大家好!
Since my last post, I went on a trip to Le Shan and Emei
Shan (mountains), I’ll put photos at the end of the post.
Today, I’d like to chat with you all about frustration I’ve
experienced while abroad. It’s a very general topic, but it’s not something I
think I’ve touched on in previous posts. I’d like to share some frustrations
I’ve felt, as well as frustrations I’ve avoided.
First and foremost, it’s been frustrating not being with my
fellow Pios during the loss of another leadership student, and I send
well-wishes to everyone affected by the loss.
Secondly, I’ve felt some frustration handling things at MC
from the other side of the world. Don’t take for granted how easy it is to walk
into your professor’s office when you need to talk to them, or always being
surrounded by people who can get you to the right answer. I am probably much
more worried about registering for classes right now than I would be if I were
at MC this semester, and I am dealing with this while being exactly 12 hours
ahead of everyone.
Mostly, I want to talk about how I’ve been able to avoid
other kinds of frustrations while in China. When learning a foreign language,
there is quite a bit of uncertainty and risk-taking involved. Even doing simple
tasks that would be a cinch in the US can be intimidating in China. For
example, I recently got my hair cut and colored in a salon, and it was a nerve-wracking
experience. Going to the salon in the US is something I enjoy (despite the
awkward small talk), but salon vocabulary isn’t exactly something you learn in
a Chinese class, and I was afraid they wouldn’t understand what I wanted. The
experience went much more smoothly than I anticipated, and it was at least
partially due to my obvious foreignness. People tend to be more patient with
me. One of my friends is Chinese, but was raised in the US, and I am in a
higher level of Chinese than she is. When we go out together, people usually
try to speak to her first and are surprised when I respond to them instead.
On the other hand, sometimes I don’t have to say anything at
all. I’m dealing with a bad cold this week, and I didn’t bring any American
cold medicine. My program director wrote down the name and brand of Chinese
cough syrup on an index card, I walked into the pharmacy and handed them the
card and some money, and left without saying anything. (As a side note, the
cough syrup is magical and provides instant relief and the US needs to get on
this).
I knew before I came
to China that I would stick out obviously as a foreigner, but I didn’t consider
any advantages that would have, so I wanted to take the opportunity to share my
thoughts with you all.
Anyway, here are some photos of the Le Shan Buddha and views
while hiking Emei Shan:
Kayleigh,
ReplyDeleteThe story about the neighborhood difference is quite interesting. In our leadership class, we have been talking about Hall’s view of culture and how the western perspective is different from East Asian cultures. Today in class, we discussed the differences with a formal view of culture and informal view by western culture. One of Hall’s categories is Association. In culture, Association is a psychological process where we group with others that are based on hierocracy and similarity. I was wondering what differences you have seen in how the different social classes of China interact with each other, what similarities the groups form by, and what level of respect is shown between the culture in general?
Thank you for answering my question and I look forward to seeing more posts!
Best Regards,
Jay Chapin
Kayleigh,
ReplyDeleteFirst, I am glad to see you are having so much fun! I found it interesting that you are taking steps to mitigate confusion that may arise due to language barrier. In our lead class we used the Hofstede country comparison site to discussed differences between countries on opposing sides of the LMR model. When looking at the United States compared to China, the U.S ranks 16 points higher in the uncertainty avoidance category, which is "the way that a society deals with the fact that the future can never be known". Do you see any of your Chinese professors preparing classes to avoid uncertainties among the international students? Would you say that Chinese culture as a whole tries to prepare more than the U.S for the future?
Have fun and stay safe,
Jake Duvall
Hey Kayleigh! I have loved reading your posts. I like how you mentioned some frustrations you are having in this post because that is something that one can expect but mostly people just talk about the good and fun things. But when you go into a culture that is almost a polar opposite of us you can't avoid them. I noticed your comment about how you've been able to avoid frustrations in learning a new language; Chinese. We just finished The Silent Language by Hall and one of the chapters specifically focused on patterns, sets and isolates. The following chapter focused on selection, congruence and order. Order regulates the meaning of what we say; if the order isn't right there can be much confusion. Selection controls the sets we put together; a boy versus an arm. Lastly, congruence is a pattern of a pattern; something more complex to explain that I'm not really going to talk about. (In case you don't remember this reading). But in learning this new language I was wondering if you had caught on to any of these. I know in America we have a certain order that our sentences go in, while in Latin the verb/subject go at the end of the sentence. Is Chinese similar to how we order sentences or something completely different like Latin? We are also very picky about the grammar/syntax that people use such as "can" versus "may"; do you see anything like that either? The ways in which countries use language is very unique to them, they may follow the same rules of using selection, order and congrunce but in their own way. So I am curious if you can add any insight to this from what you have experienced.
ReplyDeleteHope the cold is better by the time you come home!
Amie Romine
Hey again! Thanks for discussing your frustrations with us. It helps me to see how even the smallest things like going to get your hair cut can be frustrating in a foreign culture. As Amie mentioned, we're studying Hall in our class. One main point that was discussed was that when we look at actions of another culture, we analyze them with our own cultural lens, thus we can easily misinterpret actions and events. Have you experienced this as a frustration? For instance, maybe you took offense to something that was meant to be a kind gesture or misunderstood someone's intention. If you have, what steps have you taken to avoid misinterpretation?
ReplyDeleteGlad they got some awesome cold meds over there!
~Derek
Hi Kayleigh!
ReplyDeleteIt is odd that many people are more patient with Americans in a foreign country and work to accommodate us. For example, when I went to Thailand they would make a point to make sure everything was always what we wanted and we were happy with our meals and locals would explain several times if we had questions. From a Western perspective, as mentioned in Perruci and McManus's book, it seems as if Americans are much less patient with foreigners in the U.S. - do you think this is due to their transactional leader-follower relationship? Or do you think this is because Americans do not possess as much compassion as the leader-follower relationships in China?
-Emily Schemrich
Hello again, Kayleigh,
ReplyDeleteI think that this perspective that you have provided us is very important. While we always promote studying abroad, there are many challenges and frustrations that we do not necessarily think about that you face. Your experiences in academics encompass challenges that I did not consider. From the McManus and Perruci text, we have learned about the Confucian and Taoist worldviews that have shaped East Asian culture. In the Confucian worldview, social order is emphasized in relationships. These relationships are developed in accordance to age. The one relationship out of the Five Great Relationships that may relate best to the classroom setting is the rule and subject relationship. Rulers are supposed to be generous to their followers and followers are supposed to be loyal to their leaders. Do you think your professors view the relationships with their students in this way? How accommodating are your professors to you because you are from a different culture? How do you think that their actions are both similar to and different from those of the professors at Marietta College?
I look forward to hearing more from you.
Take care,
Shannon Garrison
Hi Kayleigh,
ReplyDeleteIt was so interesting to read about your latest adventures! Do you think that not being able to go to professors like you do here has to do with power distance or is it just a cultural difference? I looked up the power distance for China and it is fairly high, so I wouldn’t be surprised if this was the explanation of why it is not as easy to approach professors. I also think that your experience with the cough medicine speaks to uncertainty avoidance. Even with having the name written down, that could still be an intimidating experience. America and China have similar uncertainty avoidance scores, with America being slightly higher than China. This may explain this situation.
Something else that I was thinking about when reading your post is implicit and explicit culture. When recalling your hair salon experience, I thought it was neat to think that there are still those awkward small talk conversations in hair salons in other countries. I think this would be a part of the implicit culture because there are no defined rules about what to talk about at a hair salon, but everyone talks about the same thing. I also think the fact that the locals have been patient with you is a part of the implicit culture because again, there are no rules stating that locals have to be nice or accommodating to visitors.
I loved reading about your experience and especially enjoyed the photos! It looks like there is a lot of natural beauty there!
Best,
McKenzie Fleeman
Hey Kayleigh,
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to hear about frustrations when living in a new culture. I can imagine that that transition would be difficult, but I am impressed with your willingness to participate in the culture and experience everything that you can. It is great that you are stepping out of your comfort zone. Hall describes culture in three breaks culture into 3 parts which include isolates, sets, and patterns. An isolate is a distinct action or sound. In terms of words, isolates are distinct sounds. In terms of actions an isolate is some sort of action that a person does, such as a hand shake or a gesture. When these isolates are combined they form sets. In terms of language, these sets are words, but when looked at in terms of actions they could be a greeting or an interaction/ritual. Finally, these sets form patterns which are influenced by cultural values and norms. These patterns are formed by the cultural norms and provide a bigger picture of the culture. In order to make conclusions about a culture one must look at the patterns rather than the isolates or sets. For example, a greeting could be a set or a pattern, but in order to understand the entire meaning and symbolism behind the greeting, on must look at cultural patterns. In the case of a greeting the pattern could be based on superiority and respect. I hope all of that makes sense. Have you experienced any times where you saw someone do something that was strange and that you did not understand, but when looking at the culture as a whole it makes sense? Is any of your frustration stemming from individual actions that you do not understand rather than stepping back and looking at the patterns of the culture as a whole? I am curious because we did a simulation in class in which many people interpreted it as a sexist scenario against women, but the culture actually highly valued women. Instead of looking through their cultural lens our American cultural lens got in the way. Have you experienced anything like this?
I have loved reading your blog posts! Enjoy your time!
Emily Toppin
Kayleigh,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for keeping us up to date on your study abroad trip. I enjoy reading about your adventures and found it extremely interesting that you chose to focus on the frustrations of studying abroad.As you know, this is a big focus for global leadership as we strive to learn the ins and outs of communicating with people from different cultures. There is no structured way to learn this and Hall states that culture is different to everyone because it is being experienced through the bias perspective of another culture that is already influenced by values and norms. In the beginning Hall outlines ten Primary Message Systems that can be used to learn a culture. From the way in which it sounds, you are still in the seventh phase, known as learning. In this sense, learning does not mean a lack of competence, yet there are still cultural norms to learn that serve as adaptive mechanisms that extend into time. The next step is play, which is described as being able to use humor and communicate more in an informal language as a defense approach. I would say you are not quite at this stage yet because you mention not being able to chat in the salon like you do here in the United States.
Surprisingly enough there is a great example of globalization 3.0 in your story. The fact that people were more patient with you is understandable. However, having people be shocked when you were the first to speak fluent chinese versus your friend, a native to the chinese culture. Your experience goes to show that knowing the culture or having connections does not serve as justice for being able to communicate accurately in that culture. Here we see the individual acting on an international level and serving the purpose we learn about global leadership in the long run.
Your article was great drawing connections to and I look forward to hearing back from you and your insights!
Thanks,
Sarah Little
Hey Kayleigh,
ReplyDeleteI have really enjoyed reading your blog posts this semester. It was interesting to hear about your frustrations from your experience this far because students usually only highlight the positive experiences that they have abroad. I am glad to hear that the people that you have met have been welcoming and helpful to you this semester! We have been studying different cultures and have used Geert Hofstede's model to compare the cultures of different countries around the world. When we discussed Chinese culture in class and compared the United States to China on Hofstede's comparisons, we found that China was a very collectivist culture while the United States is equally individualistic. The United States often has a bad image for not being the most welcoming to visitors but it sounds like your experience in China has been much different. Do you believe that the collectivist culture of China has made them more willing to help you as a visitor? Enjoy the rest of your time studying abroad!
Sincerely,
Kate Ensinger
Kayleigh,
ReplyDeleteIt is great to see you push through the frustrations of living abroad. Of all the places I could think of to study abroad China seems as it would be the most difficult for me personally. In class we discussed the affects of globalization with Dr.McManus. Dr.McManus mentioned that one of the major side affects he has seen is the added grace people seem to have around the world for foreigners. You seem to have experienced it in many way, as people tend to be more helpful and forgiving than we might initially anticipate. As your semester is winding to a close do can you identify any more ways that globalism has affected your trip? Whether it is on a cultural level from the way people treat you to a social level where you see more foreigners while studying abroad.
I hope to hear back soon,
Tom Kimmins
Kayleigh,
ReplyDeleteI think it is very nice to hear about how much you have learned from living in a culture that by many standards is very different from ours. I am fascinated by how it seems that you have learned from both positive and negative parts about your study abroad experience. Throughout our studies of different cultures, Dr. McManus continually reminds us that we are unaware of our own culture until we are exposed to a culture that is different than ours, much like how a fish does not realize that it is in water until it is taken out of it. I would like your opinion as to how much this describes your study abroad experience. Would you describe your immersion in Chinese culture to be one that was significantly different from American culture? With this being said, I am also curious as to whether you would take part in another experience like this again, given how your study abroad experience was?
Thank You Very Much,
Ryan Greenwood