One of the popular and quick ways to educate people who will be entering another culture is to provide them with lists of do's and taboos. The Internet, for example, is good at providing such lists. Here is what Linda Beamer and Iris Varner (2001) think of such lists:

The do's and taboos lists are usually accurate, but their helpfulness is limited. One-sentence advice on behavior is like seeing a snapshot from a movie. It is accurate, but without the content of the movie's story line, character development, or even the specific episode, the snapshot's significance may not be understandable. Lists of do's and taboos can't explain why you should or should not behave in a particular way in a particular place. Lists can't possibly be comprehensive. And even if a business traveler were armed with a very long list, who can consult a list for every nuance in every different country? It's no wonder that businesspeople may seem to discard tips on do's and taboos in favor of simply being themselves and acting the same way abroad that they would at home. And yet most businesspeople know that business as usual-doing what they do at home-can be counterproductive when doing business abroad (p. 11).

Source: L. Beamer, & I. Varner. Intercultural Communication in the Global Workplace. (New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2001).

1		Have you ever seen or used a list of do's or taboos? Have you found them helpful?
2		Do you think a list of do's and taboos would serve the purpose when the amount of time you have to prepare to enter another culture is brief, or when you just don't have time to study a thorough or comprehensive introduction to the new culture?
3		What do you rely on when you have no instructions of any kind and you are in a new culture? How do you behave? How do you know what to do?