Guno צְבִי
We fight, We win
Generally speaking, Asian cultures are more collectivist, being interconnected with other people around them and valuing the group over the individual, whereas Western cultures are more individualist, being independent and self-contained. These two ideologies can be seen the attitudes and behaviours of each culture.
People in more individualistic, Western societies tend to value personal success over group achievement, which can be linked to the need for greater self-esteem, self-validation and personal happiness. But this can result in overconfidence in their abilities; a 2010 study showed that when asked about their competence, 94% of American professors claimed they were “better than average”.
On the other hand, Asian societies are more likely to underestimate their abilities than to inflate their sense of self-worth. Think about all those times you received some praise or compliment from someone else and you had that “paiseh” feeling of wanting to shrug it off — that’s the conservative Asian mindset in action!
The collectivist mentality can be seen in how Asian cultures center around the Confucian ideal of family values and social harmony. It’s not uncommon for people to stay with their parents for a long time, usually until they marry; sometimes elderly parents move in with their children’s families. In Western countries, however, children often move out of home and become independent as soon as they hit college-going age.
Intellectual struggle: A good or bad thing?
In 1979, now-UCLA professor James Stigler was observing a fourth-grade math class in Japan and witnessed how the teacher singled out one child struggling with a drawing of a cube and got him to practise drawing it in front of the class and asked the other students if he got it right. When the child finally drew it right after a few attempts, the class applauded him and the student returned to his seat with a sense of achievement. This experience made him realise the difference between how Eastern and Western societies recognise intellectual struggle in students — Western societies see it as a lack of intelligence and ability, whereas Asians view it as an essential, inevitable part of the learning process.
Brown University professor Jin Li corroborates this observation; through analysing recordings of American and Taiwanese mothers and their children, she concludes that academic success in Western cultures is due to innate intelligence whereas in Asian cultures, academic success is achieved through the long arduous process of hard work and practice. This could explain the tuition culture across Asia, and the (often parodied) stereotype of Asian parents chastising their children for not working hard enough when they don’t get good grades.
https://www.campus.sg/how-the-east-and-west-think-differently/
Western culture always saw themselves as superior when dealing with the East. In essence, Ethnocentrism which often leads to incorrect assumptions about others’ behavior based on your own norms, values, and beliefs.
People in more individualistic, Western societies tend to value personal success over group achievement, which can be linked to the need for greater self-esteem, self-validation and personal happiness. But this can result in overconfidence in their abilities; a 2010 study showed that when asked about their competence, 94% of American professors claimed they were “better than average”.
On the other hand, Asian societies are more likely to underestimate their abilities than to inflate their sense of self-worth. Think about all those times you received some praise or compliment from someone else and you had that “paiseh” feeling of wanting to shrug it off — that’s the conservative Asian mindset in action!
The collectivist mentality can be seen in how Asian cultures center around the Confucian ideal of family values and social harmony. It’s not uncommon for people to stay with their parents for a long time, usually until they marry; sometimes elderly parents move in with their children’s families. In Western countries, however, children often move out of home and become independent as soon as they hit college-going age.
Intellectual struggle: A good or bad thing?
In 1979, now-UCLA professor James Stigler was observing a fourth-grade math class in Japan and witnessed how the teacher singled out one child struggling with a drawing of a cube and got him to practise drawing it in front of the class and asked the other students if he got it right. When the child finally drew it right after a few attempts, the class applauded him and the student returned to his seat with a sense of achievement. This experience made him realise the difference between how Eastern and Western societies recognise intellectual struggle in students — Western societies see it as a lack of intelligence and ability, whereas Asians view it as an essential, inevitable part of the learning process.
Brown University professor Jin Li corroborates this observation; through analysing recordings of American and Taiwanese mothers and their children, she concludes that academic success in Western cultures is due to innate intelligence whereas in Asian cultures, academic success is achieved through the long arduous process of hard work and practice. This could explain the tuition culture across Asia, and the (often parodied) stereotype of Asian parents chastising their children for not working hard enough when they don’t get good grades.
https://www.campus.sg/how-the-east-and-west-think-differently/
Western culture always saw themselves as superior when dealing with the East. In essence, Ethnocentrism which often leads to incorrect assumptions about others’ behavior based on your own norms, values, and beliefs.
