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.