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Welcome!! My name is Paul Lappen. I am in my early 60s, single, and live in Connecticut USA. This blog will consist of book reviews, written by me, on a wide variety of subjects. I specialize, as much as possible, in small press and self-published books, to give them whatever tiny bit of publicity help that I can. Other than that, I am willing to review nearly any genre, except poetry, romance, elementary-school children's books and (really bloody) horror.

I have another 800 reviews at my archive blog: http://www.deadtreesreviewarchive.blogspot.com (please visit).

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Friday, April 10, 2020

Babel: A Guide to the East-West Encounter

Babel: A Guide to the East-West Encounter, Ofer Grosbard, Amazon.com Services, 2020

What the heck is a "vector of the mind" and why should a person care about it? This book attempts to answer that question.

Those with an outward oriented vector of the mind have an eastern paradigm of mind, and emphasize the group, or consensus. Perhaps the best known example is the Japanese concept of "saving face." On the other hand, those with a western paradigm of mind have an inward oriented vector of the mind. The best example of this is the American emphasis on the individual. Dealing with someone whose paradigm of mind is opposite to ours creates a cross-cultural problem. Both of you might speak the same language, but you will have a hard time understanding each other.

It is normal to think that a person from another culture thinks the same way that we do. That is because we only know one way of thinking. Is it possible to "translate" from one to the other?

This book contains many examples of negotiations between America and Israel and its Arab neighbors. It also includes a questionnaire so that a person can assess their own vector of the mind. Is it possible to get away from being Politically Correct and acknowledge our differences?

Here is a very interesting book. The many examples of Arab-Israeli contacts also make it pretty easy to understand. This will get the reader thinking.