Hi guys, we're back to blogging once again! (:
This week, we have learnt about intercultural interactions and how people from different continents differ from each other (especially how westerners are different from those in the east).
This is one little example of a intercultural interaction I have with my physics tutor. He's from Australia, and he is over 50 years old. He's a good teacher, and is very open. Once in class, he suddenly shared about his personal life, about his younger brother. He started reminiscing about his time spent with his brother, even though his brother lost an arm. Then, he started tearing, and we were all quiet, and didn't know what to do. I think the whole class is caught off guard.
With us being Asians, it is already a rare sight to see teachers sharing something so personal to their students. When he started tearing, I was more surprised than anything else, as I would have never imagined it coming. Here is this white-haired Caucasian tearing in front of his class. Yes, a guy. I'm stereotypical. We don't get to see guys tear, what more my own teacher! In the Asian perspective, cultural norm is that guys don't shed tears because it shows weakness, and less masculine to be so emotional.
However, when you see the situation from his perspective, we would understand that he is just being himself, without the restrain of expressing himself freely to his students. He probably would not bother what our opinions of him are (low context, if I didn’t get it wrong). And also, to him, he is not raised up in an environment with such values, and hence he would not have the consciousness to stay away from sharing too much of his personal life with us.
It was indeed an interesting experience, in which I get to see how different Asians and Caucasians behave.
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ReplyDeleteHi, Seewan.I think what happened in your physics class is a typical example demonstaring personality and culture differences. In traditional Chinese culture, selfless dedication is an important value while the western culture’s value emphasizes self-centered consciousness and a strong sense of independence. Especially for the Americans and Austalians, poeple are usually more open-minded and they behave more directly.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, I want to share with you about the benefit we can make from cultual diversity.non-local culture can be complementray and even an innovation of the native culture. Chinese culture spreaded to Japan and Korea in the acient time. It helped them create thir own characters. Similarly, Chinese culture also get some feedback from Japan and South Korea. In present Chinese, most technological vocabulary is from Japan, which is orginlly abstracted from the European languages. That is all of my sharing.
Happy to read your story.:)
See Wan I must say I'm quite taken back by the fact that a caucasian actually demonstrated his "feminine" quality. Isn't it rare? Because caucasians tend to get down to things fast and quick and I must say it's a good thing that he decided to spend some time getting acquainted.
ReplyDeletePerhaps your lecturer feels that by sharing his personal story helps to soften his masculinity so as to be able to integrate into the our high context culture?
I'm quite surprised by your experience! I thought that caucasian males would be less likely to shed tears because they value an "independent self", and would thus be more likely to present a strong front in order to not show any weakness. But then again, your explanation also makes sense. Perhaps it is the individual who decides how he/she wants to express themselves?
ReplyDeleteThat is a lovely teacher! I do agree that asians are more restrained with their emotions especially, when it comes to teacher-student relationships.
ReplyDeleteI once had a teacher goes as far as not ever smile in front of the class. I think it is to exert s sense of authority or power so that the students are fearful thus more obliging.
It is surely changing now in asian societies, maybe due to the influence of western culture, and more open the societies gets. Students prefer humorous teachers, and teachers are more willing to establish a personal relationship with students. I think it is for the better.