Reaction to Week Nine (Esther)

    This week, we discussed the research in our group. We had a lot of fun during the discussion. Maia and Ben are good teammate because they always have something creative to bring in the discussion. So I think the research will be conducted smoothly after all these preparations.

    Also, Yukari and Kira had a really good presentation. The most impressive game in the presentation was to think of the best vacation and to write it down. Then think of another totally different situation: the worst vacation. Then switch the paper and help to change the situation that raised by other group. Using imagination to change the situation from the worst to the best not only applies to this game, but also applies to our daily life. Life is not easy. Imagination and hope lead to a better life.

    April is coming and hope everyone will have a wonderful April!

Week 9 reactions by KU

“Happy time always flies fast” It is what I feel when Kira and Yukari were leading the class yesterday. As I remember, we have done so many things in those 50 minutes. We had gameàvideo clipàgameàchapter summaryàgame. When holding a discussion session, silence could be one of the most terrible things. They avoided this by making slot. Writing down names on papers could be a boring session. But they also asked us to think of an animal to visualize the person. This small trick turned this boring “trap” into an interesting game. It was a great start.

Then we saw a meaningful video about people opinion towards happiness. Most people suggested money can lead to happiness. Money is important. With money, we can do many things but not everything. For me, happiness can be simple. I have been preparing an exam non-stop for a whole week. Happiness came to me once after I finished it and I knew I did well on it. It is nothing related to money. We also made birthday and vacation plans. The tempo of the class was good that made me forget the time. It succeeded.

Week 9 reaction by Kira

Big thanks to my partner Yukari, who thought of the two very interesting games, the birthday plan and worst to best plan game. I really agree with the bald green shirt guy in the video, who said he was happy because he was alive. I think to be alive is already a big happiness.

And while we were playing the birthday game, I noticed that my classmates looked more excited when they were planning for Mr. Murillo than for themselves, which reflected the same result of the research "how to buy happiness" on TED.com. I hope everyone enjoyed the class.~

Gloria_Week 9_Reaction

I really enjoyed the class yesterday! Kira and Yukari did a good job! The games are well designed and related to the topic!

Those games inspired me a lot! Happiness is a choice! You can choose to be happy or unhappy, it all depends on what you think and how you react!

Happiness is infectious, it’s like a ripple which grows bigger and bigger! Stay positive and be thankful with what we have! Then, you will find happiness is all around!

Week 9 Reaction_Ben

First of all, thanks for our classmates leading discussion section yesterday, Kira and Yukari created a good environment for discussion which also was creative, such as "How you plan to celebrate your birthday?", it was a simple, but complicated problem. Some people may think nice presents or a magnificent birthday cake were the most important part, however, in my opinion, my family and friends were the most important part of my life, that's the reason why I would like to celebrate with them and enjoy the happy moment. Indeed, we have different sense of worth and focused on different aspects and things. The discussion section brought the main idea of chapter to us. 

Furthermore, everyone would like to find their own method to find their happiness and we have different definition of happiness, however, I believed that the happiness was the most important of our life. 

Reflection for the class chap 8

     In the first half of the class this week, we discussed what to do for the research symposium coming April. We confirmed the date and time, and made to do list in detail. We found that there are many things that we need to do. I hope I will enjoy all the steps to the symposium because I like my topic and research very much.

     At the latter half of the class, Kira and I made a presentation based on the Chapter 8. It was a very interesting experience; I learned many things by leading a class this time.

     After we had finished the first activity, slot making, we showed classmates a video regarding happiness. I think the content of the video was very interesting as well as funny. It enabled classmates not only to have fun but also to think what happiness was. Next, we moved on to the game section. The rule of the game was to make two birthday plans: one for oneself and the other for Mr. Murillo. The purpose of this game was to discover the difference in thinking about the happiness of oneself and others. Although both of the activities make people happy, they have more excitement and happiness when people think of others. We explained this fact with the video from TED. Then, we briefly summarized the article, using Power point. Our final activity was to turn the worst vacation into the best one, using imagination. Kira and I wanted to tell the message that it is possible to change unhappy situation into happiness if we use our imagination or change our perception toward the situation from this activity.

Leading the class was very interesting experience for me. First, I had never done it before (I have made an hour presentation, but never did this kind of presentation which consists of different activities), and I thought it was one of the best ways to learn what leadership is and how to be a good leader. It also taught me a sense of achievement and struggle of the teacher.

The biggest difficulty and excitement that I had were time management. Sometimes, the discussion lasts longer than we had expected. After a while, I discovered that I do not have to think and worry that much. It is wonderful for many classmates to participate in the discussion. All I have to do is to enjoy the situation and to be flexible.

     I also realized the importance of enjoying leading the discussion session. Participants seemed to have fun when I enjoyed leading the class, not when I worried about what to do next.

KATHERINE~ week 9 reaction~

    I had to say that yesterday’s class was amazing!! Thank you very much, Kira and Yukari ~ It was more like a philosophy course than a course about culture differences.

    The lecture is about happiness, what does it mean for different people in different societies, how is it measured and what we can do to in order to get as much as happiness we want. By playing games, watching videos and listening to presentations we leant quickly about several aspects of “subject well-being”!

       For me the major take away is that happiness depends on how you think or in my dear classmates’ word “imagination”. Life is a fair game for everyone; good luck is accompanied by bad ones. Sometimes when we come across unfortunate things the worst thing to do is complain and take them without any reactions. We need to be positive and try to change the situation as much as we can. That’s how happiness come, not always the satisfaction you have about life but the willingness of change you hold towards life when bad fortune approaches.   

 

week 9_ reaction_ yoyo

This week's class was interesting. Thanks Kira and Yukari for their hard works. I pretty like the first video  that talked about how people think about happiness. People's answers were interesting. A lot of them said money could make them happy. Well, i personally think money could make me happy too, but unless i also process other things, such as family, friends, love, career, etc. I guess nobody would be unhappy if they get a hundred billion of dollar and spend it wherever they want. Though money can satisfy our basic needs in a certain extent, like get a shelter, buy necessities, eat food, do other leisure things, money is unable to satisfy our spiritual needs. Money can not buy family, friends, love, spiritual satisfaction, etc. Those spiritual satisfaction are more important to make me happy. The last activity was inspiring. We were asked to changed the worst vacation into better vacation. I do agree that happiness is actually determined by us. We could always be happy if we think positively and optimistically. Things might not be so worst as we thought. We should see things into different angles and solve problem with our creativity and imagination. 

Ryo- cahpter 8 response

The topic this week is about the well-being in each nation. People from indulgent societies are more likely to remember positive emotions although people from restraint societies are likely to feel the bad emotions especially.

According to the readings’ definition, Indulgence stands for a tendency to allow relatively free gratification of basic and natural human desires related to enjoying life and having fun. Restraint reflects a conviction that such gratification needs to be curbed and regulated by strict social norms.

I personally believe that happiness is the most important in our lives. However, we are likely to forget to feel happy since we are surrounded by many tasks or restricted by the social norms. We restrict what we really want to do by ourselves or social norms, and as a result we feel pressure or stressful. To put it the other way, the relationship with others, community or society is considered important unconsciously since we sometimes value them other than our personal desire. We cannot live without the relationship with others, we share the food, money..etc.

At the same time, we originally have the natural desire as human beings or animals. I believe that this is the conflict point; value society to live as one of the members or value our natural desire to pursue our ultimate happiness or pleasure.

Ryo- week 8 reaction

In the last week, we had a very good time together and Yoyo and Cathrine’s nice presentation.

We discussed the long term or short term oriented culture. Eastern countries have long term orientation while the western countries have short term orientation. People from long term societies tend to be very hard working and spend their time for the future although people from short term societies tend to be outgoing and spend their time for right now at this moment.

I personally consider myself long-term oriented person because I am very steady and sometimes fearful for the tasks in the future rather than forget them. Although it is important to think for the future, I sometimes think that it is also happy to focus on the moment itself since we seize the day. I am wondering how I could change my intuitive mind or brain that is typically long term oriented to the mind that seize the day or focus on the moment. Is it possible to change the mind even for the adult? I would like to personally research how human beings’ mind or brain change.

Gloria_Chapter 8_Response

This chapter talks about the happiness of people and the differences between indulgent and restrained societies.

The survey reveals that the people who are satisfied with their lives and feel happy most of the time are typically poor or not particularly wealthy. They are usually located in western Africa and in northern Latin America.

Actually, I don’t feel surprised with that because I do believe that the poor are not doomed to be unhappy, I think it depends where the people live. The poor might have a higher possibility to be unhappy if they live in a wealthy district/ region where the gap between the wealth and the poor is apparent and poverty is especially in the extreme. 

By contrast, if everyone in the district/ region is not that rich, everyone might just share nearly the same living condition and the social inequality is not prominent, people there might not have much to compare with others, they might be easier to be satisfied with what they have and be happier. 

Response to Chapter 8 (Esther)

    I think everyone want to achieve happiness.  I remember that one of my professor from Sociology course said female tend to be happier than male, because women have a stronger relationship with friends and families. Also, those who get married lead a happier life than single people. The reason is similar to women lead a happier life: people with better communication with friends and families will get support from them and have a better mood. Except relation with others, money also plays an important role in people's happiness. Lack of money will result in unhappy life, but with the increase of money, people won't feel happier and happier without limitation. Even more, much money will lead to unhappy life.
    Also according to the research, people who have religion will feel happier, especially if the rules of the religion is not very strict. I think one of the reason why people with religion feel happier is that they have time to reflect themselves and they feel thankful to life. Being thankful makes people cherish what they have, which is quite significant in life.

Chapter 8 response

In the beginning of Chapter 8, it talks about the subjective well-being. This research comes out a very interesting result. The countries with the highest percentages of very happy respondents are typically poor or not particularly wealthy. This result is very valuable for me to think about the importance of money. Nowadays, a majority of students go to university do not focus on learning, they want to get the degree and get the higher salary job. It seems reasonable in the society but is that the principal of the university. It seems the university is selling the degree to a student and the student use it to exchange something. In my opinion, university is not that kind of commercialized organization. It should be a place establish for someone who are interesting in getting knowledge to struggle for the truth in the universe.

week 8_ response_ yoyo

Chapter 8 discusses about the level of happiness people attain in different countries. Indulgence and restraint  are some of the factors determine people’s level of happiness. The correlation of happiness, life control and importance of leisure is quiet interesting to me. In indulgent culture, people are happy because they face less restriction in lives. They are free to choose their living style, do what they want and express how they feel. They treasure more time for leisure activities. In contrast, people in restraint culture tend to face more restrictions and have less time for leisure. This chapter reminds me of a news I saw few years ago. There was a report showing that the happiest county in the world is Bhutan. Bhutan is not a rich country in the world in terms of economic development. There are no big corporations, tall buildings, fancy cars, etc. People’s lives are simple. Actually, I do believe that the simplest life is the happiest life. It’s because people have less things to worry about, less pursuits of interests, less comparison, etc. It’s just like a utopia. I also don’t think there is a positive correlation between money and happiness. Rich countries, like U.S, U.K, Japan, can provide people a good living condition, but have no guarantee of providing people a happy living style. Many researches show that people in those rich countries are not happy with their lives because they are often restricted and annoyed by a lot of norms, regulations, personal pursuits, etc. 

Reaction Chapter 8

     This chapter is about happiness of people. The author explains that even though technology has developed rapidly, the happiness of humans decreased rapidly from 20th to 21th century. The article describes two types of society: indulgent and restraint. The former values the happiness of the individual. On the other hand, the latter values social norms, which makes people face a dilemma between their happiness and rules of the society. I mostly agreed with the idea of the author. How the society was formed strongly affects the perception of the happiness of humans.

     This article reminds me of “Bhutan fever”, which happened during the stay of the king and the queen of Bhutan in Japan. Japanese media claimed many times that we should learn from Bhutan, which is known for the happiest countries in the world, to be happier, not sticking to the wealth very much.

     I think it is not easy to change the perception toward happiness because the society gives a large impact on it. However, it is important to learn good points from both restraint and indulgent society.

Response to Chapter 8_Ben

While the technology became advanced, the happiness of human being decreased gradually from Twentieth to Twentieth-one century, the SWB (Subjective Well-being) was a good example to judge people were happy or not. I agreed with the author's idea, the indulgent and restrained society would have different life-style and features which affected the degree of happiness. Indulgent society believed the friends and leisure time were necessary and important part of life, on the contrary, Restrained society did not focus on this aspect. It was common sense which different ethnic group have their own sense of worth, they adopted particular way to live their life, like China and Hong Kong, even if Macau people have a low degree of happiness, because they have to face various dilemma of daily life, which stressed them very much. In my opinion, one coin has two sides, people get their happiness and lose something, different ethnic group would get their happiness through different aspects and achievements.

The IDR Index Score reflected the happiness countries were those undeveloped or developing countries rather than developed countries. I believed that we never get a high degree of happiness, unless we decrease our desire and use a simple way to live.

Response of chapter 8 by KU

There is a story about Filipina women’s crazy happiness-expressed behavior in weekend in Hong Kong at the beginning of the chapter. Hong Kong is a stressful city.

Inflation is high and most of people can only earn a living by the limited income. This is especially true for young people who didn’t have a brilliant education background. Young people complain that Hong Kong government encourages them to back to school and equip themselves. It runs a lot “Further study programs” but it didn’t promote these programs to the job market. Young people make a loan to register for those programs but for often, employer do even heard of the programs and recognize those certificates. They can only make a living. Marriage and buying house seems impossible for them.

Wealth represents there are a lot competence in the society which is one source of happiness of people. The writer expresses happiness as subjective well-being(SWB). The emotion of happiness is subjective. It depends on how much you satisfy your life. Look through the research about index of happiness, you can find that the happiest countries in the world are usually relatively small and poor. “Even when people of different ethnic origins share the same environment, they do not become equally happy, and some old differences remain for some time” Quoted from P278. It also specifies that for people with different ethnic and culture background. The level of happiness they feel can be different. Many people claimed that they would like to move the certain countries after retired because that country is happy. It could help a little bit but for more, it is up to you. 

KATHERINE~chapter 8 response~

      This chapter is about the ultimate goal of human beings, happiness or in the author’s word “subjective well-being (SWB)” (p.278). By analyzing people’s levels of satisfactory of their lives and feeling of happiness, the writer categorizes countries into indulgence societies and restraint societies. The former one tend to allow comparatively free gratification of basic as well as human desires, thus people are more likely to enjoy life in this society. On the contrary, people living in restraint societies are regulated by various of strict social norms, making them not so satisfied.

       It is obvious that most western societies are more indulgent than eastern especially Asian societies, however neither America nor Canada ranks the first at SWB index, countries with the highest very happy respondents are in fact not so wealthy. The “happiest” countries are located in western Africa and northern Latin America.

       It occurs to me that whether money is the key to happiness. Many say it’s not but in my opinion that really depends on what kind of society and situation you are in. If everyone around you is poor you may feel it’s not necessary to get plenty of wealth, but if one day someone around you suddenly becomes rich, your idea about money will totally change.

CH 8 reflection by Kira

This chapter is about Happiness, or in other words, subjective well-being. I was not surprised that ".... the poor Filipinas who are happier than the rich citizens of Hong Kong."(P286) because nowadays, money has become the main source of people. The richer we are, the more important money becomes. I would say, many people in wealthier countries are living for money. That could also be true in poorer countries, but I think just because they have no money, they would think of other things or ways to make themselves happy, such as religion,friendships,etc. And that's why the poor Filipinas are happier than the rich HK citizens.

Week 8 reaction

This week, we study the long term orientation and the short term orientation in this class. This presentation is given by Katreena and YoYo. They played an interesting game which needs us to find an ideal partner. It shows that the Asian student is long term orientation and American is belongs to short term orientation.  Beside this, they also show an interesting video about the American promote a product to the Chinese. We observe that the American focus on the success of this once negotiation and the Chinese will consider the long term cooperation. This video  in the funny way to shows that the Chinese will need more time to think about whether they should do it or not.  I think they have made an excellent presentation about their topic.

Chapter 8 Reflection

I found this chapter to be very interesting because it dealt with happiness and values across different cultures. I especially found it noteworthy that origins, and not environment generally determine happiness. This could be problematic for someone moving from an "unhappy" nation to one that is considered happy, because it is likely that their happiness would not change in their new environment. I was also surprised that happiness was not necessarily correlated with satisfaction, and that many of the people in the poorest countries described themselves as being the happiest.

A few issues really stood out to me concerning indulgence versus restraint--I figured that wealth would correspond to indulgence and restraint to poverty, but some of the other issues noted did surprise me. I found it interesting that wealthier countries are more likely to remember positive than negative emotions because I feel like many people in wealthier countries are actually pessimistic, even though they have things that many people take for granted. I definitely agree with the statement that more indulgent countries are more likely to have lower moral discipline and freedom of speech than restrained countries. I was however, surprised to learn that more restrained countries prefer a "poker face" to a friendly smile for strangers.

KATHERINE~ week 8 reaction~

     Last Friday's class was interesting and inspiring! Thanks to Yoyo and Katreena 's useful presentation! Regarding to long and short orientation, it was quite shocking to find out how big the differences between the western people and eastern people are. Cultures really have big influences on people's views on future, such as money saving, leisure time and even their criteiras for spouses.

      As for extra money, most Asains prefer to save them immediately for further uses however westerners tend to spend their money as much as they want. This can also be proved by governments' fiscal policies. Take the U.S. as an example, during depressions the Federal Reserve usually print more money and stimulate expenditure,however China would adjust interest rate instead. What's more, leisure time is very important for westerners but Aians would like to spend more time working so as to earn more money for the future. In terms of social lives, Asians regard family background of their futures partners as an important criteria but westners consider their feelings as the most important thing . 

      Really looking forward to exploring more dimensions of different cultures in the coming classes!

Week8 Reflection

Happy birthday, Yoyo!!

Although I was not able to attend the class from the beginning, it was very interesting to listen to the presentation by Katreena and Yoyo. Their topic was based on the reading of this week: long-term orientation and short-term orientation. I like the last question: whether each of us is a long-term oriented person or short-term oriented person. I think it is very difficult for anyone to determine which one is closer to him or her. Each person holds the traits of both long-term and short-term orientation.

     Two teams have already made a presentation for the class, and the qualities of them were very high. I hope I will be able to make a nice one at the class in next week.

     Lastly, have a great spring break, everyone!

week 8_reaction_yoyo

Last class was so special for me! It was so surprised that Jenn brought a birthday cake for me in class! She is just so nice! It was the 3rd birthday cake I had in the U.S. I am a lucky girl and thanks everyone for your birthday wishes!
I presented the topic of long and short term orientation with Katreena in last class. I thought the class was fun and we really hope everybody enjoyed it. We started with a fun game, like matching your husband and wife, to help our classmates to identify their marriage values. Then, we showed them two videos and explained some different characteristics of long and short term orientation. Finally, we asked prepared for this class on the day of my birthday, our meeting was interesting and we came up ideas quickly. Anyway, thanks everyone for interacting with us in class! Happy spring break! :)

Week 8 reaction_ben

First of all, I really thanks to Yoyo and Katreena's presentation which are really interesting, the presentation provided the details and principle of this chapter, the short and long term orientation are difficult to make a specific definition, because some of them are similar with others. Moreover, the video which showed in the class is very interesting, I can understand the Cantonese and English, it really funny and that's the true between the American and Chinese business affairs. For instance, I hope all of you have a amazing spring break and enjoy your holiday, see you all in next class !!

This week's class was presented by myself and Yoyo and we presented on the topic of this weeks reading. We meet to do research and plan the presentation, it was really interesting doing so because of all the unbelievable amount of information of what found. We really wanted to teach the class much more, but we thought we were in a time constraint. We really wanted to showcase to the class that there was a distinction between the students and their culture. That was what the icebreaker was for, we really wanted to drive and jog our classmates minds and see why they would marry the person they chose by the characteristics that fall in either long or short term orientation. Then, we wanted to have different focal points of the topic that we were presenting: family, government, business/economy, and social/cultural. It was important for us to really get our classmates to be full-rounded of how and why long term and short term orientation applies to us. We hope that the class enjoyed our presentation as much as we enjoyed teaching them.

Week 8 reactions by KU

This week comes to Yoyo and Katreena to lead the class. They did a really organized presentation on the topic of “long-term and short-term orientation”. They showed the difference between two from the aspects of family, marriage, workplace and economic. If we had one-million dollars, Chinese would like to save part of it while American would like to spend it. I found that the people here in US like to text. When my classmate here text me, the first thing I do is try to find them in whatsapp or other online chatting apps. In Macau, I usually spent my days in the university and home which are all wifi-covered. If I didn’t have network connection, in most of time I was on street or riding motorbike. Therefore, whatsapp can almost replace texting entirely in contacting me.

I was also impressed by a sentence concluded about marriage in US. “There is no reason to stay together if we have no love between”. It stated the truth that the divorce rate in US is higher in China. I saw a TV show in China which invites couples and talks about their problem in their love. There is one man come up the show and ask for re-marriage to his ex-wife because of their children. It also shows that in long term orientation countries, marriage means a lot more than love. Children’s future could be one of the reason of that.

WEEK 8 Reaction by kira

Happy birthday to yoyo. This week, it was about long and short terorientations. I really enjoyed the warm up game. Through the interesting game, youtube video and well prepared presentation, I understood more about the long and short term orientations between eastern and western people. I was a bit surprised to know that not all US people in our class think they are short term orientations. Thank you yoyo and katreena for their hard work. And I hope everyone has a great spring break!

Chapter 7 is about short term and long term orientation. Short term orientation is about an outlook in the present, that they are persistent, quick to actions, traditional, believes in individualism and creativity. Long-term orientation is an outlook of long term goals, family oriented, parents and men have higher authority than women, and so forth. In the research that my partner and I had to do, in order for our presentation we found that Chinese and Asian counterparts are proned to be long term orientation, while Americans are seen to be short term orientation. As an individual who is Asian, but grew up in America, I figured that I was short term orientation. I have characteristics of a short term oriented person, but I strive to be someone who is long term oriented. Parts of why I would want to be long term oriented is because they know how to have long term goals and that they are frugal and know how to save money, likewise now, I tend to someone have outburst spontaneous spending. It was an interesting chapter to say the least.

Gloria_Week 8_ Reaction

I do enjoy today’s class! Jenn brought a birthday cake to class to celebrate yoyo’s birthday! I think it must surprise yoyo very much, happy birthday again, yoyo =]

I think Katreena and Yoyo really did a great job, the class is well organized, the game they designed is so funny. Moreover, when we finished our discussion and share our opinions, I find out the difference so obvious! It’s very interesting that the US group and the Asian group held a totally different point of view!

The life style of the people in the US and in China is very different. I hope I can find out and know more about it as I go travelling to the East coast during the Spring Break! Yeah!

Last but not least, I hope you guys all enjoy the holiday! 

Week 8 Reaction_Michael

 In class this week we had a nice presentation by Yoyo and Kateerna. They were just going over the chapter about long term thinking versus short term thinking. Their ice breaker activity showed that Americans were more vain in their choices as well as showed how traditionally people from China look for stability and approval from their families. We then discussed what we'd do if we received one million dollars. The Americans pick to do more short term thinking and the Asian cultural folks chose to think of the long term and save their money and buy a house thus emphasizing the fact that they are more long term think and American culture people are more short term thinking.

Chapter 7 response_Michael

In chapter 7 it discusses about the characteristics of high and low long term orientation so thinking about long term decision making and short term thinking. Chinese are traditionally strongly influenced by Confucius thoughts which promote ideas of hierarchy of relationships, hard word, ideas of thrift, persistence, etc...These characteristics belong to long term orientation culture, like in Asian culture. In American culture the thinking is quite different, the mentality is more heuristic feelings. The views on marriage is different like in American culture they marry for "love" and how tehy feel in the current time but in a high long term culture society they might marry for class and financial stability or stability of any sort. It's basically now vs. future.

Week 8 Reaction (Esther)

    This week, we learn long- term orientation and short- term orientation.  Yoyo and Katreena led a wonderful discussion.  They talked about this topic from different aspects, for example, marriage, economics and history. I remembered what I learnt from the course families studies, people in western countries tend to marry someone they love. But in some countries, for example, Japan, love is not the most important thing in their marriage. Duty is the most important. Arranged marriage is common in Japanese society. This kind of marriage is more stable than marriage in western countries.

    I am looking forward to Spring break!  Wish all have a happy and safe spring break!

Response to Chapter 6_Michael

A new idea is presented which is called uncertainty avoidance, chapter six provides a good analysis of these ideas, individualism, power distance, collectivism, security, etc...  I have discovered that the result of "uncertainty avoidance" is very different with the factors of power distance, individualism, and collectivism involved.Asiatic countries like Korea and Japan belong to strong uncertainty avoidence; differently china, and Singapore are both weak uncertainty avoidance. I have tried to see the details of the social and cultural contextual context. For example most Japanese business men work for the same companies for the rest of their lives and give high levels of loyalty to their companies. Japanese try not to create conflict and maintain face which is very long term thinking and part of the culture. United States is similar with China which belong to weak uncertainty avoidance,  a majority of the people, especially the young generations who leaved their position after a short period and search for the other potential occupations.

Week Seven Reaction_Michael

In this class we had a good ice breaker about trust falls. People that were more "uncertainty avoidance" had difficulty trusting the people to catch them. The topic we went over was just about societies and "uncertainty avoidance" level. Different societies have lower or higher levels of uncertainty avoidance based on how the cultures are structured. We then filled out this survey which tested and measured what level of "uncertainty avoidance" a person had.  I was low "uncertainty avoidance" but it all depends on what the situation is. We debated about high versus low level of uncertainty in the work place. There were positives on both sides but I think there is a good median one must find.

Gloria_Chapter 7_response

Chapter7 mainly talks about the short-and long term orientation in different countries. According to the survey, it reveals that China is a long term orientation society while the United States shares the features of short term orientation. I do agree with it and I will use how people in these two countries hold the different point of views and attitudes towards the real estates and properties as an example to illustrate my thoughts.   

In China, it’s common for people to devote their lives to working as so to earn enough money to buy their own houses or apartments. They aim to get it as their own properties. All they did is not only for themselves, but also they want to prepare it for their offspring. If they are able to afford it, they will buy each of their kids one apartment because the parents want to make sure that their kids can have a better life in the future. It’s an example proves that China is a long term orientation society as well as a collectivist society, they tend to maintain a strong relationship with their kids even when they grow up.

On the other hand, I think it’s more common for American to rent the houses or apartments instead of buying it. It might because it’s easier for them to move around and work in other places. They might not worry about whether their kids can afford to buy the houses by their own or not since they’re finically independent when they’re 18. It’s not necessary for them to prepare the houses for their offspring. Therefore, the American can choose wherever they want to live and move out anytime. It’s an example proves that America is a short term orientation society as well as an individualist country. They might just focus on what benefits to them now, what they enjoy or interested in currently.

Reaction to Chapter 7

     This chapter discussed the difference between long-term oriented and short-term oriented societies. To explain it briefly, long-term oriented values the future while short-term oriented values the past. This affects the lives of people in many ways, such as people in long-term oriented society work very hard.

     I believe this chapter was one of the best in describing the difference of several societies. It is true that many East Asian countries try to learn from other countries to improve themselves. I also think that long-term oriented society cares about how others think of themselves. For example, a rock singer (I forgot the name of the group and singer), who came to some East Asian countries, was asked how he felt about the countries. He explained that he felt strange about being asked about such a thing because he never had such a question in countries in other region.

Chapter7 response

Chapter 7 is talking about the study of Long term orientation and short term orientation culture. People from different orientation will have a different perspective and expectation of doing one thing. For example, in the high long term orientation culture is based on real affection and with attention paid to small children. The children are taught thrift, not to expect immediate gratification of their desire,tenacity in the pursuit of their goals by their parents.

There is some case about Chinese student. It said that it was possible to see some rationale for the noticeable tendency of Chinese to excel in certain subjects, particularly the applied sciences, where"the individual and the concrete" is paramount. I get some conflict in my cognition. I always think that the western education is best to educate all kind the scientist because I think that their teaching style can let the student be more creative. It is the first time I read an article about Chinese scientist.

Response to Chapter 7_Ben

While I read the new chapter, I found that the idea of long term and short term orientation were interesting. It  was a part of the theory of this book, I have a little bit confuse about the principle of theory. Although the chapter listed the characteristics of those ideas, it cannot really show the fact. For example, I felt surprised that the Concern with "face" and having sense of shame belonged to short term and long term orientation, because those were the features of Chinese society. It meant Chinese society belonged to long term and short term orientation at the same time? It's a interesting topic. 

I believed that this book would eventually shape the characteristics of different countries in different ways through the different principles, I also looking forward to the group which will lead the discussion tomorrow, I hope that the discussion will explain more details of this chapter. 

Response to Chapter 7, Ryo

The reading this week is about long-term oriented or short-term oriented. Long term-oriented stands for virtues oriented for future prosperity such as thrift and perseverance. In contrast, short-term oriented stands for the values related to the past and present such as respect for tradition and preservation of face. Mainly, Asian countries are considered as long-term oriented and the Western countries such as U.S. are considered to be short-term oriented. In the business, the top seven values selected by the Asians were hard work, respect for learning, honesty, openness to new ideas, accountability, self-discipline, and self-reliance. The Americans selected freedom of expression, personal freedom, self-reliance, individual rights, hard work, personal achievement, and thinking for oneself. Long-term orientation stands for a society in which wide differences in economic and social conditions are considered undesirable. Short-teem orientation stands for meritocracy, differentiation according to abilities.
I think that the description in perspective of business is correct. For example, the U.S. companies tend to have diversity in the office and each worker is required to make values. So they have to express their opinions effectively in order to be recognized as competent worker. In contrast, Japanese companies, which are considered typical long-term oriented, tend to require workers to be cooperative with each other, rather than competing with each other. In a good sense, each worker think of the benefits of the company rather than personal praise.

Chapter 7 Response (Esther)

    This chapter is mainly about long-term orientation and short- term orientation.  I am really interested in this topic because I think somehow it's related to uncerntainty avoidance whih was talked about last week. I think people who have high uncertainty avoidance don't want to take risk and they prefer have stable lifes.  Making a long- term plan for them is a really good way to forecast their life. People who tend to have lower uncertainty avoidance loves life with changes. It doesn't matter if life changes a lot. Of course, it's just one aspect of the reason that result in the different orientation.

    I am quite sure that I am a person with lon- term orientation. When I was young, my mom taught me how to save money and helped me to create an account in the bank to deposit money. I won't run out of my money cause I am afraid that there will be some accidents happen but I don't have money to pay for it. Also, she taught me that making plans for my life was very important, only in this way can you achieve what you want. That's what I do in my life. Without the plan, I will feel confused.

    I don't think long- term orientation is better than short- term orientation, but also I won't agree if someone said short- term orientation is better than long- term orientation. That's only the way people think of things and lead their life. Both of them have some advantages and also disadvantages. People with long-term orientation may feel too much pressure for the things in advance. However, people with short- term orientation may feel happy at that time but worried about their life after the happy time, cause they run out of money.

Response of chapter 7 by KU

In this chapter, we were introduced a new dimensions of telling culture difference between countries and that is long-term and short-term orientation. China rank the highest in the long-term orientation and the writer suggested that many values element in Chinese culture are related to the teachings of Confucius. “Virtuous behavior toward others consists of not treating others as one would not like to be treated oneself.” It made complete sense to me as being a Chinese. He inspired me by what is written in the next sentence. “If one should love one’s enemies, what would remain for one’s friends?”(Quoted from P238) An Interesting argument again.

The writer concluded the key differences between short- and long-term orientation countries. One of them is perseverance, sustained efforts toward slow results in long-term orientation and efforts should produce quick results. It first inspires me the western doctor and the Chinese medicine doctor. The medicine from western is usually works in quick way. But it usually just performs the temporary cure. While Chinese herb takes time to be effective. It aims at strengthen your body but not curing a certain disease. However, the pace of people living nowadays is so fast. People would usually prefer western doctor. But when it comes to cancer or other serious problems, Chinese medicine doctor could be a choice.

Chapter 7_Response_ Yoyo

Chapter 7 discusses about the characteristics of high and low long term orientation. I agree with what the chapter said that china is a high LTO country. Traditionally, Chinese are strongly influenced by Confucius thoughts which promote the ideas of thrift, persistence, hierarchy of relationship, work hard etc. Those characteristics belong to long term orientation culture. On the contrary, western culture emphasizes on quick results, equality, spending and the ideas of “play hard, work hard”. It's interesting to notice that American students usually spend time on study on weekdays, and they go to parties or have other activities on Friday and Saturday. Chinese students are more likely to spend time on study and do not value too much leisure time. I also find the marriage value in high & low LTO culture is quiet interesting. The book mentions that women with high LTO culture tend to find husband, while women with low LTO culture tend to find boyfriend. (pg.241) I think it's true! When Chinese women date a boy,many of them will consider whether the boy can provide a good future for them. They look at the boy's family background, jobs, ambitions, personality, etc. However, many American women tend to emphasize the "feeling" and love between them and the boy. The current feeling and love might be more important than the estimation of future. 

Ch 7 response by kira

In chapter 7, a new dimension "long term versus short term orientation (LTO)" is introduced.  According to the writer, long-term orientation stands for the fostering of virtues oriented toward future rewards while short term orientation stands for the fostering of virtues related to the past and present. (p239). Since the long term orientation is highly related to the famous Chinese philosophy, Asian countries generally scored higher than westerns in the world values survey (WVS).

I found the survey pretty make sense because when I looked at the indexes of US and China. US, as a short term orientation country which score a low index in WVS, had been leading the global economy after World War II. On the other hand, China, as a long term orientation country which score a very high index in WVS, has an incredible bloom in economy during these years. And I think guanxi plays an important role in the development of long term orientation countries.

This last week's class, we focused on uncertainty avoidance that was connected to our weekly readings. The group that presented did an excellent job with their ice breaker. Everyone was fully engaged and wanted to fully participate. Also, in the way they presented the topic was very organized and well though-out. It was interesting seeing whether or not who/why if we had high/low uncertainty avoidance.With my test, I knew that I had a very low uncertainty avoidance. I have been more self-aware and have done more self-reflection this year than I have ever been. I knew that I was very lax about many things and that I fully embrace change and actually look forward to it. Not only that, but it takes me a really long time to get mad, so simple things that irritate, annoy, or anger people, I can easily slide within seconds. After taking the test, I still had low uncertainty test.

I think that the people who raise us, people we are surrounded we, our culture, environment, all have a great affect whether or not we will have a high/low uncertainty. I have a family who is very open to change, loves traveling, and purposely talks to strangers everyday, very lax about everything, and that is the same people I surround myself with. Not only that, but being Filipinos. We are known for being very charismatic, open, and welcoming. Culture, family, friends, and my environment has definitely affected whether or not I have a high/low uncertainty avoidance. Is it just me? Or can others relate to this?

KATHERINE~chapter 7 response~

      By demonstrating the Confucius values in Chinese culture, chapter 7 discusses a new dimension in culture differences, which is “short- term orientation vs. long-term orientation” (p.243). As the term “long-term orientation” is formerly established through Chinese Value Survey, it only applies to 23 Asian countries. The author then figures out the opposite of the long-term orientation societies, showing situations in the more western appealed short-term orientation societies. These two kinds of societies differ in areas regarding to general norms, family, business, politics and so on.

       I am especially interested in people’s views towards expenditure and their own countries. According to the chapter people living in short-term orientation societies are more willing to spend money ahead of time while long-term orientation societies tend to favor the virtue of “thrift”. Citizens in US are typical people believing in short-term orientation, and sometimes they are criticized of living a too “luxury” life. Take the US financial crisis in 2008 as an example, the core source was the imbalance of the money people spent and the actual amount they had. There were even voices then suggested US to learn from China, which is the most long-term orientation society according to the chapter. As for ideas of motherlands, nationals in short-term orientation countries are proud of their countries but on the contrary long-term orientation states always feel the need of learning from other countries. In fact, this may always be true. China tended to learn from others in 1970s but nowadays she is strong enough to build her unique development strategies.

Chapter 7 Response

This chapter dealt with national values and long and short term orientation indexes throughout different countries. China had a much higher score than the US, but the US was still considered middle to short term, as there were countries that ranked lower on the charts. Some of the things that I found interesting included the correlation with high LTO's and low divorce rates due to arranged marriages being more prevalent. I also found it interesting that higher ranked countries were less likely to be assertive and more likely to accept bribes. Though wealth wasn't directly linked to specific scores, it was mentioned when discussing gratification. Children in poorer countries were more likely to want immediate gratification and to believe in absolute guidelines for behavior. Improvement and rituals are more important than believing in a specific religious deity. It is also believed that there can be two answers and that both can sum to a better answer than any one individually, as we would be likely to believe in the US. Personally, I was also interested in the observations about mathematical skills--people in higher scoring countries were better at math because it was an absolute answer. This definitely makes sense for me, because I am horrible at math!