The Yillian Way

"The Yillian Way" by Keith Laumer is a science fiction tale from the early 1960s that looks at how humans and aliens get along, especially the tricky parts of talking and trading with a group called the Yills for planets in space. The main character, Jame Retief, is a vice-consul who gets into all sorts of funny and dangerous messes as he tries to understand the strange ways of the Yills; Retief leads a group of Earth diplomats to the Yill's home planet, but things get awkward because of cultural mix-ups and strange customs. One example of this is their weird dinner parties, where they seem determined to annoy the human guests. But Retief is clever, and when the Yills serve dog food to his fellow diplomats at a big dinner, he bravely flips the table over. This surprising move impresses the Yill leaders so much that they end up liking him, and Retief gets a promotion and an invite to come back as their consul-general, proving he's good at talking and working with different cultures.