Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, December 26, 1994 TAG: 9412280031
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: B12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LORAINE O'CONNELL ORLANDO SENTINEL
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
A Timex and a Patek Phillippe look pretty much the same to you.
Your Ford Festiva sports a tree-shaped deodorizer drooping from the rear-view mirror.
You figure Gianni Versace is some new spaghetti-type thing.
Well, darlings, despite your lack of savoir-faire, there is hope for you.
It's a book called ``Simply Sophisticated'' (The Summit Group, $12.95).
In it, author Suzanne Munshower has thoughtfully outlined everything one needs to know to pass oneself off as a cultured, knowledgeable citizen of the world. Topics include shopping, sipping (wines and international beers), speaking (how and when to drop Latin and French phrases), eating, investing, arts appreciating, driving, and traveling.
She peppers her advice with amusing tidbits about the sophisticate's preferences, such as a ``Love 'em/Hate 'em'' list of actors. For those of you not in the know, sophisticates love Meryl Streep and hate Sally Field; love Arnold Schwarzenegger, hate Sylvester Stallone; love Tom Hanks, hate Tom Cruise; love Alfre Woodard, hate Whoopi Goldberg.
Munshower knows who her audience is.
``This book isn't going to appeal to somebody who's unsophisticated and doesn't care,'' says the California woman.
``Once you care about being sophisticated, to a certain degree you already are. Lots of my friends say, `I really want to get your book for the wine part' or the food part or the travel part' ''
Munshower figures that a lot of average folks are finding themselves in jobs that require a higher level of sophistication than they possess. Maybe they have to wine and dine cultured clients whose tastes run to fine wines and cigars.
The winer and diner may prefer to pound down some brewskis with the client but, realizing that's not de rigueur, decides, `` `I'd better learn a little so I don't look like a complete buffoon,' '' Munshower says.
Good thinking, says a psychologist who specializes in image.
``In the corporate world and in international business, it [appearing sophisticated] does matter because it's a particular culture,'' says Judith Waters, who teaches at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison, N.J.
``If you're not part of that culture, you can't play the games they play. You have to know how to order in a restaurant; otherwise, people think you're ignorant.''
It's not that knowing the difference between portobello and shiitake mushrooms is important in and of itself, Waters says. It's that knowing the distinction ``is a mark of someone who `belongs.' ''
``That's true in any subculture,'' she notes. ``If you wanted to pass as a member of the drug subculture, you'd have to know the vocabulary. Then you'd be `sophisticated' as a member of the drug subculture.''
Oh, my ... well ... let's not get into that.
Management consultant Mimi Hull says that developing a certain amount of sophistication is helpful in that it gives one self-confidence in a variety of situations.
Typically, lack of sophistication becomes an issue ``when you make the leap from hourly employee to salaried professional,'' she says. ``All of a sudden, the people you're conversing with, mixing with, may be different.''
Beware, however, of becoming a pseudosophisticate.
``In their effort to be sophisticated, sometimes people do things that actually hurt them,'' warns Hull, a licensed psychologist in Maitland, Fla.
``They use language that's more sophisticated than the situation requires. They'll say, for example, `the precipitation is descending with amazing rapidity' instead of `it's really pouring outside.' ''
Or pronounce crudites KREW-dites instead of krew-dee-TAY.
Which just SCREAMS g-a-u-c-h-e.
(Oh, all right, if you really don't know: Crudites are those darling little raw veggies served with dip as hors d'oeuvres. Surely you've experienced hors d'oeuvres.)
Another problem for the pseudosophisticate is losing track of what's really important in a business setting, Hull says.
``Say you're invited to dinner in an interview situation,'' she says, ``and you're so concerned about what you're going to order and what fork to use that you tune out the conversation around you.''
Yes, it happens, Hull says - and the pseudosophisticates blow their interviews.
Unfortunate, n'est-ce pas?
Hull recommends that career climbers not take sophistication too-too seriously.
``It's more important to learn the terminology of your workplace than the terminology of the culturally elite.''
Especially since our society isn't terribly formal anymore.
``We're becoming a much more casual society, so a lot of these things are becoming less and less important.''
Indeed, Hull says, ``it's just as important to know the names of your major-league baseball teams as it is to know the names of the operas.''
Please! Say it isn't so!
Actually, Munshower assures us, baby boomers are much more sophisticated than previous generations just by virtue of their educational level, travel opportunities and exposure to culture through the media.
``On cable there are wine shows, cooking shows, fashion shows,'' she notes. Not to mention PBS and foreign films.
Munshower is upbeat about Americans' desire for sophistication, especially in relation to the arts.
``Maybe I'm a snob,'' she says, ``but I get much more excited when I hear people say their goal is to take their children to the Louvre rather than to take the family to Disney World for the fifth time.''
by CNB