Week 11 Day 2 - Cross Cultural Psychology

East Asian Culture - Part II
Cambodia

Daily Language Blooper

Pepsi's "Come Alive With the Pepsi Generation" translated into "Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors Back From the Grave" in Chinese.  webofculture.com

In a Yugoslavian hotel:
"The flattening of underwear with pleasure is the job of the chambermaid."

In a Japanese hotel:
"You are invited to take advantage of the chambermaid."

In the lobby of a Moscow hotel across from Russian Orthodox monastery:
"You are welcome to visit the cemetery where famous Russian and Soviet composers, artists, and writers are buried daily except Thursday."

crosscultural.com

Spend a Moment

webofculture.com

Review - Group Thoughts

1.  This country's people do not eat sandwiches with their fingers.  What country is it and how are sandwiches eaten?

2.  Explain how to signal the number "2" in Bulgaria.

3.  France does not permit several common behaviors in other lands.  What are some of those behaviors?

Class/Internet Activities

          1.  Students continue their family tree briefings.

          2A.  Observe Asian lifestyles in two very different cultures.  The first is Cambodia, and we experience "Kampucia" through the eyes of a young male whose life was interrupted after the Khmer Rouge seized power in 1974.  While taking cattle to the fields, this youngster lost a leg to a land mine, and his place as the number one male among his siblings.  He appears to have a positive attitude nonetheless, having seen others he describes as far worse off than himself.  Though his family had to sacrifice their oxen in order to secure medical care for him, the lad appears generally optimistic and has acquired much knowledge as the result of spending time in the company of missionary sisters at hospitals in the larger metropolitan areas of Cambodia. This is not a "Killing Fields" video documentary.  Nonetheless you will sense the general poverty and agrarian nature of society as it exists near the jungles and without support of the technology or infrastructure of a large city.

2B.  In the second instance, we observe the life of a thirteen-year-old female who attends an all-girls private school in a large city in Japan. Her dress code adheres to the regimen imposed on private students, while her mother and grandmother seem to adhere to cultural traditions more explicitly imposed on older generations.  She too is optimistic about her future, but her path is likely to take a far more international course than that of the lad from Cambodia.  As she takes the first steps toward that journey, she shares with you some of the behaviors, and elements of her study that may seem more parallel to your own western lives.  Nevertheless, in the conclusion to this video segment, she expresses some values which are characteristically Japanese.

You may be struck by the very different lifestyles between agrarian and urban living in Asia.  Frequently our productivity is a function of the quantity and the quality of the resources in our immediate environment.  Thus had we grown up in the circumstances of either of these young persons, it is likely that we would behave much as they have, and have adopted similar coping skills and survival mechanisms.

          3.  Share the answers you discovered to the homework questions from our last class session with your fellow students.

Summary

          1.  Family tree briefings will inevitable show you the importance of significant other people in your lives who helped you adjust to the changing demands of your society.

          2.  We observed or discussed the adaptations made to life in Cambodia and in Japan by the male and female students respectively.  As the result of your discussions answer the following three questions:

A.   Would you be capable of adjusting as successfully as these students seem to have adjusted?  What support systems are available in America to help you make adjustments to significant occurrences?  

B.  What support systems seem to be in place which reinforce the values and the customs of each society?

C. Which aspects of life in Cambodia and life in Japan strike you as most different from the society in which you currently live?

          3.  Your third notebook should be your best one.  You have had the opportunity to twice improve upon your first and second notebooks.

Homework

1.  Read Chapter Fourteen "Individualism vs. Collectivism:  Differences Between Chinese and American Value Orientations" pages 73-77 in Cross-Cultural Perspectives in America.  Answer the following questions in your notebook:

2.  Read Chapter X "Fighting the War American Style" pages 101-111 in And Keep Your Powder Dry.  Answer the following questions in your notebook:    

Customary Behaviors (Other than my own)

"All people smile in the same language" ---- Unknown

The customary behaviors, you will note, refer to European countries at this stage in the course.  This choice may enable you to enjoy And Keep Your Powder Dry better because the book is about the strengths and weakness of American culture relative to that of those countries with whom we were at war.

Italy was included as a country whose customary behavirors you would enjoy because, like Bangkok in Thailand, Italy has its own boat-people in Venice.

We are thus reading and studying about circumstances which may give Europeans and Asians an element in common.