Hunan Cross Cultural Education

This week in my class, “The Society and Culture of Major English-Speaking Countries ( 英语国家社会与文化入门 ), we had our mid-term group project reports.  Each group came up with a list of stereotypes that Chinese often have about Americans or America in general.  From that list of stereotypes, I chose one and the group chose one and those two stereotypes became the basis for a research project.

The results of the research were put into a written report (500 words) and a 5 minute oral report to the class.

Everyone did a great job.  If you’d like to see the reports, I’m slowly getting them online here.  (They should all be up by next Thursday – that’s my goal anyway!)

I’ve got some important meetings tomorrow in Changsha that could change things, for the good, in a big way.  I’ll update the blog if there is any news.

Basically, my goal of establishing a company in China may be closer to being realized.    Wow, this has already been such a long road!

Stephen

If you are “one in a million” in China…  there are 1,300 other people just like you!

So, what does it all mean?  For education?  For cross-cultural communication?

I’m not sure, but to me, it’s exciting!

Chinese and Americans literally view the world differently, according to a new study, which found that the two groups tend to move their eyes in distinctly different patterns when looking at pictures.

“If people are literally looking at the world differently, we think it would be natural for them to explain the world in different ways,” said Richard Nisbett, a psychologist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Over the past decade reasearch by Nisbett and his colleagues has surprised the social sciences with numerous studies showing that Westerners and East Asians think differently. 

Westerners tend to be analytical and pay more attention to the key, or focal, objects in a scene—for example, concentrating on the woman in the “Mona Lisa,” as opposed to the rocks and sky behind her.

East Asians, by contrast, tend to look at the whole picture and rely on contextual information when making decisions and judgments about what they see, Nisbett said.

The new study was designed to determine if the difference in the thought processes of East Asians and Westerners affects how Westerners and East Asians physically look at the world.

To find out, the researchers measured eye movements of 45 U.S. and Chinese students as they looked at photographs that featured single focal objects against complex backgrounds.
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This may be of interest to the readers of the HunanCCE blog;

Global Attitudes Survey in China- July 22, 2008

As they eagerly await the Beijing Olympics, the Chinese people express extraordinary levels of satisfaction with the way things are going in their country and with their nation’s economy. With more than eight-in-ten having a positive view of both, China ranks number one among 24 countries on both measures in the 2008 survey by the Pew Research

Center’s Pew Global Attitudes Project. These findings represent a dramatic improvement in national contentment from earlier in the decade when the Chinese people were not nearly as positive about the course of their nation and its economy.

The report has six chapters;

Chapter 1: Chinese Views of Their Lives

Chapter 2: National Issues

Chapter 3: China and the World

Chapter 4: The Olympics

Chapter 5: Modern Life and Values

Chapter 6: Technology Use

If all goes as planned, I should be on my way to Hong Kong today for a ‘forced’ vacation. What I mean by that is, in order to apply for a China work visa, I must be outside of China when applying. So, my family and I will be spending about a week and a half in Hong Kong waiting on our work visas to be processed.

It’s a rough task, I know. Maybe I’ll need to research a few Starbucks, an Outback Steakhouse, or a TGI Fridays. Hmmm, I think I’m going to be busy!

Coming to China any time soon? If so, make sure you know the rules and the laws.

China-Entry-Exit-Laws.pdf

China recently released this list of laws pertaining to foreigners coming to China, certainly due to the upcoming Olympic Games in Beijing and the half million, or so, tourists who are expected!

I’ll be traveling to Hong Kong for a few days.  I always appreciate any trip I make to Hong Kong because it is such a ripe location to observe cross-cultural interactions.   On top of that, Hong Kong is a city that never sleeps – there is always something going on there.  That is great for night owls like me!

Not much traffic here at this blog – maybe that will change one day?!Now in Changsha, they know traffic!