Chapter 1 — Exercises

These exercises are not a test. They are a gym. The goal of Chapter 1 was to make your own culture visible to you, so most of what follows asks you to turn the lens inward before you turn it outward. Work them with a pen and a willingness to be a little uncomfortable — discomfort, here, is the feeling of the water becoming visible.

Selected answers and sample responses appear in Appendix: Answers to Selected Exercises. Exercises marked with ✍️ feed directly into your Cultural Intelligence Portfolio.

Part A — Check Your Understanding

Short answers in your own words. If you can't answer one, reread the matching section before moving on.

  1. Explain the "fish doesn't know it's wet" idea in two sentences. Why is your own culture the one you understand least clearly?
  2. What does WEIRD stand for, and why is it a warning rather than a compliment or an insult?
  3. Redraw the culture iceberg from memory. Put three things above the waterline and five below it. Which layer causes cross-cultural "collisions," and why?
  4. In the operating-system metaphor, what are your "apps," and why does the book insist they don't need replacing?
  5. The chapter argues that directness is "not honesty." Restate that argument fairly — what is Western directness optimizing for, and what is Eastern indirectness optimizing for?
  6. Why does the chapter call "that's weird" a doorbell? What is the more useful question to ask when you feel that flash of judgment?
  7. Define cultural humility in one sentence, without using the word "humble."

Part B — Check Your Assumptions

This is the core skill of the chapter: catching your own culture in the act of pretending to be common sense. For each statement below, decide whether it describes a human universal or a WEIRD cultural preference. Then write one sentence explaining a culture that might see it differently.

  1. "A grown adult should make their own career decisions without needing their parents' approval."
  2. "If you disagree with someone, the respectful thing is to tell them directly."
  3. "You should be judged on your own merits, not on your family's reputation."
  4. "Wasting someone's time is a small form of rudeness."
  5. "It's healthy to move out of your parents' home as a young adult."
  6. "A signed contract is what makes a business agreement real."

The point of this exercise is not that the Western view is wrong. It is that each statement feels like neutral good sense and is in fact a specific cultural position. Noticing the feeling — "but that's just obviously true" — is the whole skill.

Part C — Decode This

Each item is a real cross-cultural moment. Write what the Western reader probably assumes it means, then a plausible alternative meaning inside a different operating system. (You don't have enough culture-specific knowledge yet to be certain — that's fine. Practice generating the alternative, not the right answer.)

  1. In a meeting, you ask your East Asian counterpart a direct yes/no question, and they pause for several seconds of silence before answering.
  2. You compliment a colleague's individual work in front of the whole team, and they look down and seem uncomfortable rather than pleased.
  3. A new acquaintance from Korea asks your age almost immediately after meeting you.
  4. An Arab business host spends the first full meeting on coffee, family, and conversation, with no mention of the deal you flew in to discuss.

Part D — What Would You Do?

Real situations, each with several responses. There is no single "correct" answer — for each, pick the response closest to your instinct, then write why a culturally humble person might choose differently.

1. The silent team. You're the Shanghai manager from the chapter. You ask for opinions and get silence. Do you (a) push harder — "Come on, someone must have a concern"; (b) take the silence as agreement and move on; (c) end the group call and ask for input one-on-one afterward; (d) fill the silence by criticizing your own plan to model openness? What does each option signal, and which best fits what you learned about face and harmony?

2. The "inefficient" lunch. You're three meetings into a deal in the Gulf and no business has been discussed — only meals and conversation. Your head office is asking for progress. Do you (a) politely insist on getting to the agenda; (b) relax and invest in the relationship, trusting it's the real work; (c) split the difference and raise one business point over lunch; (d) fly home and call it a waste? What is each choice optimizing for?

3. The family consult. You offer a strong job to a brilliant Indian candidate. They say they need to discuss it with their parents over the weekend. Do you (a) worry they lack independence and reconsider the offer; (b) read it as normal and give them the time graciously; (c) ask them to decide for themselves by Monday; (d) take it as a negotiating tactic? Which reading reflects cultural humility?

Part E — Cultural Translation

For each message, write two versions: a direct/low-context version (how you'd naturally say it to a Western peer) and an indirect/high-context version (how you might soften it to preserve the other person's face). Notice how much information survives the translation, and how much relationship is being protected.

  1. "I don't agree with your proposal."
  2. "We're not going to be able to meet that deadline."
  3. "Your team's report had several errors in it."

Part F — Reflection & Extension

  1. The hardest virtue. Of the three Western "virtues" the chapter examined — directness, individualism, efficiency — which is hardest for you personally to imagine living without? Write a page on why, and on what you might gain by loosening your grip on it in the right context.
  2. A reverse mirror. Find one practice from your own Western culture that an outsider might reasonably call "cold," "rude," or "strange." Describe it as an anthropologist would — neutrally, with its internal logic — the way this book tries to describe Eastern practices.

✍️ Portfolio Builder. Open your Cultural Intelligence Portfolio for your chosen culture. Create the first section, "My Starting Assumptions." List five things you currently believe about this culture and, beside each, mark whether it came from (a) direct experience, (b) a person you know, (c) media/movies, or (d) you're not sure. You will revisit this list at Chapter 40 and be surprised by it. Keeping an honest record of where you began is the single best way to measure how far you travel.