Belgium - Culture Smart!: The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture

Belgium is known for its dull image, but it has a subversive sense of humor, surreal imagination, and disdain for authority. Culture Smart! Belgium helps travelers understand Belgian society and encounter it with sensitivity and poise. It traces the land's turbulent history and looks at how the past has shaped the collective and personal values of today's Belgians.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 200 pages
Publication date: 30 June 2022
Publisher: Kuperard

Belgium, often perceived as Europe's most boring country, holds a reputation that is entirely undeserved. Beneath this conventional exterior, there lies a subversive sense of humor, a surreal imagination, and a deep-rooted disdain for authority. Alternatively, it could be a camouflage, a way for Belgium, still overrun by foreigners, to retain a few of its secrets to itself.

Two primary factors shape the values and approaches of Belgians: the impact of the linguistic divide and the country's long history of exposure to other cultures through trade, war, and occupation. This unique experience of being simultaneously small and strategically placed has left a lasting imprint on Belgian society.

Culture Smart! Belgium is a comprehensive guide designed to help travelers understand Belgian society and engage with sensitivity and poise. We trace the land's turbulent history, exploring how the past has shaped the collective and personal values of today's Belgians. By examining the Belgian people at work, play, and home, we offer valuable tips to facilitate interactions and navigate new situations, regardless of the linguistic divide.

With chapters on history, values, attitudes, and traditions, Culture Smart! Belgium provides a deeper understanding of the local culture, enabling travelers to better connect with their hosts. Additionally, practical tips on etiquette and communication help individuals navigate unfamiliar situations and avoid potential faux pas. By embracing a better understanding of the local culture, travelers can enrich their overseas experience and create meaningful connections with the people they encounter.

Dimension: 170 x 110 x 15 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781787023123
Edition number: Revised ed