Building cultural awareness of national cultures is not an easy task, and no fool proof method exists for doing so. Visitors to foreign countries remark on cultural differences, experts write about them, and international businesspeople find that they affect operations. Yet controversy surrounds these differences because people disagree on what they are, whether they are widespread or exceptional differences, and whether the differences are deep-seated or superficial. Further, culture cannot easily be isolated from such factors as economic and political conditions. For example, an opinion survey of a country’s citizens that measures, say, attitudes toward buying a new product may reflect a response to temporary economic conditions rather than basic values and beliefs that will have lasting effects on the producrs acceptance.

Some differences, such as those regarng acceptable attire, are discerned easily; others may be