ABSTRACT
After over two decades living and working in Britain, I am startled by the dif®culties I continue to experience `understanding' surprisingly everyday encounters with British friends and colleagues. Having now amassed a large number of `facts' about British values, choices and ideals, and having spent a great deal of time (mostly enjoyably) reading, discussing and exploring cultural meanings, I must concede that cultural difference may not be open to understanding. However, since the many problematic consequences of cultural separatism are fairly obvious, this chapter looks at the conditions necessary if difference is to be made to yield something other than discomfort in a supervisory setting.
