Reviews for Considering Cultural Difference (Longman Topics Reader Series)

The average rating for Considering Cultural Difference (Longman Topics Reader Series) based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-03-14 00:00:00 Andrew Chugg This is a good book because it introduces you to many different perspectives. It goes through topics of school, sports, race, and workplace. It has different excerpts on each chapter of the book. It will give you high insight into an enlightened diverse world. I enjoyed it for my class, and would read it again

Review # 2 was written on 2015-05-08 00:00:00 Marko Suo-Anttila It is almost impossible to articulate the [Iditarod] as a whole. It can be broken down into sections, days, hours, horrors, joys, checkpoints, winds, nights, cold, waters, ice, deaths, tragedies, small and large courage. But as a whole, to say generally what the race is like, there are no exact words. Outrageous, perhaps. Staggering. Insane. Altering. All of them, and more. No one word works. To those of us living Outside, ie. not in Alaska, the Iditarod is a dog sled race replaying the heroic effort in 1925 to get life-saving diptheria serum to Nome; transport via dog sled was the only option in winter. Apparently, this is a myth - or Winterdance is about Paulsen's transformation during his dog-sled running days and his rookie experiences with the Iditarod in the 1980s. It began with financial circumstances pushing his family into a shack in the northern woods of Minnesota and a friend's gift of a sled and four dogs which became his only means of transportation. He slowly developed an appreciation for the beauty of life he witnessed during his first year with the sled dogs - from bold beavers to a she-wolf in heat whom he dubbed "Marge." I was starting to growl more and more at [my dogs] and talk less. Speaking in grunts. ... It was still too soon in my dog career for me to begin to go mad while running them. That would come later. It didn't even take two years with his sled dogs before Paulsen decided to participate in the Iditarod. We had spoken of the Iditarod a few times. ... I knew nothing of Alaska, crossing mountain ranges, running on sea ice, racing with a team ... 1,180 miles of snow and deep cold, cold like I had never even imagined, winds beyond belief, roaring waters and deadly dreams - a world, a whole world beyond my knowing. The first half of Winterdance was about his preparations for the Iditarod. There were many laugh-out-loud vignettes as he didn't spare himself in recounting the unexpected encounters with nature and the mishaps as he assembled his team of 15 dogs. His tale about the skunks was the bomb. The second half of his memoir described his first Iditarod. There was an "official" start of the race in Anchorage for the televised publicity before the competition really began in Knik. It quickly dawned upon him that his ignorance, in addition to the non-racecourse issues like deadly moose attacks and dog fights, may have gravely endangered his life. But the wildness of Alaska soon cast its spell on Paulsen and the Iditarod did the rest. And, finally, there was Alaska - the seductive, wonderfully magnificent deadly beauty of the place. I thought my whole life had changed, that my basic understanding of values had changed, that I wasn't sure if I would ever recover, that I had seen god and he was a dog-man and that nothing, ever, would be the same for me again, and it was only the first true checkpoint of the race. If you love dogs, then you should consider reading Winterdance. If you also enjoy adventure tales or are curious about Alaska, then I'd recommend that you add this to your TBR.