Culture Difference
The first time I encountered with a complete different value in America was hearing what my friend said to me after I told her about not wanting to go to a field trip with my Chinese class, but my teacher required me to go otherwise I got points off my grade. She said to me, “you don’t have to go if you don’t want to. Nobody can make you do anything that you don’t want to do.”
Until now, I still remember my reaction after hearing what she said. First, I was kind of surprised, so I asked her if I could really choose not to go and what if the teacher took points off my grade. She said, “yes and he couldn’t do that. If he did, you can complain.” I thought that was kind of funny because my extent of unwillingness to go was not great enough to cause a conflict between me and the teacher. But later I realized how great the difference was between Chinese culture and American culture in the relationship of teachers and students.
The teacher was a chinese immigrant so he taught students in the Chinese way, expecting students to do what he said and sometimes intimidating students with his authority as a teacher, which was common in China and accepted by the society. If this case happened in China, students would go to the field trip without any complaints even though they did not want to go. However, American students would choose to tell the teacher what they thought and figure out a way to solve the problem with the teacher.
From this case, I can also see the difference between attitudes of Chinese and American toward individual willingness. In American society, people strongly emphasize on individual freedom. Everyone has the right to express feelings and opinions freely and this right is protected by the constitution. People are encouraged to stand out of the rest and make a difference even in the situations that need them to challenge the authority. That is why we can see in a lecture at an American university, professors are often interrupted by students questioning their claims and opinions. All the protests, rallys and marches happen on the streets that give people opportunity to complain about problems existing in the government or advocate awareness of certain issues which are rarely seen in China.
On the other hand, Chinese people are raised to respect and listen to elderly and authority. This principle applies in schools from students to teachers, at workplaces from employees to bosses and at home from younger kids to older siblings. Compared to American’s emphasis on individualism, Chinese culture values more on collectivism. They believe that individual behavior does not only affect one person but also the whole community. If one student asks a question in class, he slows down the class and takes away other students’ time to learn because teacher has to stop to answer. So that student should ask the teacher after class using his own time. Since early age, children are taught to sacrifice oneself for the good of a large number of people, a community or even the country. Nevertheless, no culture in this world is superior to the others. All we have to do is to understand the difference.
