Ch 4 Response by Kira

"Individualism versus collectivism as a dimension of national cultures is responsible for many misunderstandings in intercultural encounters.(p134)" As the above quotation suggests, individualism and collectivism is a main cause of cultural misunderstandings. As a Chinese, no doubt I am familiar with collectivism, and I am also interested in reading the examples of individualism, which gave me a deeper understanding about individualism.

One of the most obvious differences between the two cultures is the level of independence. As the chapter mentioned, individualists tend to be very independent while collectivists are more interdependent. This can be reflected in many aspects. For example, in China, family includes not only parents, sons and daughters, but also other cousins, uncle, aunts and grandparents. And it is very common that people live with their parents even after they get married. I was surprised to know that individualists leave their parents when they grow up and they will be teased if they don't do so because filial piety plays an important role in our culture. We have been educated that we have to obey and respect our parents in our whole lives.

After all, I think learning more about the differences between cultures enable me to adapt myself to a new environment more easily and it is interesting to know more about other cultures.