There's No Toilet Paper . . . on the Road Less Traveled
collected and edited by Doug Lansky
A collection of stories in which various well-known writers share their humorous and sometimes bizarre travel experiences.
Read Time: ~4.7 hr
Language shock
by Michael Agar (1993)
About this book
Modern society is loaded with cultural differences. Michael Agar's fascinating new book, Language Shock, shows how we unconsciously bring such differences to life - through our everyday language. It is with language, ultimately, that we express who we are and what is important in our world. In fact, language is so deeply rooted in culture (and vice versa) that linguistic anthropologist Michael Agar combines the two into what he calls languaculture. With so much present conflict, from personal to global, based on words as well as weapons, the exploration of languaculture is of a vital and timely importance. As the old song goes, "You can't have one without the other" - not if you want to communicate in today's culturally complex world. . Michael Agar takes the reader on a fascinating, and often humorous, journey as he demonstrates not only how to find the culture in language, but also how to use it to pursue a different, richer point of view. He incorporates his own experiences, ranging from paying an electric bill in Austria to handling a bank account in Mexico to dealing with a parking ticket here in the United States. In Agar's hands, potentially problematic situations become instead enlightening glimpses of languacultural differences. Put into practice, Language Shock encourages readers to develop an increased understanding of others, both at home and abroad, and shows how these differences can be wonderful, rather than threatening.
Setting / LocationGlobal
Story EraModern Era
Protagonist / CoreLanguage shock Lead Character
Themes & Moods
Readers who enjoyed this also loved
Waiting for winter to end
Georgie Anne Geyer
Soviet Central Asia: an exotic region of harsh deserts and rugged mountains shut off by communism since 1917, mysterious lands that still evoke images of the ancient Silk Road caravans. Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tatarstan, and Azerbaijan are primarily inhabited by Muslim peoples of whom we know very little. Now that the long winter of communism has ended and these new republics slowly open to the West, syndicated columnist and television personality Georgie Anne Geyer has taken it upon herself to learn more. A modern-day Marco Polo, she shares her eye-opening personal experiences in Waiting for Winter to End. Join her as she sets out from Moscow for Kazan and Alma-Ata, Bishkek and Tashkent, Samarkand and Baku. Sit in on her interviews with nascent political leaders about the post-Soviet situation, in which possible dangers for the United States are revealed. Travel with a witty, observant, and knowledgeable companion to a resources-rich region that will become more and more important for the world. Georgie Anne Geyer's latest book is a lively, multifaceted account of her adventures in places to which few Westerners have gone before. Part travelogue, part history, part insider's political briefing - an entirely enjoyable and entertaining read.
Tricky business
Dave Barry
An unusual assortment of passengers, including Fay Benton, a cocktail waitress and single mother, and hired killer Lou Tarrant embark on a voyage aboard the Extravaganza of the Seas, a gambling ship with another mysterious function.
Great Plains
Ian Frazier
With his unique blend of intrepidity, tongue-in-cheek humor, and wide-eyed wonder, Ian Frazier takes us on a journey of more than 25,000 miles up and down and across the vast and myth-inspiring Great Plains. A travelogue, a work of scholarship, and a western adventure, Great Plains takes us from the site of Sitting Bull?s cabin, to an abandoned house once terrorized by Bonnie and Clyde, to the scene of the murders chronicled in Truman Capote?s In Cold Blood. It is an expedition that reveals the heart of the American West.