105 Learning Journal #4

[Melody (Mengdong) Zhuang]

I appreciate cultural presentations given by each classmate in whom I learned a lot about what people wear and do differently in different cultures. One of the presentation intrigued me was about the different spending habits between Pakistanis and Americans. Pravass pointed out that most Pakistanis are willing to spend more of their monthly salary on cellphone service, which suggests that Pakistan is a collectivist country where Pakistanis like to be connected with everyone. I think another aspect might also contribute to the differences between a two-year contract cellular plan in the US and a pre-paid based cell phone service in Pakistan is how business environments differ in two countries. The American companies, or companies in the west, tend to think long-term and secure businesses ahead of time for a longer period, whereas the Pakistan companies, or companies in many Asian countries, tend to make short-term business plan and in result business demand could be unstable.