This week's regarding is about masculinity and feminity. It was an interesting read looking at the comparison between some countries according to these two dimensions in developing countries such as Japan and Germany. And, how really gender norms play a huge role in society. This was a very convenient read for me because it my sociology class we are actually going over the topics of masculinity and feminity---in underdeveloped countries such as Bangledash, Thailand, Southern Asian (India), Southern Africa, Rwanda, etc. Comparing these gender norms such as masculinity and feminity in these different regions was really interesting. Even though, what I will be talking about is not a part of the article, I became really curious.

Gender norms and traditional norms states that men have to be masculine or they will be "boys". In order to be masculine, they go through this different forms of passage rites. In rural areas, boys go through horrid violence. In Southern Africa, in order to be considered a "big man"--masculine men, they have to have: household, income, power, knowledge. I thought is it the same in DEVELOPED countries? Like in America for example. Masculine is NOT considered any of those. In fact, I would think that those factors are actually for BOTH genders and that it means that they are ADULTS.

Feminity, in the other hand, is this undercover for men in these rural areas to treat all women like they are dirt. That they have power and authority over them. A feminine is considered to be weak, while masculine is considered to be strong. How is it different in developed countries, developing countries, and underdeveloped countries?

These were just some of my thoughts as I read this article/reading for the week.

Chapter 5 reaction

In this Chapter, my interest is in masculinity and femininity in education. We can see the different in classroom behavior. In masculine cultures, students try to make themselves visible in class and compete openly with each other. In feminine countries, assertive behavior and attempts at excelling are easily ridiculed. Excellence is something one keeps to oneself; it easily leads to jealousy. Failing in school is a disaster in a masculine culture. 

There are some new things I can't believe is that in strongly masculine countries such as Japan and Germany, the newspapers carry reports each year about students who killed themselves after failing an examination. On the contrary, Failure in school with a feminine culture is a relatively minor incident. When young people in these culture take their lives, it tends to be for reasons unrelated to performance.

Chapter 5 Ryo Tanitsu

The reading this week is about the masculinity and femininity.  One thing that I remark in the reading is the fact that the masculinity-femininity dimension is entirely unrelated to national wealth. Many people believe that inequality between men and women is weakened as nations become wealthier since they can establish the corrective system in order for women to get as much opportunities as men. However, the wealthness does not matter to the masculinity and femininity, which means cultural background or people deep-seated consciousness about gender is deeply related to the gender problem.

Japan is considered to be a high masculinity country. Certainly, the gender gap is the big issue in Japan ,especially the unbalanced career opportunities between gender. Despite the rates of women going to universities are higher than those of men, women are struggling to get jobs or get higher positions in their job more than men. One of the reasons for this is that Japanese deep-rooted stereotype that men should work hard and women stay at home to help their husband. Due to this partial view, the companies tend to employ men as a high position. Another reason of this is that it is difficult for women to continue their job after giving birth to children. Of course, there is still not enough system to support women after having baby in Japan, there is still biased view in the Japanese society that only women should focus entirely on child-raising, which is the cause of women’s reluctance to work. In addition, Japanese men are not cooperative to help housework. I think that this is not only caused by the men’s laziness but also caused by the fact that Japanese company require too much work from men and they do not have time to engage in domestic affairs. As noted above, Japanese gender gap stem from people deep-seated consciousness.

It is said that hiring more women for job improve company’s efficiency and profits since it provides diversity in decision-making of the company. The diversity is important in decision-making of the company because they can view the problem from different perspective and accordingly they are likely to find new approach to the problem. In Japan, there are still hidden women’s workforce. By making effective use of these workforce, I believe that Japanese economy will resurge in the near future.

Chapter 5 Response (Esther)

    This chapter is about the Masculinity and Femininity.  Actually I don't quite understand the difference and the relationship between Masculinity/ Femininity and Individualism/ Collectivism. After I read this chapter, I know that they are independent. Individualism- collectivism is about "I" vs. "We". Masculinity- femininity is about a stress on ego vs. a stress on relationship with others, regardless of group ties. An individual can be both masculine and feminine at the same time.

    I also find that the ordering of occupations in IBM from most masculine to most feminine reflect the orderig of income. Usually people with the most masculine occupation have higher income than those with most feminine occupation. I am not sure why it's like that. Maybe the reason is the more masculine of the occupation, the more compettive and technical it is.
 
    In this chapter, there are many tiny but interesting things that reflect the differences between masculinity and femininity. In some aspects, I will say people who tend to be masculine will act more realistic. For me, I would like to lead a life in a more feminine way.

Chapter 5 Response by Kira

Chapter 5 is about masculinity and femininity. When I read the topic, the first thing came across my mind was the One child policy in China. In order to control the population in China, the Chinese government introduced this policy in 1978. Why would I think of this? It is because due to this policy, each couple could only have a child. And since China is a masculine country and people put more value on boys than girls, some family abandon their baby girls.

And nowadays, fairness is suggested everywhere and status of females (at least in China) has been greatly increased. But when I surfed the internet, I found it quite interesting that many men complained it was actually optional fairness. For example, when they had dinner with girls and it came to the end of the dinner, they wanted to pay separately for the reason of fairness. But the girls argued that they should behave like gentlemen.

After reading chapter 5, I personally think feminine society is better. It is because males in masculine society have heavier responsibility. One obvious example is that the man always bears the financial responsibility of his family.  Therefore, it is easy for men to put too much pressure on shoulders, and I, as the eldest son of my    family, start feeling that pressure as it is almost time for me to enter the society.

Gloria_Chapter 5_Response

Last two weeks, I used Chinese wedding as an example to illustrate how high-power distance and collectivism are reflected within Chinese culture, this week, I want to continue exemplifying Chinese culture by using the concepts I learnt in chapter 5. I’d like to cite Chinese wedding again to clarify my thoughts.

Hierarchy is a typical feature in Chinese culture. There is a strict classification among family members. Moreover, Chinese families are usually extended families. Each of your family members or relatives has specific titles. It is important for you to call them properly, especially in the Chinese wedding tea ceremony. Furthermore, there is a strict order of service, which is usually parents, grandparents, grand-uncles and grand-aunties, uncles and aunties, elder brothers and sisters, elder cousins.

As China used to be an agricultural country, male mainly responses to the heavy workload while female responses to the housework and to look after the children. Male seems to be the economic foundation and the director of a family. Therefore, China is a patriarchal society. For this tradition, males share a higher status than females. As a result, within each generation, dad's relatives are served before mum's relatives in the Chinese wedding tea ceremony.

Chapter 5 Response

Chapter 5 concerned masculinity versus femininity and was really interesting with regards to different countries on the collectivist/individualist scale. I definitely agree with the depiction of Americans as assertive and more masculine based than feminine. This is really obvious in regards to the way sports are viewed in the US, as noted in the text, sports are played in the United States simply for competitive reasons and not for extra-curricular fun as in other countries around the world. The masculine ideas on poor people also match up with American ideals--I agree with the text about Americans viewing people living in poverty as their own problem. It is interesting that the homeless and impoverished are viewed with sympathy in other countries, as that is not the case in the US.

I also found it interesting that in masculine cultures, men are considered less appealing because of career failures, whereas women were less sexually appealing when they had career success. I don't think this really makes sense in today's culture as much, because many women are considered more appealing when they have career successes. I also agreed with the idea that older people have more feminine ideals, while younger people are more competitive and have masculine ideals. I thought it was really important that wealth had no influence on masculine and feminine beliefs, which is rare.

Chapter 5_ Reflection_Yoyo

  Chapter 5 mainly discusses about the masculine and feminine culture in different aspects. Here, I’d like to share some of my thoughts about the masculine and feminine cultures of America and China.

Personally, I don’t think that America is typically masculine. I agree that America is more masculine when analyzing it in the state level because it aims at achieving high economic growth with little regards on the environmental protections. The state endorses economic liberalism in high competitive market and small government providing little welfare. Money/capital is important and people live in order to work. Conflicts solved through force with the examples of the Vietnam, Korea and Iraq war. However, if we analyze it at the society level, I’d say the American society is more feminine rather than masculine. The society promotes more gender equality. More women can take the management positions and they are not viewed as the only one who is responsible for childbearing. Girls and boys are equal and no single gender is superior to other.

By looking at the differences between Masculine and Feminine cultures, it’s also interesting to think whether China is more masculine or feminine. Personally, I think China is more masculine. In the recent decades, china’s economy grows rapidly and the government aims at achieving higher growth every year by making numerous ambitious and strategic economic policies and programs. China government puts more attention and allocates more resources on economic development, while put less resources on social development, like social welfare system. China government also spends lots of money in expanding its military forces and enhancing military capacities. At the society level, China is traditionally a patriarchy society. Men are viewed as superior to women, no matter in the workplace, family and school. It’s not difficult to find out that most of the political leaders in China are men. The percentage of male mangers is higher than female mangers in corporations. Because of the traditional thought that boys can continue the bloodline of the family, a lot of Chinese parents favor boys rather than girls. It’s sad that some female babies are killed by their parents because of the One Child Policy in China.

Week 5

Last Friday, we studied the culture of Portugal and Brazil. There is some similarity of these two countries such as the architecture and the customs because Brazil is one of the colonies of Portugal.  Hence, these are quite familiar to me since Macau is also the colonies of Portugal. There are some particular things I realized is the Brazilian love dance very much different from Portugal and Macau. The reason is their culture is also affected by Africa.

Michael and KU were the leader of this lesson. The lead us to play a funny game to guess the noun and also gave us a test of individualism and collectivism. In this test, I got a high marks at collectivism. It is very true because I live in a high collectivism society. Lastly, they show us a video of the discussion ways of people in US and Japan. People in the US will say their opinion first. In the contrary, the Japanese prefer to listen and waiting for the idea of the collectives. We can see the diversity straightly. 

First part of class we saw different clips of  Portugal and Brazil. It showed pretty much how colonization impacted each region, but you saw the differences in it as well. Portugal and Brazil are magnificently beautiful. From its wild life, surrounding ocean, cuisines, and vibrant culture, I was astonished and reeled into these two countries. After watching these two clips, we were able to discuss the videos and make comparisons. Since half of our class is from Macau, and that region was colonized by the Portuguese, it was really interesting to see them look at Portugal itself and say that they felt like home, or that it reminded them of home.

The second part of class was facilitated by Michael and KU. They discussed and differentiated the meaning of individualism and collectivism. We read an article regarding the efficiency of a Japanese company. It's interesting to see how they value community work, that they will strive to keep working long hours or else they feel that they aren't qualified for it, but also that they cherish and value each other's individual worth. That's the biggest difference between America and Japan. This whole idea of collectivism and individualism. In many Asian countries, to be someone, to get anywhere, to do something, you NEED to KNOW SOMEONE. In order to move up the social ladder, you need to have the advantage of knowing someone, or being to able to have connections. While here in America, I feel like, (in my I, opinion) we cherish and revolve around this whole idiom of "survival of the fittest". Everything and everyone, it is ALL ABOUT COMPETITION. To think about it, it's pretty tiring. But, you need to be the tops of the class, the best students, the best resume, the best interview, the best everything. PERFECTION at its finest is welcomed with open arms in America. Each company is striving to progressively beat their competitor. Friends are always competing against each other.

But, also, I think that it doesn't necessarily come from which country you come from. I think it actually depends on how your family raised you. I was raised here in America, but when doing the test handed out in class, I was definitely leaning towards collectivism, and it's definitely how your parents raised you.

Week 5

I found the last class to be entertaining. During the first half of the class, we watched a video about Brazil and another about Portugal. I preferred the one about Portugal. This is because it displayed a slideshow of fabulous pictures with bold colors along with peaceful music. The video on Brazil was also appealing but I found its interactive show of people, scenery, and lack of good music to be less tasteful.
During the second part of class,  Margo and Ku led the class discussion. They began with a game where everyone wrote down 2 nouns on a sheets of paper. These pieces of paper where then placed into a plastic bag and people took turns picking them out of the bag and acting them out. The team who guessed the most nouns won. After this, everyone was given a sheet of paper which would help give them a score to determine if they were more like individualists or collectivists. After taking my test, my results indicated that I was more of a collectivist. I think this is true because I always have a desire to please people around me so that things will work out more smoothly. After this activity, the discussion leaders presented an article and a video about the lack of efficiency in the workplace of Japan. By contrast, the United States is much more efficient due to its desire to hire only the best in every field. On the plus side, it gets the job done faster; however, this also provides a very competitive environment where not everyone will be able to get the best jobs. Overall, I found their manner of presenting the material to be effective and enjoyable. As a result, I intend to use some of their ideas so that my own presentation with my group members with be just as good. 

Week 5 Reflection Ryo

In the last class, Michael and KU talked about the difference of the company between Individualism and collectivism. They gave us the difference between the Japanese company and American company as an example that shows the individualism and collectivism. The Japanese company was considered to hold very traditional and inefficient meeting whereas the American company have the very efficient and productive meeting. For example, the boss has absolute decision about the project and their subordinate has to obey with the boss about whatever he said in the meeting in the Japanese company. Therefore, they do not discuss deeply the contents of the project. On the contrary, in the American company, they discuss the concrete contents of the project and whoever can claim their opinion. In my view, this difference might be emphasized or kind of a stereotype. However, there is a tendency of this difference to a certain extent.

Japan is a homogeneous society and the advantage of the company is cooperation. They cooperate each other and have the loyalty to the company、and instead they are guaranteed the lifetime employment. In addition, we have the seniority system that senior member in the company tend to have more responsibility to do the project and get the higher salary. With the lifetime employment and the seniority system, we are assured that we could stay in the company in the whole time and get higher salary with the years. So, we could show loyalty to the company and work hard. This Japanese traditional system was successful through 1960 s or 70 s during the years of high economic growth. In that time, the Japanese economy was in the time of the development and many workforce were required. In addition, they did want to lose time by changing employee such as hiring new employee and educating them. They want to keep existing employee in the company who know the process of the work in the company thoroughly. That’s why Japanese company grew rapidly at that time. However, Japanese industry is now mature and exposed to global competition such as rise of the Chinese or Korean company, a neighboring countries, and Japanese traditional system is on the contrary counterproductive. Since the members are almost all Japanese and they only know Japanese distinct style of communication, they have difficulty in handling the global business. They have never worked with foreigners and cannot even speak English, international common language. In addition, they are accustomed to the traditional Japanese style of work and think they just do their work as their boss told, they cannot make prompt decision by themselves to advance into foreign market. It takes time to check with the top person of the company each time. And of course they are not familiar with the situation of the foreign market.

In this globalized time, Japanese companies are struggling, however some companies started to adopt globalized company system such as accepting foreign employees or sending the Japanese employees into the foreign department. I believe that Japanese companies adapt to the global market with the strength such as collective power and industriousness.

Week Five Reaction_Michael

So for this class we watched another two videos about getting people to travel to other countries. The two countries this week were Brazil and Portugal. I really enjoyed the Portugal video because it was very beautiful. The attention to detail and the history behind everything is just amazing. The scenery was very beautiful and relaxing with all its vibrant colors. I'd really like to go visit there sometime. The Brazil video was also good and it showed a good amount of it's indigenous roots. As well as showing some of its past connections to Portugal. There was a lot of energy that come through in the Brazil video and I'm more of peace and calming sort of setting but I would enjoy going to visit in Brazil and seeing all the beautiful women.
The second part of the class, Ku and his partner did a good job leading the class through the topic about collectivism and individualism. Ku did a great job and so did his partner. There must have been a lot of pressure and questions that they had being the first two to lead the class in lesson.

Week 5 Reacion (Esther)

  This week, we watched two videos, one of which was about the attractions of Portugal and the other one was about Brazil.  I have to say every time I watched this kind of videos; I really wanted to visit these places.

    Besides this, we did a questionnaire about the individualism and collectivism.  I was not surprised to see my score of individualism was higher than my score of collectivism, although the gap was not that big.  Undoubtedly, my score of collectivism was high, since I am from China, which is a collective country.  I think the reason why the gap was not big was because of my educational background.  We were educated in a traditional way.  Not only in family, but also in schools and workplaces, we have to obey many rules.  However, I am also raised in a more democratic way.  I value what I really want and what I really love.  Especially this time, I can come to the US for studying and experiencing western culture, an independent culture.

    It was the first time our classmates led the class.  They did a good job and it’s time to think what our group plan to do next class. : )

Week 5 Reaction

Class this week was again, entertaining and fun! The hula hoop game was an interesting way to interact with our classmates and see how we could all work together as a team. I also thought it was relevant that (in general) the people from the individualist cultures treated the game as a competition between the other team, while the students from more traditionally collectivist cultures did not. It is very telling to see that people in individualist cultures are always trying to "win" because they typically are competing against everyone and not working as a team.

The videos really made me want to visit Brazil and especially, Portugal. It looks so beautiful and like a lot of fun! I also noticed the melding of Eastern cultures with Western ones--i.e. Japan/Brazil and China/Portugal.

I enjoyed filling out the questionnaire to find out my collectivism/individualism score. It was also interesting that Katherine pointed out that the students from Macau had scores that didn't differentiate much from their other score, whereas the Illinois students had large disparities between their two scores.

Week 4 【Reflection】*Yuka*

     At the beginning of the class, we played a game, using hoops. We were divided into two groups and lifted up the hoop only with our pointers. All we have to do was to get it down, but it was very difficult for us to do. If each of us did not talk nor anyone instructed others, the hoop went everywhere. Also, some students were impatient about making hoops go down faster than the other team, which made the game chaotic. The game was, according to the instructor, associated with our topic today: individualism and collectivism. It was very interesting to see the response of the students. Some treated this activity as a “game” while others had fun and seriously like a competition.

     At first, we saw videos about Portugal and Brazil. The most interesting thing that I thought was that although both Brazil and Macau were colonized by Portugal, their culture became totally different. Many factors including geography and its traditional culture affected to their cultural formulation. In my opinion, a culture in Macau is a mixture of East and West, and the one in Brazil is passionate, bright, and natural.

After that, we did a game and discussed individualism and collectivism. Today’s facilitators were KU and Michael. It was very nice to see my classmates’ facilitating discussion. I think it is true that culture affects people’s personality, but how they are raised also affects it as well. In addition, because of the modernization, people, especially the young started to “individualize” in some collectivism countries.

Week 5_Reaction_Yoyo

  This week we watched the video of Portugal and Brazil. Not surprisingly, the architecture styles of Portugal share some similarities with those in Macau, like the pebbled floor and churches. One of the big differences between Portugal and Macau is no doubt the natural scenery. In the video, we could see that Portugal is surrounded by blue sea and there are a lot of green gardens. Looking at Macau, there are only a lot of high-rise buildings and few small public parks. This video showed the beauty of Portugal and made me want to visit it. I am not  so familiar with the country- Brazil. The images I have toward Brazil are the jungles, samba, coffee and the enthusiastic people. After watching the video, I think Brazil is also a good place to visit. It seems like a very energetic place full of enthusiastic people and beautiful nature.

  In the second part of the class, Ku and Michael led the class for us. Thanks for their hard works. I thought they’ve done a good job. Though the game time was quiet short, it was fun! The questionnaire we did could help us identity our level of individualism and collectivism. It’s interesting to find that I scored higher on individualism than collectivism though I do think I am a more collectivist person. The video they showed was interesting. It showed the differences of meeting style in Japan and America. One thing that i think they can improve is to enhance the fluency of class.  

KATHERINE~ week 5 reaction~

       Last Friday’s class was inspiring as usual. We got to know Portugal as well as Brazil through promotion videos and also had a better understanding about individualism and collectivism with the help of Michael and KU.

       To be honest, I have never thought about going to Portugal or Brazil until I saw the short films yesterday. Portugal was extremely beautiful and I was so shocked by her natural scene and historical heritages. All the castles remind me of fairy tales and myth in European literatures! Although I didn’t get a comprehensive idea of Brazil through the film, I did impressed by Professor Murillo’s brief introduction of his hometown. Knowing how they got through the frequent change of currency, high taxes and high price levels. However, political issues don’t say everything Brazil has diverse culture and beautiful beaches!

       As for the discussion about individualism and collectivism, I really appreciate the work done by Michael and KU, good job guys!! Besides, the different attitudes towards family in those two cultures are interesting! It surprised me that Americans contact their family members more often than Japanese (thanks for Yukari and Ryo to bring this topic out). Since I regard US as a very individualism society and don’t have very strong connections among people. It seems that we really can’t take anything for granted.

Reaction to Week 5_Ben

While I was watching the video of Portugal and Brazil, I found that it liked a shallow of Macau. Indeed, you will find the similar architecture in the Senado Square of Macau, which show similarities and connection between mother country and colonies. The video showed a historical and cultural aspect of Portugal and reflected a symbol of the Mediterranean characteristics. Though I did not travel in Portugal, I hoped that I can experience their culture in the future. Moreover, the Brazil was more passion and active, and Brazilian were famous at soccer which seemed a symbol of country, I looking forward the Olympics Games and the World Cup which will hold in the 2014 and 2016, how those sport competitions hold in this passive country. It meant the country are raising their international position when they have resources to hold a international contest, the same as China in 2008.  

It's first time to our classmates to lead the class discussion yesterday, it provided a interactive and valuable experience to us, my group will lead the discussion after two weeks, I hope that we will do a good job during this section. We seldom have a chance to lead the class discussion, but this may be a feature of American culture. For instance, we can know more about each other through various activities and interactions. 

Week 5 Reaction by KU

This is a really special class for me as Michael and I are leading the class. Because of the time limited, we can’t make all the things we prepared in the class. Actually I have prepared one more game. I have been designing the game for a long time. Besides having fun, I wanted to bring some message to all of us through the game but I found it very difficult. I tried to change the rule of the game. At the beginning, it is playing individually. So we have all the people who fight for their own. In this case, I think it might be too competitive and I can’t think of the meaning of the game. Furthermore, it could be bored for those guys who lose the game in the earlier stage. Then I tried to run the game in groups. But it was still not good enough for me. Finally, we didn’t play it but I believe I will come up a better version of the game someday.

On the other hand, I really loved the icebreaker game we played yesterday. It was simple but meaningful. It brought the message of comparison. I am very sensitive to this word. If things go to a competition, it will be serious for me. It was not what I want to see in this relaxing classroom. So I decided to make it fun at the very beginning of the game. By the way, the team against us was really working very fast. I don’t like comparison but it is something always around us. Our HRE199 is a relaxing and gathering time with friends for me. No stress! 

Week 5 reaction by kira

Today we played the Hula hoop game. Our task was to lift down the hula hoop together. It seemed quite easy but it was not at all. Actually I had played it before, and the trick was simple - all of us to lift down at a same speed, but it was always easier said than done. Some of us lifted the hula hoop too low while the other lifted too high. Then although we had a little arguments, finally we could still finish it. I think sometimes it is hard to avoid arguments in groups because everyone has their own opinions, but what's more important is communication. We need to listen to others' thoughts and also express our own opinions. Then through discussion, we go through all our different ideas and have a final decision.

 And about the test of individualism and collectivism, I think one of the reasons that Asian have a smaller gap between the two scores is that we were taught to be humble. Since in collectivism societies, being too outstanding is not encouraged. Therefore, when we do tests like this, somehow we usually do not choose 1 (strongly disagree) to 9 (strongly agree). And for me, since most of my scores are between 4 and 7, the difference between the total scores of individualism and collectivism is not very big. And finally, thanks to KU and Michael, I enjoyed the warm up game and videos very much.

Chapter four predominantly is about the varying forces between individualism and collectivism. It portrays how individualism, the ability to being able to express yourself in however you want- beliefs, actions, thoughts, realities, etc. And, collectivism, is having that group think and being able to meet in the center and having that collective group. Majority of the things I read, I actually have came across before. But, what struck me is the idea of implementing exlusivism and universalism within individualism and collectivism---essentially, both of them are the same thing except in a more general and a broader aspect. Thinking about individualism and collectivism I started to reflect upon different realities that is implemented upon us because of the culture and country we grew up in. For example, in the United States or in this American culture, it has always been engraved in us that in order to be successful we have to graduate college and earn degrees. While, maybe in some other countries, in order to be successful for women, you have to be married. All of these are cultural norms, different "realities", collective thoughts, that is seeped in our individual thought. It's kind of confusing, but it's interesting to decipher the difference between individualism and collectivism when culture and different realities come into play.

Response of Chapter 5_Michael Ayala

        This chapter has a lot of tables which helps with comprehension and strengthens the readings. The reoccurring topics and themes for this chapter were individualism versus working cooperatively. There was a lot of content but for the most part it was all pretty consistent. There was much discussion about the positives and the negatives of working under bother individualism and collectivism which was interesting. I really liked that these were culturally run, like in the eastern hemisphere they are more collectivized or united as opposed to more of the western culture which is more individualistic. This was great because me and my partner could really talk about the differences since our project is about how culture influences the type of music we listen to in America and in China and what would be socially acceptable to talk about in the music. I liked that they also talked about how in the eastern culture people live with their parents for their whole lives but in American culture it is frowned upon to still live with your parents because it makes you look week and that you can not support yourself. Many comparisons in the chapter that were brought up were eye opening and really shead some light on issues that I will have to deal with in a few short years. Great chapter.

Journal Ryo Tanitsu

The reading of this week is about the difference of the Individualism and Collectivism society. I agree with some points while reading. However, I cannot totally agree with the contents of the reading because some expressions of the reading represent stereotype toward each culture. I would like to  especially mention some points of family about the stereotype in the reading.
The reading mentions that in the collectivist family, personal opinion do not exist; opinions are predetermined by the group. Also, he mentions the loyalty to the group is essential element of the collectivist society when compared to the individualist society. I think this opinion applies to the most cases in each culture, however, it not absolutely correct. One example that show this is the change of Japanese people’s perspectives to their family. In the past, Japanese family tend to consist of the extended family including grandparents, aunts, and so on. Due to the urbanization or the shift from agriculture or work in the field to the office work, many people are drifted apart from their parents or other family members who tend to live in the local areas. As a result, most of the Japanese people are nuclear family and they are said to be loose relationship with other family members recently. In the reading, Japan is considered to be collectivism society and the unity of the family members is strong. However, this stereotype does not necessarily applies to almost all cases. In addition, the U.S. people have more strong unity with their family members in my feelings. Almost all of my friends from U.S. contact their parents more frequently than me even they live in the same places with their parents. Also, they tend to spend time together in the holiday such as Christmas. Therefore, I do not think that we should divide culture into the individualism and collectivism. Although each culture have tendency of the collectivism or individualism, they all have both element of the collectivism and individualism to a greater or less extent. We should not judge their culture only based on whether they are from collectivism society or individualism society.

【Reaction】 Week 5 *Yuka*

     The reading was about individualism and collectivism. The author explains individualism as “societies in which the ties between individuals are loose (Pg 92)” while collectivism as the opposite. It also mentions that many factors such as wealth, family, and history determine whether the society as individualism or collectivism. Many results of the research were shown in the article to support this argument.

It explains the factors which determine individualism and collectivism very well, which is very difficult to analyze. As the author states in page 127, although many people consider individualism as a kind of superior concept, both individualism and collectivism have merits and demerits.

     I think individualism allows people to make choices freely while collectivism does not because of the tight bond and many rules within the group. At the same time, individualism is severe for people in some way because people have to be responsible for what they did. On the other hand, people in collectivism society always have a sense of secure because others cover one’s failure. However, it does not allow people to make a choice freely because of the tight bond and many rules within the group. In my opinion, people belongs to the society which values collectivism are not good at think for themselves; they are accustomed just to follow to the rules.

     Group work in the university taught me that the U.S. values individualism, which is different from the culture of my home country. For example, people prefer to divide the work here in the States. In this system, “who is responsible for what part” is very clear. Students like a leader who claims his or her opinion, and they also say what they think directly. On the other hand, in my home country, people tend to gather together to do the work, which is like “everyone is responsible for all the part.” People like leaders who value others’ opinions. Saying what he or she thinks too much makes other people feel uncomfortable.

     I am looking forward to exchanging opinions regarding individualism and collectivism with other classmates tomorrow!

Chapter 4 response

In Chapter 4, it  discusses the individualism and Collectivism of the culture. There are some interesting thing is that many countries that score high on the power distance index score low on the individualism, and vice versa. These two dimensions tend to be negatively correlated.

I grow up in Macau, the child among a number of elders, peers, and juniors learns naturally to conceive of him or herself as part of a "we" much more so than does the child in a nuclear family. Actually, it's because of the collectivism society, Macau students learn to take their bearings from others when it comes to opinions. Opinions are predetermined by the group. It is hardly for most of the students to come up some idea or opinion about something because they worry that their idea or opinions do not match the opinions of the collectives.


For my experience, it is very true that a child of an extended family is seldom alone, whether during the day or at night. US exchange is the first time for me to leave my family for a very long time.

Response to Chapter 4_Ben

The chapter focused on the idea of "I" and "We" in the individualism and collectivism, the author loved to narrate a interesting example to explain and introduce the idea, that was the business contract between Swedish and Saudi Government, I thought that this method was quite interesting and showed the interaction and details between two different group of people from different social background. However, I did not participate in any business activities, there was a thing that was real: people adopted different approaches to achieve their goal and managed their own affairs who came from individualism and collectivism.

For example, most of Chinese have a traditional concept which the son and daughter have duty to take care their parents and lived together after parents retired, even if son or daughter has married. On the contrary, people of individualism, such as United States, parents always encourage their son or daughter move to the other house when they were adult. Parents will live by themselves after they retired, and they usually concentrate on the nuclear family, Chinese focus on the extended family, that was true; I lived with my grandmother, parents and sister for many years, indeed, I gathered with my sister, cousins, uncles and aunts during the childhood. My idea of family included grandma, parents, sister and cousins actually, and my idea are changing now. We always discuss about the duty and "group benefits" in the daily life, we cannot do a personal event which damaged the family benefits seriously, it was prohibited and shamed. Teachers and parents said that: When you would like to make a decision or do something, you have to think about your group/us first. This idea was a representative one of the collectivism' s culture.

For instance, I have to deal with a lot of group work or group presentations in my home university, and I just have one or two group works in here, most of the assignments have to finished by yourself, not a group. People really cared about the personal advantages rather than the group's benefits here, if you have this phenomenon in Macau or China, you will be seems a "selfish" person in the group and become unpopular.

Gloria_Chapter 4_response

Last week, I used Chinese wedding as an example to illustrate how high-power distance is reflected within Chinese culture, this week, I want to continue exemplifying Chinese culture by using the concepts I learnt in chapter 4, I think it’s hard to associate how those concepts/terms are like without providing any examples. Thus, I’d like to cite Chinese wedding again to clarify my thoughts.

Chinese culture values harmony with others. For example, if you’re invited to attend a Chinese wedding party, you had better attend or you might be considered as impolite. It is a “must-go” party because the invited people want to stay in a good relationship with the bride and groom. They concern more about the long term relationship rather than the wedding party itself. To some degree people are motivated by duties and responsibilities to attend the party. If one really cannot attend the party, he/she still need to send the bride and groom a red packet to show the polite and blessing. Chinese do care the harmony with others because people believe that lives are composed of networks of relationships.

Moreover, preserving face is very important for Chinese. Having more guest and more precious gift means being more influential and wealthy. If parents may not be able to afford the precious gifts presented in the wedding tea ceremony, the bride and the groom will prepare it for their parents and let their parents present it to them during the wedding tea ceremony. There’s another way to solve the problem, if the families really cannot afford the precious gift, which is usually jewelry. People will rent it from others or from jewelry shops. Chinese will feel shame of casual marriage and they care about how people think of them. Their feelings and emotions involve others’. This is a strong evidence to prove that Chinese desire to “save face” in front of the group.

KATHERINE~ chapter 4 response~

      Starting with an interesting story about Swedes and Saudis in the workplace, this chapter shows the so-called “major dimensions of national cultures” (p.134), individualism and collectivism. Surprisingly, most parts of the world live in a collectivism society, putting not necessary their national interests but the interests of particular groups they belong to as priority. The remaining parts of the world share individualism characteristics, which mean that they always put themselves as the major concern. Similar as the previous chapter, the differences between these two cultures lie in school, workplace, family, politics and etc. But what I found unique are the differences within language, personality and behavior.

       As the author suggests, people living in individualism societies tend to use the word “I” more than people in collectivism societies. It is also interesting that in Chinese there is not actually many words emphasizing the “I” or individual idea. The term “ren” could be interpreted as individuals on one hand but also as means “people” as a whole. Besides, collectivism doesn’t encourage the “self” so much. We say “we” instead of “I” in circumstances like public speaking, papers and even personal talks with friends.

Another inspiring difference between individualism and collectivism is there different attitudes towards people with disabilities. Collectivism regard them as “shame” and should be kept out of sight while individualism advocate those people to be active and integrated in the society. The education system in US is a good example of this. During my one month stay here, I often came across disabled people either “walking” down the street or having classes with me. However, I seldom see people with disabilities in China’s university.   

 

Chapter 4 Response (Esther)

This chapter is about Individualism and Collectivism. The definitions are as follows. The vast majority of people live in societies in which the interest of the group prevails over the interest of the individual. This kind of societies is called collectivist. On the opposite, people in our world live n societies in which the interests of the individual prevail over the interest of the group. We will call individualist.

We can see the differences between individualist and collectivist societies from many aspects. Basically, families, the first group in our lives, have different structures. Usually, individualism is associated with nuclear family. Collectivism is associated with extended family. Also, we can see the differences from people's language, personality and behavior. Moreover, differences can be seen in different situations, for example, in schools, in workplaces and on the internet.

There is an example to show collectivism in Guangdong, China. Families are very important for Guangdong people. If you have good news to share with them, you can invite them to drink morning tea together. Also, if you want to ask for help from them, you do the same way. It’s a very good chance for families to share their happiness and sadness, to show their support to each other and to exchange some useful information. A loving atmosphere in the family is so important. People are willing to do all they can to create a harmonious atmosphere and environment for their family. And they feel happy to stay with others instead of being alone.

That's what I learnt from this chapter. :)

Response of chapter 4 by KU

This chapter is the longest chapter so far. The content is a lot but fortunately, there are a number of table help me to summarize the idea I have read. Or you can first turn your page to 113. Table 4.2 shows the key differences in general norm and family between collectivist and individualist societies. Go through the difference and say if you are interested in the point “Adult children live with parents/leave the parental home”, you can turn to the related page and read. In this way, you may find this chapter more interesting than you thought. Table 4.3, 4.4 in page 117 and 124 also concluded many meaningful things to me.

This chapter introduces individualism and collectivism as the dimensions of national culture. The author explained it in different aspects such as society, family, school, workplace, etc. In a small paragraph, he argues that are individualism and collectivism one or two dimensions. I like this very much. “Tests have shown that a person can score either high on both individualist and collectivist values, high on one kind and low on the other, or low on both”. Quoted from page 102. When talking about the values of individuals, they should be treated as two separate dimensions. This once again supports my thought that A questionnaire or test should not conclude that one is “Type A” when one got 60% of “Type A” characteristic and 40% of “Type B”. It should conclude the result in two or more separate dimensions.

He also used the example of Japanese family only asks the oldest son to live with the parents to indicate there are always exceptions which lie somewhere between individualism (nuclear family) and collectivism (extended family). Many comparisons mentioned in this chapter are inspiring. Overall, it is a quite interesting chapter to me.