Discussion Post #2

[Tianhui Qiu]

It was very interesting to read Figuring Foreigners Out, because I was thinking about how people act differently in different cultures while reading this. Firstly, the nonverbal gestures can be varied greatly. For example, the "Peace" hand gesture in America does not mean anything in Asian countries. But the most interesting thing is girls in Asia used this gesture A LOT -- because it is the most often used gesture when taken a photo, it makes you look cute (but still, the gesture itself has no meaning at all)! Secondly, the author also talked about the definitions of individualist-collectivist, monochronic-polychronic, direct-indirect and internal-external types. Generally speaking, Chinese are more like collectivists, monochronic, indirect and internal types while American is probably on the contrary. But I think with the development of globalization, the cultural difference today becomes less obvious than it used to be. Also, in China, I believe the individual differences become greater and people became not that collectivistic anymore because of the social changes. We can clearly tell this change by comparing the difference between our parents’ values and ours. However, in terms of other aspects, I can’t exactly tell how American culture can be defined, because I worked with so many group members and professors after I came to the States and they were all totally different. One can be very monochronic and external while another one can be extremely polychronic and internal.