Introducing Faceglat: The 'Kosher' Facebook

Here is an article about the new Kosher version of Facebook. I bet you are wondering what that means. Well, read on……

By Véronique Falez of LE MONDE/Worldcrunch

Faceglat is a new social network that allows its users to chat online, share information and pictures, and add new friends – all the while strickly separating men from women, just like in synagogue. Launched in Israel last month by a young Hasidic geek, this website boasts a social structure designed especially for ultra-Orthodox Jews. The name "Faceglat" comes from the fusion of two words: Facebook, and glatt, meaning highly kosher, according to the Jewish dietary laws of kashrut.

When men go on Faceglat.com, they sign up by clicking on the arrow on the right of the screen. Women click on that on the left. From this moment on their respective paths will never cross. "One day, a couple of friends paid me a visit, and while we were chatting, the young woman said it was a pity that there was no website where she could share pictures with her female friends without other people being able to see them,” says the site’s creator, Yaakov Swisa. “We started thinking about a religious social network, where there would be no indecent pictures, and which would garantee that men could not see photos posted by women, and vice versa.”

And so, six busy months later, the first kosher Facebook was born. But the 25-year-old Faceglat founder does not wear the traditional wide-brimmed black hat, nor does he dress in the ultra-Orthodox dark suit. Wearing a checkered shirt, a black kippah on his head, carrying his laptop bag on his shoulder, he bridges the gap between his Lubavitch community from the village of Kfar Chabad, located 8 km south-east of Tel Aviv, and the thrilling world of new technology.

No one could have predicted that the young boy who went to school in a yeshiva to study the Torah and the Talmud would one day become part of the Internet big league. "I taught myself on the family computer, during holidays," he recalls. His goal is not to push traditional communities towards change. Instead, he wants to protect them. "Orthodox Jews need the Internet, at home and at work alike,” says Swisa. “My website allows them to browse freely, while offering them maximum security. It also reassures parents who worry about their children going on pages that everybody can consult.”

Keeping the content kosher
Trust demands extremely strict rules. For example, a program tracks and deletes inappropriate words. And users who mischievously put photos of men in the women-only space, or who posted pictures that were deemed indecent, are simply banned from the website. For the time being, administrating Faceglat still involves a lot of improvisation. But in order to "move quicker," this Mark Zuckerberg of hasidic neighborhoods wants to buy a software that can identify and automatically delete pictures showing "more skin than is necessary."

Though the website is only a newcomer on the Internet, Faceglat has already attracted more than 2,000 users, mainly by word of mouth, and about 100 new accounts are being created every week. "It’s only the beginning. There are lots of curious people, most of them men from Israel, but actually about 15% of our users live in Russia," says the active young man with a smile.

The website is only available in Hebrew and English at the moment, but it will be translated in French and Russian in the next few weeks. It will then lead to an online advertising campaign, on orthodox forums and on religous singers’ fanpages. A brand new feature of the Facebook revolution.

English Is Challenging

English Is Challenging

Here is a thought provoking, fun, interactive exercise that demonstrates how challenging English can be. It is written by Mary Beth Marino, The Writing Editor. It’s time for a good laugh! A belly shaking, rolling on the floor laugh…AND an English lesson to boot! My love affair with words was nourished by an email that was sent to me by a friend. It challenges the English language while giving a good laugh and marvels the astonishment about how things get to be what they are and why. Curious? Read on. Can you read these right the first time? 1) The bandage was wound around the wound. 2) The farm was used to produce produce. 3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse. 4) We must polish the Polish furniture. 5) He could lead if he would get the lead out. 6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert. 7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present. 8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum 9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes. 10) I did not object to the object. 11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid. 12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row. 13) They were too close to the door to close it 14) The buck does funny things when the does are present. 15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line. 16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow. 17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail. 18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear. 19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests. 20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

Do you know how much paid vacation time is common in the industrialized nations?

Do You Know? From: karlascottspeaker.blogspot.com

Today’s topic: Average paid vacation days for workers in 18 countries

One of the core values upon which the US was founded was that of hard work. According to Gay Alten, American Ways, there is still a strong belief that the ideal person is a hard worker.—one who gets right to work, on a task without delay, works efficiently, and who completes a task in a way that meets reasonably high standards of quality. We are a society that admirers achievers—not just on the job but in all other aspects of life. We are known as a nation of “human doings” (rather than human beings) who feel compelled to always be engaged in doing.

Does this hard work ethic exert any influence on the amount of time Americans take for annual vacation time—in comparison to other nations? What does Capitalism have to do with this? What about materialism and the desire for more goods? Japan, although known for its strong work ethic, offers more than twice as much paid vacation time as the US.

Is it no wonder we are the most stressed and depressed. We can discuss those stats later.

Here are rankings of 18 nations:

Spain 32.0
Netherlands 31.9
Norway 31.4
Germany 29.9
Finland 28.6
Sweden 27.8
France 27.0
Austria 26.8
Denmark 25.0
Belgium 24.6
Italy 24.6
The UK 24.5
Japan 24.0
Switzerland 23.4
Ireland 22.9
Australia 22.4
Canada 14.7
The US 10.8

Some might ask “how do these results reflect the economic health of these nations”? That is a question for another discussion.

Source: somewhat outdated survey by the Union Bank of Switzerland, Prices and Earnings Around the Globe

Although the actual numbers may have changed in the last two decades, the rankings have remained fundamentally unchanged. In the US, with the increase in the number of part time jobs, has this number actually declined?

Five lessons learned about cross-cultural social networking

Compare Mixi, Japan’s #1 social networking site, with Facebook. Mixi uses muted tones and illustration. Facebook uses primary colors and is primarily text-based with photos.

Here is a helpful article addressing some cross cultural issues about social networking. It is written by thoughtfarmer.com

Social networking theorists like to debate whether and how much cultural differences impact the way people respond to and interact with social networks.*

Some, for example, argue that networks such as Facebook mainly reflect and accommodate values and norms prevalent in Anglo-Saxon cultures (U.S., UK, Canada, etc.) — which explains why they’re much less successful elsewhere.

The theoretical discussion turns starkly practical when multinational enterprises develop intranets or other social networking tools for internal use. Differences are real and sometimes critical, as we learned while helping an Asian-based company with offices in Canada, the U.S., Korea and Japan deploy a global ThoughtFarmer intranet.

The good news is that most such differences can be overcome with a little innovation and modification.

Here are five key lessons we learned:

1. Design matters
Asian users said the original ThoughtFarmer pages, designed in Canada, “looked North American.” They enjoyed more muted pastel colors and anime-style emoticons, a look that seemed equally foreign to North American eyes.
This was not a trivial objection. One of the aims of the project was to make this highly distributed and multicultural organization more cohesive. The foreign-ness of the look and feel – on both sides – worked against that.

Solution? More skinning. ThoughtFarmer’s skinning functionality allows web designers to apply CSS designs on a section-by-section basis that suit the preferences of each region.

2. Language matters
You may be willing to exercise whatever language skills you have to glean vital information from the Web written in a foreign tongue. But you’re much less likely to struggle with a language barrier for “merely” social communication. And in many cases, you’ll have no skills.

ThoughtFarmer worked around this critical obstacle by incorporating Google Translate APIs. Users can now click a button to get an immediate machine translation of an intranet page, and then flip back and forth between original and translated page. They can also fill in an online form to order a more accurate human translation.

3. Language subtleties matter
We always use professional translators for translating program labels, tags and instructions into a new language. But we’ve found that professional translation on its own isn’t sufficient — only field testing with native speakers can verify accuracy. And minor mis-translations can have disproportionate effects.
For example, when ThoughtFarmer translated the program to Korean, it used a literal equivalent of the term “favorites”. But Koreans and Japanese use the term ‘scrap’ or ‘scrapping’ when they bookmark a web page – not a translation but the English words. ‘Favorites’ meant little or nothing to them. Result: many didn’t realize the feature was available so didn’t use it.

4. Performance matters
It’s not so much a cultural as a market difference, but norms for Internet connectivity vary around the world. Koreans, for example, enjoy very fast Internet connections – 10 Mbps and up. With the intranet initially hosted in Canada, Korean users complained that response times were slow.

The performance shortfall was small, but employees tend not to use tools that fail to perform to their expectations. Action was needed. The solution in this case was to add mirror servers in Korea and a replication scheme to ensure content was always up to date.

Internet speed expectations in Japan and Korea are extremely high: most home users have connections of 10MBps or more

5. Faces matter
Sometimes cultural differences are intractable – but that doesn’t mean fatal. For example, Korean and Japanese users were uncomfortable with posting pictures of themselves at their personal intranet pages, preferring to use avatars or pictures of pets. They could not state definite reasons for this preference. Expectations around privacy, perhaps, or a culturally-ingrained sense of personal modesty?

Some North American organizations require employees to post pictures as a way to promote cohesion by making even remote fellow employees seem more familiar and accessible. But the disinclination of the company’s Korean and Japanese employees to do this appeared deep rooted and it was decided not to press the issue. Did it undermine the project as a whole? By no means.

In North America and the UK, most people don’t hesitate to share photos of themselves on their profile. In Asia, it’s more common to use an avatar. Judging from some of the profile photos we see, avatars may be the way to go.

ThoughtFarmer co-founder and president Darren Gibbons, who traveled to Korea last year to observe how the customer’s intranet was being used there, says, “We did find key differences. But there were also lots of things we found where we were on the right track. And people there were quite interested in being involved and definitely understood what we were trying to do.”

Cross-cultural differences do have an impact on the way people use social networking and clearly they must be taken into account in designing tools, but many, possibly most, can be worked around. As for the rest? Vive la difference.

*For a fascinating discussion of perhaps subtler cross-cultural differences than are aired here, see this post and ensuing discussion by Mark Masterson of CSC, Can Social Software Work in Germany?, and this interview with Geert Hostede, author of Culture’s Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions, and Organizations Across Nations.

Overview of the Queen Mary 2 (QM2)-I embark New York for London Tomorrow

With a passenger capacity of 2,620, QM2's size allows a great variety of passenger amenities. Almost everything you could want on a cruise ship can be found on the QM2. For those who want to be pampered and rejuvenated, the ship features the Canyon Ranch SpaClub®. Athletes can play basketball or virtual reality golf, and a state-of-the-art gym includes a separate weight room. The Cunard ConneXionsSM is almost like a college at sea, taking into account, of course, that you're on vacation. The QM2 even has some features new to cruising such as a planetarium and a look at marine history in the Maritime Quest Exhibit. QM2 even lets you bring your dog along and board him in an onboard kennel.

Nighttime on the QM2 is elegant, and the ship plays host to formal gatherings in the evenings. After dinner entertainment includes dancing in the largest ballroom at sea, jazz in the Commodore Club, a casino, caberet singing in the Chart Room, and West End-caliber shows in the Royal Court Theatre.

Some of the traditional Cunard hallmarks are found throughout the Queen Mary 2 -- sweeping staircases, soaring public rooms, a grand ballroom, and a 360° promenade deck. A space ratio of 57.25 makes her one of the roomiest vessels anywhere, and the ship has 14 decks of sports facilities, shops, bars, lounges, 5 pools and no fewer than 10 restaurants. With one staff member per couple, a very high level of service can be expected. For those who love verandas as I do, three-quarters of the QM2 staterooms have balconies. Some of the lavish two-story duplexes even have their own private exercise equipment.

Since it is often difficult to picture the size of such a large vessel, here are some comparisons:
• QM2 is five times longer than Cunard's first ship, Britannia (230 ft.)
• QM2 is 113 feet longer than the original Queen Mary
• QM2 is more than twice as long as the Washington Monument is tall (550 ft.)
• QM2 is 147 feet longer than the Eiffel Tower is tall (984 ft.)
• QM2 is more than 3 ½ times as long as Westminster Tower (Big Ben) is high (310 ft.)
• QM2 is only 117 feet shorter than the Empire State Building is tall (1248 ft.)
• QM2 is more than three times as long as St. Paul's Cathedral is tall (366 ft.)
• QM2 is as long as 41 double-decker London buses (31 ½ ft. each)
• QM2's whistle is audible for 10 miles

written by Linda Garrison at About.com

Prepare Yourself for Culture Shock

Melissa has been living overseas for 2 1/2 months and lately, finds herself feeling disorientated, anxious, and frustrated. much of the time. She is surprised by these feelings because when she first arrived, she had fallen in love with her new culture, where she was enraptured with the novelty and wonder of everything she explored. Lately however, her patience is weak, her temper flares often, and she overreacts to the smallest differences between her old and new worlds.

She now has insomnia, feels nauseated often, feels frustrated when riding on a bus without knowing where to get off, becomes impatient when a salesperson asks her to repeat herself for the third time, and she feels the need to bathe and wash her hands frequently. Sometimes Melissa feels she is being treated like a child. All of a sudden, nothing seems familiar or automatic, and for the first time in her life, she feels hopeless and helpless and embarrassed. She feels homesick, mentally fatigued, and lonely.

What Is Culture Shock?

Melissa is experiencing culture shock, something that everyone who lives in a new culture for an extended period of time experiences in reaction to the differences which surround them in a new environment. In short, culture shock refers to the anxiety and feelings (of surprise, disorientation, confusion, etc.) felt when people have to operate within an entirely different cultural or social environment, such as a foreign country

Causes

Most experts in intercultural communication agree that the basic cause of culture shock is the abrupt loss of the familiar, which in turn causes a sense of isolation and diminished self-importance. "Culture shock", says anthropologist Kalvero Oberg, "is brought on by the anxiety that results from losing all our familiar signs and symbols of social intercourse. These signs or cues include the thousand and one ways in which we orient ourselves to the situation of daily life: when to shake hands and what to say when we meet people; when and how to give tips; how to give orders to servants; how to make purchases; when to accept and when to refuse invitations; when to take statements seriously and when not."

According to Dr. Oberg, these cues, which may be words, gestures, facial expressions or customs, are acquired by all of us in the course of growing up and are as much a part of our culture as the language we speak or the beliefs we accept. All of us depend for our peace of mind on hundreds of these cues, even though we may not be consciously aware of them. "When an individual enters a strange culture," Dr. Oberg says, "all or most of these familiar cues are removed. He or she is like a fish out of water. No matter how broad-minded or full of good will he may be, a series of props has been knocked out from under him."

Symptoms

Common symptoms of culture shock are as follows: hostility toward the new environment, anxiety in public situations, irritation over delays and other minor frustrations, refusal to learn the language of the host country, paranoia of being harmed, physical illnesses, insomnia, changes in diet, preoccupation with returning home, depression, isolation, excessive criticism of the new culture, and longing to be around people from one's own culture

Those unaccustomed to being part of a minority group, generally suffer from culture shock the greatest.

Spouses, accompanying their mates or a work assignment abroad are particularly vulnerable to severe culture shock, because they are interacting with the new culture on a regular bases, often without support from members of their own culture.

Phases of Culture Shock

According to Michael Winkleman, a scholar on culture shock, “there are four distinct phases of culture shock that are experienced by virtually everyone who spends an extended period of time in a different culture.

We will discuss these 4 phases in the next post.

Beauty Around The World

Oprah did an eye-opening show focusing of concepts of women’s beauty around the world.
http://www.oprah.com/slideshow/oprahshow/20081024_tows_beauty/1

Cultures that were featured included France, Oman, Brazil, Iran, Burma (Kayan), Japan, New Zealand (Maori), Indonesia, Ethiopia, India, and Mauritania. Topics included diets, tatoos, stomach flatteners, lingerie, skin whiteners, hair extenstions, plastic surgery, skin softeners, nose jobs, and over-eating to get fat.

The underlying messages were that:

1. Beauty is in the eye of the beholding culture. In Mauritania, bigger is better and fat is beautiful. Even stretch marks are beautiful. Diets are non-existent and no diet products are available. The downside is that girls are routinely force-fed starchy foods (till they vomit) in order to fatten them up to attract a husband. The high obesity rate there causes lots of medical problems such as heart disease and diabetes. Some women consume black market pills created to increase the appetite of camels and cows. But, the women don’t have the same poor body image issues as women in Europe and the Americas who kill themselves to be thin. Being divorced also heightens a woman’s appeal because it proves she is desired by other men.

Regarding Mauritania’s love of plump women, Oprah sang, there’s a place for us….

2. Women, all over the world are willing to go to great lengths (even risking death) to live up to their culture’s beauty standards. Plastic surgery is becoming increasingly more common all over the world. Who knew that Brazil had the second largest plastic surgery volume; and that even in Muslim Iran, where women are covered from head-to-toe, nose jobs are very common. Nose jobs are so common in Iran (60,000 per year) that wearing a nose job band-aid is a status symbol worn by women years after the actual surgery and by women who have never had the surgery.

A survey conducted by Dove reveals that 90% of women around the world wish to change some aspect of their bodies. Too bad women can't be more like men who are generally comfortable in their bodies.

Imported My Blog to Facebook

I just imported this blog to Facebook.

See my page at: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1428860290&ref=profile

Karla

Fearless First Time Overseas

5 Tips On How to Feel Comfortable, Confident and Carefree Overseas
By Karla Scott, MBA


§ Are you intimidated by the notion of traveling overseas on business?
§ Do you dream of taking a crash course on how to be effective in your new destination?
§ Are you worried you may make mistakes in this unfamiliar culture?

Relax! You are not alone! Here are steps you can take that can help make you feel competent and confident in your first overseas venture.

1. Do your homework
If you choose to do business in another culture, you must accept its protocol, norms, and ways of doing business. Be insatiably curious. Go to your local bookstore and use the internet to research the other culture’s history, geography, key symbols, tourist attractions, national dishes, popular sports, non verbal communication rules, leaders and celebrity culture. Study the local map including the mass transit or metro map and the area surrounding your hotel. You will feel more comfortable exploring and communicating when you have gone the extra mile to learn something about your new culture. The best part is that by taking an interest in the other culture, your actions will convey genuine respect. Your efforts will be appreciated by most (if not all) whom you meet. It will set you apart from many Americans who don’t bother to learn something about the other culture. Remember, people all over the world know U.S. popular culture, government, history and many even speak English. Isn’t it reasonable for us to make the effort to meet them at least half way?

For a crash course in local customs and etiquette, I recommend the easy-to-read Culture Shock series. They are compact guides (250 pages) that provide a comprehensive and accurate portrayal of culture in more than 35 countries, with practical tips on how to be effective there. They are well-researched, authentic, and entertaining. You can order Culture Shock online from all leading book sellers.

2. Learn a few commonly used words and phrases
Rest assured you do not need to enroll in a 3-month immersion class. Most of the world accommodates English speaking guests. In fact, it is the second most spoken language, behind Mandarin, in the world. Your experience can be greatly enhanced by showing basic respect. You can accomplish this by learning some common courtesy expressions such as hello; goodbye; thank you; and please and one of my favorites: “Where are the toilets?” “How much is that ________?” also comes in very handy when bargaining.

You will be amazed by how instantly connected you feel when upon arrival, someone says hello in their language and you can respond in the same language or when they say thank you, you can reply appropriately.

I strongly urge you to refrain from bursting into a conversation leading with English words. Instead (or what is more respectful is to) always first ask “Do you speak English?”

You can listen to a basic language tape daily before you go that provides language basics including numbers, useful questions, shopping terms, hotel/taxi/ and airport expressions, and dining phrases.

3. Prepare for time zone change realities and make travel as easy as possible
Go a day early, if possible, to help your body and mind adjust to time zone differences. Going a day early can also help you to get your bearing on the new destination. Your first day there, don’t go to sleep until 10PM no matter what. That way, you can wake up with the locals and it will help you function effectively, more quickly. While you sleep, always turn the clock around so you won’t see the time that could distract your sleep pattern. It’s best not to know the time while you are attempting to sleep.

Here are a few helpful hints:
□ Sleep on the flight if at all possible.
□ Wear eye shades to notify flight attendants you prefer not to be bothered.
□ Wear a noise reduction headset to tune out noises and engine roars.
□ During the flight, eat light, drink lots of water to stay hydrated, and minimize alcohol consumption.
□ Bring a bean-filled travel pillow (they really do help!).
□ For longer flights, prepare to walk around periodically in order to allow your blood to circulate properly. It is not uncommon for people over 50 to suffer from fatal blood clots during long overseas trips, because the victims failed around during the flight.
□ Pack a couple of bagels in your carry on in order to fill in “food gaps”.
□ Pack a toiletry kit so you may freshen up on board prior to landing.
□ Pack one wash cloth for each hotel (wash cloths are not common everywhere).

If possible, strive to negotiate to sit in the business class section where it is quieter. The seats are roomier and they recline substantially. However, if you must fly coach, book early enough to select a comfortable window or aisle seat. You do not want to be trapped in a middle seat in coach for 8-15 hours! Be sure your carry-on bags are wheeled because you will walk long distances inside international airports. Also, they are often long flight delays in some parts of the world. Don't carry on anything you are now willing to cart around for unlimited periods of time.

Finally, wear a round-the-neck pouch that contains your passport, travel itinerary, ID, business credit card, small bills (US and other currency) and a pen. This way you won’t need to go digging thru bags at numerous security checkpoints. Once, I observed a woman miss her connecting flight because she could not produce her travel documents in a timely manner. You will be forever grateful if you wear one of these pouches on a lanyard available at most luggage stores for $20 or less.


4. Upon arrival, sink into the rhythm and flavor of the culture
After you check in, you can choose to either explore the area around your hotel, or to take a taxi to a busy section of town. Here are suggestions on what to do there:
Sit at a café at a busy intersection and people watch to see the written and unwritten rules (you have already read about), in action.
Go to a market or grocery store—you can learn a lot about people by watching how they connect with their food.
Visit a park; sit and watch the show.
Dine where locals dine; match their behavior.
If you are daring, take public transportation. Be sure you’ve studied the maps in advance and have exact change or a ticket before you board. Find out from your hotel’s concierge the best mode of returning to your hotel. [Beware of trying this in countries where signage is in a script different from Roman such as Chinese/Japanese characters, Arabic, Persian, Ethiopian, Russian (Cyrillic), India (Brahmi), or Greek.] I have taken public transportation alone in many parts of the world because I learn to recognize the destination words. In Tokyo, I was thankful to be accompanied by a Japanese person during my subway ride: I don’t read Japanese characters! I would probably still be trapped in the Tokyo subway system had I ventured to do this on my own.
Watch popular television shows in your hotel room while you are getting dressed. This gives you a feel for local values, humor, aesthetics, nonverbal communication rules, and popular marketing campaigns.
Avoid renting a car when traveling abroad alone. The rules of the road are significantly different, and you probably will not be able to read road signs. By American standards, traffic overseas is at best, chaotic.

Always carry a few essential tools while traveling around:
□ something with the name of your hotel written in local script (take hotel pen, matches, or pad) to show taxi driver how to return you to your hotel.
□ a roll of toilet paper—just in case! Often, you will not find toilet paper (especially the soft version we know and love)
□ camera
□ guidebook containing useful words and phrases
□ notepad for journaling

5. Let your host play host don’t rush into business.
If you are being hosted, let your hosts set the tone and pace. Allow them to welcome you and guide you around. If possible, accept all invitations. Show appreciation and respect for their culture by allowing them to take pride in showing you their world. Keep an open mind. Leave judgmental thinking at home and practice the platinum rule: Do unto others as they would have you do unto them.

_______________________________________

Make the unfamiliar familiar by learning about the culture in advance of your trip.
The best part is that by taking an interest in the other culture, your actions will convey genuine respect. Your efforts will be appreciated by most (if not all) whom you meet. It will set you apart from many Americans who don’t bother to learn something about the other culture. Remember, people all over the world know U.S. popular culture, government, history and many even speak English. Isn’t it reasonable for us to make the effort to meet them at least half way?


Helpful Resources

For a crash course in local customs and etiquette, I recommend the easy-to-read Culture Shock series. They are compact guides (250 pages) that provide a comprehensive and accurate portrayal of culture in more than 35 countries, with practical tips on how to be effective there. They are well-researched, authentic, and entertaining. You can order Culture Shock online from all leading book sellers.

Other helpful sources are:

CIA World Factbook Sheets. The US government provides profiles of countries and territories around the world. Information on geography, people, government, transportation, economy, communications, and more. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/

Culture Grams Cultural reports for more than 200 countries each include 25 categories such as land and climate, history, personal appearance, greetings, gestures, family, diet, arts, holidays, economy, education, religion, health, a country map, and events and trends.

Each individual Culture Gram four-page report (there are 201) is available individually for download for $4 per report.
http://www.culturegrams.com/products/individual.htm

Consular Information Sheet The US State Department’s Office of American Citizens Services and Crisis Management (ACS) administers the Consular Information Program, which informs the public of conditions abroad that may affect their safety and security. Country Specific Information, Travel Alerts, and Travel Warnings are vital parts of this program. http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1765.html#F

Executive Planet™ provides valuable tips on business etiquette, customs and protocol for doing business in more than 50 countries. http://www.executiveplanet.com/index.php?title=Main_Page

Lonely Planet Destination Guides. http://www.lonelyplanet.com/

A Guide to Culture in the Classroom Questionnaireby Muriel Saville-Troike National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education, 1978.
You might find this set of questions created by Saville-Troike, helpful in exploring your new culture’s personality. It can be found at: http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/pubs/classics/culture/questions.htm

Know thy host culture is the first step to increases your chances for experiencing a successful and harmonious encounter in your new business venture.