Cultural Portraits has been written for those who work with persons who hail from foreign countries and whose cultures differ from ours. It provides a framework for developing cultural proficiency, thus bridging the culture gap in our changing environment that often results in miscommunication and, often, in ineffective productivity. Would you know that Chang Wu Jang's last name is Chang, not Jang? Or that handing something to an Arab with your left hand is an insult? Or that, at birth, a Chinese is one year old? Cultural Portraits answers hundreds of questions and empowers you with valuable information not only about cultural practices but with explanations about terms we hear daily (i.e., "jihad," "Sunni"). If you are a school principal, a corporation executive, a registrar, an institutional dietitian, a social worker, an immigration attorney, a policeman, a social security employee, a guidance counselor, a director of personnel in a factory, a professor or a classroom teacher, a foreign student adviser, a business man, or just a tourist traveling around the globe, there is something in Cultural Portraits to help you meet the needs of foreign persons without offending their sensibilities and sparing yourself embarrassment. The more complete and accurate information we have, the better we perform our jobs. In this book, you'll find brief, succinct information (i.e., caveats, educational systems, recording foreign names, forms of address, gender relations, diets, long and short dates, writing numbers, body language, punctuality, evaluating transcripts, national traits, et al.) which will compose for you the cultural portrait of any one of the 72 countries included in this study. Cultural Portraits is a valuable resource for resolving challenging issues and addressing cultural questions to help you do your job better and with renewed confidence, while fostering understanding for one another in today's complex world.