in the mid-1960s, winning the Australian government’s “Vietnam Logistic and Support Medal.” He is officially listed as a Vietnam War veteran by the Australian government.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Vietnam - Culture Smart!: The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture; Culture Smart! The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture; Culture Smart!
• Author: Geoffrey Murray
• Edition: illustrated, revised
• Publisher: Kuperard, 2006
• ISBN: 1857333330, 9781857333336
• Length: 168 pages
• Subjects: Reference / Etiquette; Travel / Caribbean & West Indies