Mind the Gaffe : How Not to Offend Friends and Colleagues: a Culture-lite Primer

Dealing with foreign friends, business colleagues, customers or even lovers offers a minefield of culturally-sensitive time bombs for the unwary.

How to avoid giving gratuitous offense, insulting people with the best of intentions?

The answer is in this brilliant collection of stories and experiences put together by expert inter-cultural consultant Barry Tomalin.

The humor and horror are in the gaffes but the meat is in the moral spelt out for each - which explains why the gaffe and what the cultural issue behind it, as well as how to avoid making the same ghastly error yourself.

It's funny, because embarrassing mistakes are funny.

But it's got a serious and valuable message. The book is divided into thematic sections which reflect the key areas where gaffes tend to be made, and after each section there's a light-hearted quiz to check how your cultural antennae are/growing in sensitivity [with answers at the back].