Win a Culture Smart! Guide

During November, every single issue of Geographical bought at a WHSmith will come with a free Culture Smart! guide. To celebrate this promotion we are going to give five people a Culture Smart! guide of their choice (and with nearly eighty different guides available there are plenty to choose from).

    
              

The ground-breaking Culture Smart! guides are aimed at discerning travelers who want to go beyond the picture-postcard clichés of conventional tourist guidebooks. They reveal the human dimension of a country, providing visitors with a deeper understanding of the people they will meet at their destinations.
 
These fascinating books won’t tell you what time a train departs, but they will tell you what the journey will be like, and how to get on with your fellow passengers. This popular series has grown at a steady pace and today covers almost 80 countries.

To enter the draw to win one of the Culture Smart! guides, all you have to do is register or sign in, and correctly answer the following questions about culture and etiquette around the world:

(1) In what country can the “Tea Ceremony” be considered a microcosm of society, philosophy and aesthetics?

(a) Japan
(b) China
(c) India

(2) In an apparent act of generosity, an Iranian taxi driver will very likely refuse payment of a fare. This custom, part of the complex system of manners, known as “Ta’rof”, operates in shops restaurants, hair salons or anywhere else where money changes hands.

How many times should you insist on payment before it is likely to be graciously accepted?

(a) Once
(b) Three times
(c) Five times

(3) In Bolivia if you are invited to a private gathering at 5pm at what time should you arrive?

(a) On time
(b) Earlier, to help set up
(c) Later than 5pm

(4) Following a death in Sri Lanka, the body is brought to the funeral home and any pictures are turned upside down. What is the explanation behind this custom?

(a)    To stop the living seeing the dead
(b)    To keep them from getting damaged
(c)    To prevent spirits of the dead from inhabiting the living

(5) When a child is born the Ashanti people of Ghana use the Akan naming system, which means that children are named according to the day of the week they were born. So, if a girl is born on a Wednesday what will she be called?

(a)    Akua
(b)    Kwaku
(c)    Kofi

Question: Just send us the answers to the questions above before 5pm on the 31st November and after that date we will pick five winners at random.

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