Product Description
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

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Customer Reviews (2)

Estonia Culture
It is essential to know something about the culture and manners of a country.this little book has pepared me for my first visit to Estonia in a way the usual guide book could not.

Outstanding cultural overview
This book presents a very current, accurate and insightful overview of Estonian culture.Each topic is presented clearly and concisely but in appropriate depth: land and people, values and attitudes, festivals and celebrations, making friends, daily life, time out, traveling, business briefing, communicating.The book is an excellent companion to travel guides like the Lonely Planet or Bradt series (which I also recommend).It is a must-read for anyone with more than a passing interest in this small but fascinating nation, and will be of great benefit to travelers and businesspeople planning to spend any appreciable time (read: more than a day or two) in Estonia. ... Read more

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Introduces the geography, history, government, economy, culture, and people of Estonia, the most northerly and least populated of the three Baltic states. ... Read more

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Estonia has recently come to the attention to global strategic planners.This report puts these executives on the fast track.Ten chapters provide: an overview of how to strategically access this important market, a discussion on economic fundamentals, marketing & distribution options, export and direct investment options, and full risk assessments (political, cultural, legal, human resources).Ample statistical benchmarks and comparative graphs are given. ... Read more

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Chapters: Võro Language, Culture of Estonia, 90th Anniversary of Estonian Republic, National Library of Estonia, Estophilia, Estonian National Awakening, Prostitution in Estonia, St. Catherine's Day, St John's Day, Estonian Folklore, New York Estonian House, Estonian Institute, Yestonians, Seto Language, Haapsalu Shawl, Aadu, Centre for South Estonian Language and Cultural Studies. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 72. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: North Estonian dialect group North-Eastern Estonian dialect group South Estonian dialect group A bilingual Estonian-Võro parish sign in Võrumaa. The parish name with vowel harmony (Urvastõ) is in Võro. A 1998 ABC-book in Võro language written by Jüvä Sullõv, Kauksi Ülle etc.: "ABC kiräoppus" An 1885 ABC-book in Võro language written by Johann Hurt: "Wastne Võro keeli ABD raamat"The Võro language (Võro: , Estonian: ) is a language belonging to the Baltic-Finnic branch of the Finno-Ugric languages. Traditionally it has been considered a dialect of South Estonian dialect group of the Estonian language, but nowadays it has its own literary language and is in search of official recognition as an autochthonous regional language of Estonia. Võro has about 70,000 speakers (Võros) mostly in south-eastern Estonia, in the eight parishes of historical Võru County: Karula, Harglõ, Urvastõ, Rõugõ, Kanepi, Põlva, Räpinä, and Vahtsõliina. These parishes are currently centered (due to redistricting) in Võru and Põlva Counties with parts extending into Valga and Tartu counties. Speakers can also be found in the towns of Tallinn, Tartu and the rest of Estonia. Võro is a descendant of the old South Estonian tribal language and is the least influenced by Standard Estonian (which is based on Northern Estonian dialects). Võro was once spoken further south a...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=1336923 ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Countries and Their Cultures, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 958 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Covers the broad range of popular religious culture of the United States at the close of the twentieth century. Beliefs, practices, symbols, traditions, movements, organizations, and leaders from the many traditions in the pluralistic American community are represented. Also includes cults and phenomena that drew followers, such as Heaven's Gale and UFOs. ... Read more

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On the demand side, exporters and strategic planners focusing on human blood, prepared animal blood, toxins, cultures of micro-organisms, and similar products excluding yeasts in Estonia face a number of questions. Which countries are supplying human blood, prepared animal blood, toxins, cultures of micro-organisms, and similar products excluding yeasts to Estonia? How important is Estonia compared to others in terms of the entire global and regional market? How much do the imports of human blood, prepared animal blood, toxins, cultures of micro-organisms, and similar products excluding yeasts vary from one country of origin to another in Estonia? On the supply side, Estonia also exports human blood, prepared animal blood, toxins, cultures of micro-organisms, and similar products excluding yeasts. Which countries receive the most exports from Estonia? How are these exports concentrated across buyers? What is the value of these exports and which countries are the largest buyers?

This report was created for strategic planners, international marketing executives and import/export managers who are concerned with the market for human blood, prepared animal blood, toxins, cultures of micro-organisms, and similar products excluding yeasts in Estonia. With the globalization of this market, managers can no longer be contented with a local view. Nor can managers be contented with out-of-date statistics which appear several years after the fact. I have developed a methodology, based on macroeconomic and trade models, to estimate the market for human blood, prepared animal blood, toxins, cultures of micro-organisms, and similar products excluding yeasts for those countries serving Estonia via exports, or supplying from Estonia via imports. It does so for the current year based on a variety of key historical indicators and econometric models.

In what follows, Chapter 2 begins by summarizing where Estonia fits into the world market for imported and exported human blood, prepared animal blood, toxins, cultures of micro-organisms, and similar products excluding yeasts. The total level of imports and exports on a worldwide basis, and those for Estonia in particular, is estimated using a model which aggregates across over 150 key country markets and projects these to the current year. From there, each country represents a percent of the world market. This market is served from a number of competitive countries of origin. Based on both demand- and supply-side dynamics, market shares by country of origin are then calculated across each country market destination. These shares lead to a volume of import and export values for each country and are aggregated to regional and world totals. In doing so, we are able to obtain maximum likelihood estimates of both the value of each market and the share that Estonia is likely to receive this year. From these figures, rankings are calculated to allow managers to prioritize Estonia compared to other major country markets. In this way, all the figures provided in this report are forecasts that can be combined with internal information sources for strategic planning purposes. ... Read more

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Chapters: Archaeological Sites in Estonia, Narva Culture, Pulli Settlement, Kunda Culture, Toompea Castle. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 24. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Narva culture or eastern Baltic (ca. 5300 to 1750 BC) was an European Neolithic archaeological culture found in present-day Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Kaliningrad Oblast (former East Prussia), and adjacent portions of Poland and Russia. A successor of the Mesolithic Kunda culture, Narva culture continued up to the start of the Bronze Age. The technology was that of hunter-gatherers. The culture was named after the Narva River in Estonia. The people of the Narva culture had little access to flint; therefore, they were forced to trade and conserve their flint resources. For example, there were very few flint arrowheads and flint was often reused. The Narva culture relied on local materials (bone, horn, schist). As evidence of trade, researchers found pieces of pink flint from Valdai Hills and plenty of typical Narva pottery in the territory of the Neman culture while no objects from the Neman culture were found in Narva. Heavy use of bones and horns is one of the main characteristics of the Narva culture. The bone tools, continued from the predecessor Kunda culture, provide the best evidence of continuity of the Narva culture throughout the Neolithic period. The people were buried on their backs with few grave goods. The Narva culture also used and traded amber; a few hundred items were found in Juodkrant. One of the most famous artifacts is a ceremonial cane carved of horn as a head of female elk found in ventoji. The people were primarily fishers, hunters, and gatherers. They slowly began adopting husbandry in middle Neolithic. They were not nomadic and lived in same settlements for long periods as evidenc...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=2485920 ... Read more

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Chapters: Cinema of Estonia, Estonian Music, Estonian Television Series, Singing Revolution, Music of Estonia, Võta Või Jäta, Estonian Rock, Tuulepealne Maa, Eurolaul, Kõige Suurem Sõber, Wremja, Kes Tahab Saada Miljonäriks?, Eesti Laul, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, Wikmani Poisid, Estonian Film Foundation, Kärna Ärni, Pehmed Ja Karvased. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 56. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: The Singing Revolution is a commonly used name for events between 1987 and 1990 that led to the restoration of the independence of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, mainly in Estonia . The term was coined by an Estonian activist and artist, Heinz Valk, in an article published a week after the June 1011, 1988 spontaneous mass night-singing demonstrations at the Tallinn Song Festival Grounds. After World War II the Baltic States had been fully incorporated into the USSR after military occupation and annexation first in 1940 and then again in 1944. Mikhail Gorbachev introduced "glasnost" (openness) and "perestroika" (restructuring) in 1985, hoping to stimulate the failing Soviet economy and encourage productivity, particularly in the areas of consumer goods, the liberalisation of co-operative businesses and the service economy. Glasnost rescinded limitations on political freedoms in the Soviet Union which led to problems within the non-Russian nations occupied in the build-up to war in the 1940s. Hitherto unrecognised issues previously kept secret by the Moscow government were admitted to in public, causing dissatisfaction within the Baltic States. Combined with the war in Afghanistan and Chernobyl, grievances were aired in a publicly explosive and politically decisive manner. Estonians were concerned about the demographic threat to their national identity posed by the influx...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=274394 ... Read more

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Cultural examination of Estonia. ... Read more

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Chapters: Tallinnfilm, Estonian Culture Film, Taska Film, Exitfilm, Allfilm. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 17. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Tallinnfilm is the oldest still functional film studio in Estonia. Originally founded as Estonian Culture Film in 1931, the studio was nationalized in 1940 after Estonia was forced into Soviet Union. During the first year of Soviet Occupation (1940-1941) Eesti Kultuurfilm was taken over by the Communist Party and renamed Kinokroonika Eesti Stuudio (the Estonian Newsreel Studio). In 1942 during the German occupation in WWII was renamed Kinokroonika Tallinna Stuudio (The Tallinn Newsreel Studio) and called Tallinna Kinostuudio (The Tallinn Film Studio) in 1947 again by the Soviets. The Tallinn Film Studio was renamed Kunstiliste ja Kroonikafilmide Tallinna Kinostuudio (Tallinn Feature- and Newsreel Film Studio) in 1954 and in 1963 was renamed again Tallinnfilm During the Soviet era, the studio was the only major movie production house in Estonia, leading to its being responsible for almost all feature-length movies of the time. (Most of the rest were produced by Eesti Televisioon.) Most notable feature films produced by Tallinnfilm during the Soviet era were Viimne reliikvia (The Last Relic) , released in 1969 by Tallinnfilm. The movie set the absolute box office record for the entire Soviet Union at the time by selling 44,9 million tickets. It was successfully distributed by the Soviet film export internationally in more than 60 countries. The Spring (1969) Estonian: directed by Arvo Kruusement sold 558,000 tickets in Estonia (Total population 1.34 million) and in 1971 8,100,000 in Soviet Union. After Estonia regained independence in 1991, Tallinnfilm terminated its production activities and concentrated on the restoration of its film s...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=13149025 ... Read more

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Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, nationality groups have claimed sovereignty in the new republics bearing their names. With the ascendance of these titular nationality groups, Russian speakers living in the post-Soviet republics face a radical crisis of identity. That crisis is at the heart of David D. Laitin's keenly awaited book.

Laitin portrays these Russian speakers as a "beached diaspora" since the populations did not cross international borders; the borders themselves receded. He asks what will become of these populations. Will they learn the languages of the republics in which they live and prepare their children for assimilation? Will they return to a homeland many have never seen? Or will they become loyal citizens of the new republics while maintaining a Russian identity? Through questions such as these and on the basis of ethnographic field research, discourse analysis, and mass surveys, Laitin analyzes trends in four post-Soviet republics: Estonia, Latvia, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine.

Laitin concludes that the "Russian-speaking population" is a new category of identity in the post-Soviet world. This conglomerate identity of those who share a language is analogous, Laitin suggests, to such designations as "Palestinian" in the Middle East and "Hispanic" in the United States. The development of this new identity has implications both for the success of the national projects in these states and for interethnic peace. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Well written and extremely interesting
This is a carefully researched, thoughtful and well-written examination ofthe Russian speaking population in the "near abroad" since thebreak up of the Soviet Union.While my experience is largely withLithuania, his discussion of the Russian speaking population in Estonia andLatvia seemed insightful. As a minor criticism, or perhaps more as a termof reference for readers, I should note that Laitin seemed more sympatheticto the diaspora Russians than to the local populations.His discussion ofBaltic events struck me as distinctly pro-ethnic Russian, although notoutrageously so.Persons with Baltic ties may disagree with some hisviews, but they will still find them interesting. ... Read more

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Gender equality permeates all areas of action in the EU enlargement process. Although in principle equality has been achieved in all candidate countries, women have not yet practically benefitted from this since institutional mechanisms for implementation are missing. ... Read more