Welcome to our ENGL 10600I blog discussion about various exciting topics!
Our first topic for the semester is Differences between American culture and other cultures familiar to us revealed through the following articles brought to you by Corey:
http://www.china-nafsa.aief-usa.org/culture/differences.htm,
http://www.uniteforsight.org/cultural-competency/ (modules 7,8, and 9),
and
http://www.theharbinger.org/xix/001003/pinson.html.
Although two of the suggested readings deal only with American-Chinese differences, I would encourage everyone who comes from a different ethnic background to read up on the differences between American culture and their own for the sake of a more colorful and exciting discussion.
As per my directions today in the class, your assignment is to
1). read through these articles,
2). create your 20-word list,
3). and post your comments and opinion on what you read and on the topic in general.
The deadline for this topic is Friday, September 11. Let me know if you have any questions.
Have fun and take care,
Kinga
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15 comments:
Well, there are really a lot of things that differ my culture from the American one, such as the lifestyles, the food, and our way of thinking. Back to China, people are searching a sense of belonging all the time. We like to have a place called home that we are able to feel comfortable and secured in that shore. However, people in America are quite different since they tend to travel around and spend their time on adventurous trips. Meanwhile, Chinese people are less likely to attend or hold any type of party than Americans. We may hang out with friends and families, but parties are usually not the thing we are looking for. Furthermore, Chinese food are quite different from the American fast food. I think we can tell the difference just by looking at the tools we used to eat. Last but not least, the way Chinese people think are different from the American way of thinking. American people like to put a thesis statement introducing the main idea in the first paragraph of the essay while Chinese people prefer to conclude at the very end of the essay. People will not be able to know the main idea from the beginning of the essay but rather the end of the essay. There really are a great number of difference between culture and customs in different country. But the culture gaps will be filled in as we strive to fit into different societies. The tool of communication is heart, not languages. I wish every international student can fit into the society quickly and have a great semester at Purdue.
From those articles, we can see that cultural norms vary from country to country. And this is absolutely true. There is no one rulebook of customs or social rules for all the country in this world. As a Chinese girl, I will concentrate in the differences between Chinese and Americans.
Honestly, there is a huge shock between Eastern and Western culture. Like political system, social relationships, friendship, obligation, beliefs about service, social etiquette, time consciousness, etc. During these days, what impressed me most were the different notions of obligation to other people between Chinese and American, just as what the articles mentioned.
I chatted with an American girl who lived beside my room last night. Talking with her, I realized that there is a high possibility for American people to getting divorce. But in China, people do not divorce easily even though he really feels uncomfortable living with his wife. The reason is that he has to thinking about several aspects, and the most significant one is the feeling and opinion of his child. These appearances presuppose that Americans are strongly individualistic and attaching great importance to their own feelings, whereas Chinese are strongly group and family conscious. Before a Chinese makes a decision, which is about his family, he will thinking not only about himself, but also the feelings about the people who close to him.
Hence, I think in a certain extent, Chinese have a more responsibility in family than Americans.
As a Chinese student in the US, I have a deep understanding of the cultural differences between China and America. And I also realized that cultural difference is a vital subject to be learned when living in a foreign country.
As the articles said, Chinese people are modest and indirect while American people are more confident, show-off and direct. We are more collectivistic. Being a social member in China, we care other’s opinions and attitude toward us very much. In this case, sometimes we cannot freely express our feelings and do the things we desire to do. Compared to Chinese, American people are much more individual. Most of time, they do not care other’s opinions and are proud of being unique.
As far as I am concerned, the distinct cultures among countries are due to the different history each country underwent. The traditional customs which are closely related to the history affect people’s way of thinking and behaving in an incredible manner.
So in order to adapt to a new environment as soon as possible, it is important to observe people’s behaviors and learn the customs and history of that country. Living in the US as a international student, the task will be much more important and urgent if we want to integrate into the American society.
I believe that there are numerous cultural differences between Korea and United States. One of the typical difference is food. Usually, Koreans eat more food at morning,but in USA, we eat just cereal, eggs, or bread as a breakfast. I had a hard time to get used to it. Another difference can be characteristic of people. I realized that American people have strong individuality, but they are really social. They have many kind of party and they enjoy it. On the other hand, Asians don't participate that kind of social activity that much. I believe that eye contact is really huge difference to Koreans. We don't do eye contact with people especially teachers, professors, parents or old people during conversation, because people regard eye contact as a rude behavior. However, American think eye contact is really important. There are few minor differences such as go into house with wearing shoes, speak their opinion directly, and greeting people on a street.
I think understand and respect other students' own culture is very important. I know there are few people have a stereotype of Asians like nerd, smelly, and barbarian. I wish they understand and respect others' own culture and try to look ourselves, not the ethnic background.
Cultures are quite different. After reading the articles, I think there are several main differences between Chinese and American cultures as follows: Chinese focus more on family relationship while Americans value achievements on tasks more; Modesty is promoted by Chinese which may seem unwise to Americans who prefer self-promotion; Chinese are restricted by their tradition and believe in prophecy, but Americans consider only truth counts and have more freedom. Although the differences are huge, we can not tell which one is superior or inferior. Both cultures are great whose uniqueness deserves our cherishment.
The only way for we foreigners to circumvent the culture shock is to adapting to the new environment but not trying to minimize the difference between two cultures. As alliance, we may feel lonely, depressed and helpless. Sometimes we may have feel like falling to the bottom of a valley. “A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bone.” Only being optimistic and striving to adjust to the new culture can succeed because thinking about grief has no help.
I solemnly agree to most of the content in the article that Corey have kindly provide us with. For instance, honoring of the decease, the concept of one's self, social relationships, and harmony vs. truth. These are just partial discrepancies that just jump off the page when i read through the articles. Just to emphasis the major difference of Taiwanese versus Americans on the topic of harmony vs. truth. In the cultural nuances of Taiwan it is almost like an obligation to protect and maintain harmony and "face". For people tends to avoid direct defiance, open criticism and controversial topics(this is rapidly changing due to the influence of the west, yet it is still around in most traditional households). Contrary, to the west, people are eager for open discussion and debate on controversial topics and are willing to talk about one's opinion of what they believe is the truth. Other than that the other differences that i have listed previously seems pretty self explanatory and lucid to me, thus I'm not going to expand on the obvious. All in all, although the differences between might be great but I believe with determination, perseverance, and heart you will ultimately blend in just well and experience the beauty of difference cultures.
Since people grow up in different environment,Cultutral differences exist everywhere. I have to say There are unbelievable cultural difference between America and China. Most of them are reflected in the differences of thinking. I'd like to share some of my vision. Americans like seeking life that is creative and adventurous. That's why they have lots of crazy idea. Americans change job very often, because they want to try some things that they havn't experenved. However, Chinese look forward to the life that is peaceful and stable. Therefore it is very common to see that many chinese only work for one company in their lives. In addition, american like sharing oinions with each other. They also like pouring feelings and thinkings to their families and friends. But chinese are always conventional. They like keeping what they thought as a secret in their hearts more than a topic discussed by others.
In macroscopic vies, cultural diffences cause diversity in the world. This kind of diversity pushes out society to go forward.
Not only from the reading materials but also from the daily life in the US, I can both clearly find out many differences between eastern and western culture.
The most obvious difference may be the self-conception. Lots of the Chinese people may not place themselves in a quite important seat, while the American people do. American people always have the confidence that they could resolve the problem without others’ help. It is because they are individual. Their thought might be personalized. The circumstance is quite different in most cases of Chinese. Chinese people think that the group of people could do the great thing, teamwork may help to do things better.
Another point that I want to mention is that the social etiquette in the US is not the same as that in China. Chinese people greet people by saying “hello”. American, however, always ask me “how are you?” or “ how’s going?” and get their wishes in common.
The last point is that most Americans pay much attention to exercises. The energy that the American people have is awesome which can be seen from that they can spend nearly a whole night on party or spend entire daytime walking around the campus. We do much less exercises than American people do in China.
The Chinese places more importance on group cooperation rather than an individual whereas the Americans places more emphasize on the growing of an individual rather than group cooperation. I barely agree on this perception. In reality, Americans values teamwork more than any other countries. A team or a group is formed by two or many individuals. The value of a group will then be dependable on the strengths of the individuals. Individual growth is therefore directly related to the growth of a group. Throughout the wars that the American had participated, there is one appraisable tactic that the Americans used as their basic fighting tactic. The ground forces, be it a squad of even a battalion, they were constantly supported by the firepower from the fighter planes. This seems a very easy task as I talk about it but it requires precise coordination and this is the result of the excellent teamwork from the command centres and the fighting units themselves. This is not the display of the power of an individual fighting force but the display of a well trained team.
For Chinese, they do focus on group cooperation but they do not necessary focus lesser on individual growth. During 1945-1949, the Chinese Communist was at war with the Nationalists party. Eventually, the Chinese Communist won the war. There are several factors that helped the Communist gained victory but there is one important factor, the unity and the willingness of the soldiers and civilians, to sacrifice for the Chinese Communist party, for a bigger cause. However, the Chinese was focused more on personal benefits, after the war, rather than the party’s benefit of creating a stronger nation. Mao Zhe Dong, the leader of Chinese Communist party,
who created the cultural revolution was the who went against the group for personal benefits, all the evidences till today prove that it was out of getting greater authority that he created the cultural revolution which landed million of peoples’ life in jeopardy.
Cultural differences are seen in almost every aspect of life. Therefore, the differences shall be judge base on a broader view and not in a particular area of context.
There are many differences between the American culture and the culture that I am accustomed. One of the differences can be found analyzing the concept of time. For the American culture, time is limited and finite so one must fit one’s needs to deadlines and schedules. In other words, time is fundamental for Americans. For example, when they tell you an hour, you must be there at that hour. On the other hand, for Peruvians, time is relative and it can be changed. For example, if a person said that a meeting is going to be at 3:00 pm, for Peruvians the meeting will be at 3:30 or 4:00 pm. Other difference can be found in the concept of family. For Americans, the family tries to encourage children to be independent. On the contrary, Peruvian families try to keep the children near all the time. For example, in Peru, when children became adolescent and go to college, they always live with their parents. Finally, one important difference between the cultures is the history. Peruvian culture has a very rich past. In Peru, all the families try to cultivate the roots of the country in children and teach them the important of the country’s history while the American culture just looks to the present and future. Differences between cultures are very common so we just have to respect their lifestyles.
YE YANHONG
As Chinese, prefer to think in a spiral, casual way, while western people, more often than not, are fond of a linear, business-is-business way. For example, line up matter. If you are in China, it is not rare to see that a crowd of people throng in the supermarket, trying to get service first.People in China do line up, but they prefer to line up in a horizontal way.
In contrast, in western countries, say, in USA, people always line up, no matter in a big bank or a small grocery store. And they take it for granted. Lining up has long since become part of their life that they scarcely doubt it or g
row impatient while doing it.
Secondly, first come, first served. Though in words it is a normal principle in China, it’s mostly not the case in reality. Take an example of what usually happens in a bank. Here when we are in a middle-sized bank, and suppose we are talking with the cashier, it always tends to have someone butt in, claiming that his or her request takes only one second.
And it seems that we have already been accustomed to it. So has the cashier. But in western countries, it never applies. It is always rude that you butt in while the cashier is serving his customer. No matter how little time your request costs, the cashier, more often than not, is likely to turn you down. Only one customer at a time is his principle.
After reading through the given articles I got a general idea about how to compare my culture to the American culture. Living in the states had made me realize that American culture is opened while my culture “middle eastern” is preserved. For example relationship between unmarried couples is prohibited in Middle Eastern culture, were as its normal in American culture. Another aspect of difference of lifestyle between cultures is the family style. In the Middle East it’s normal to see extended family members living together under one roof. On the other hand, teenagers in the American families tend to leave and being their independent life. One difference is the types of labor in both nations. In the Middle East, many of the workers who are doing the hard labor on the streets are foreigners from third world and poverty countries. While in the US, I see that many Americans do the hard labor themselves. These are the main differences that I see a big difference in between the two cultures.
I came to the US one year ago. As far as I could remember, I did not have any problems adapting to the new environment at all and I never experienced any cultural shock as mentioned in the readings. I would say it’s probably because of the unique cultural characteristics of Hong Kong
With a special political background as a British colony for so many years, it really shaped our lifestyle. I remember reading the book “Double Talk” by Michael Chugani, which describe people in Hong Kong are definitely not typical Chinese, but we are not totally westernize either. Being one of the important international business centers of Asia, there are a lot of foreigners from all over the world come to work in Hong Kong, which in turns also bring in their culture. As I read through the list of differences between Chinese and Americans. I find that Hong Kong people have the characteristic from both sides. We are quite relationship-oriented and usually have a small group of close friends. Our relationships with others involve reciprocal obligations, we do not just keep asking for favor without return. However at the same time, we are not afraid to voice our opinions, many of our political leaders will openly talk about controversial issues. Another difference would be people’s status is mainly base on their achievement rather than ascribed.
Hong Kong is very culturally diverse. At some point, I would say, it’s somewhat like the US, a melting pot of all different cultures.
From the first article, even though I'm Korean, I could agree with many things. In Korea, people often refer a person by relationship with others. (Someone’s friend or sister). When I was in elementary school, I was usually referred as “Eunsoo’s younger sister” among the teachers. However as in article, self is more important in American culture. Americans use the word “I” and “Mine” very often. In Korea, it is very common to say “ Us” and ”Our” in everyday life. Americans don’t talk about their siblings that often unless I ask them. In Korea, it is quite natural to talk about the family life with friends. Interestingly, I found out that many Asian culture are similar. That's why it’s easier for me to get along with people from Asian culture.
Frankly speaking, I cannot fully understand totally different culture yet. However after coming to Purdue, I could interact with lots of people from diverse culture. By knowing each person, I could break many stereotypes toward people. There is a quote saying "Better late than never". If you're not familiar with other culture, it's better to learn and experience it and break the wall towards other people.
Me and my room-mate went to the main office of my Residence Hall to get my meal plan changed from a 20 to 10. The person at the main office told me that he couldn't do it, and that we would have to come back when the other lady is there. As I had seen, two different ladies work at the office before, I asked him, “Do you want us to meet the old lady or the FAT lady?”. I immediately received a kick from my room-mate, who was standing beside me, and silently listening to the conversation. The man at the office bursted out laughing, and said I had to meet the old lady. My room-mate dragged me to our room, shut the door, and lectured me on how mannerless it was to call someone fat. That is how I have been experiencing culture differences since I have been here. After this incident, I think twice before speaking, if it would be wrong. Other than this, the huge difference I find between Indian and American culture is food.
Indian food has a lot of variety of spices, while American food has comparatively no spices at all. Recently, I went to dinner at the Windsor dining court with one my Indian friends. We took food, and sat at a table. As soon as I said, “lets start eating!”, He said, “how can you eat it like that? Don't you know how to make it taste better? I will show you”. He closed his eyes with the salt bottle in his hand, and sprinkled salt all over the food in his tray. He then opened his eyes, and said that salt makes the food taste better for Indians. I tried the same except I didn't close my eyes while sprinkling salt over the food. When I ate the food, it was a lot better than before. Now, whenever I eat food at the dining courts, I add salt to it, and that makes me feel better. Other than food difference, I have experienced the usual differences such as between metric system and mile system, kilograms and pounds, litres and ounces, etc.
Let whatever such technical, food or language differences exist between the Indian and American cultures. There is one thing common between us and everyone in the world, and that is our HEARTS. Be it the American living the opposite door to mine or the Chinese living next door to me, we all love over mom, and miss her. Be it the Muslim two doors away from mine, or his Christian room-mate, we respect all religions. We students here at Purdue are different in many ways but we are the same at out heart. What matters more than our differences are our similarities, and that is what all international students must try to find, and get habituated to their new home – Purdue University.
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