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

Culture Smart / Cultuur Bewust

by Isabella Morris

At first sight, modern-day Egypt is an unruly and chaotic a cacophony of sounds, an overload of smells, and a swirling visual feast. Ancient church domes and medieval minarets share the same space with fast-food chains and chic air-conditioned café s. Egyptian society has undergone dramatic changes in recent years, yet tradition and deeply conservative views prevail. Culture Smart! Egypt explores the codes and paradoxes of Egyptian life, outlines the country’ s history, and shows the forces that have shaped its sensibility. It explains the key values and attitudes, guides you through local customs and traditions, and opens a window into the private lives of Egyptians and offers advice on how to get a long with them and how to be a good guest.

200 pages, Paperback

Published July 11, 2024

Reviews

[Charlotte · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this little book in an effort to retroactively answer some of the questions I have about Egypt. (After spending three weeks there last year I still felt like I understood very little of the people or of the culture.) The history of the country starting with the Greco-Roman period is so jumbled: Abbasids! Mamluks! Ptolemies! It's hard to keep it all straight. There is good information here about common Egyptian personality traits and why certain things are the way they are. (The note about the Egyptian Postal Service being "slow but reliable" is laughably incorrect - this I know from direct experience. :-) Of course the omnipresence of baksheesh was mentioned but there was no practical advice about how to actually do it. Where do you get an endless supply of small bills? What are appropriate amounts? How are visitors to cope with local assumptions about wealthy white foreigners? What is the appropriate response to being treated as an ATM, as most foreign tourists are? How can a visitor actually get to know the locals without giving them money? This type of thing was a constant vexation while I was there, and unfortunately this book didn't shed much light.