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.
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