When people talk about "Asians" in America, people almost always immediately think of Chinese. "Asian food" and "Chinese food" are interchangeable terms. Americans have also always been taught to distrust the Chinese. It's been ingrained into our minds that Chinese are Communists (and the term communist in America makes everyone freak out). The typical stereotype is that the Chinese are always spying on and torturing and killing their people. Another stereotype is that the Chinese are trying to take over the world and that their government is similar to that of a dictatorship. Americans often think that the Chinese government suppresses their people. Obviously, I have no idea how much truth there is to any of these stereotypes (I highly doubt the Chinese are trying to take over the world.)
I think that most other countries (not just Asian countries) have the same stereotypes of Americans; loud, fist pumping, lazy, partying, obnoxious, fat, McDonald's-loving, stupid, ignorant, and overly-patriotic hillbillies.
One pro of Asian engineering is a strong emphasis on teamwork. However, one con would be the emphasis upon seniority (rather than skill). One pro of American engineering is the strong sense of individualism (therefore more ideas are brought to the table and compromising will truly take the best from each idea). One con, however, would be the fact that Americans are more focused with cutting costs and increasing profits (thence making a cheap product).
If I were to prepare to work in Asia, I would want to learn how their teams work. I normally don't show excessive respect to those older than me, so if that's part of their tradition, I would want to know how that works. In this situation, I'd be most afraid of not being able to express my ideas and opinions in a group because I wouldn't want to accidentally offend someone. I would also be very careful of how I acted in order to portray Americans in a good light.
The title seems to be very fitting for this situation. It is hard to comment on stereotypes, because for years people are told not to say anything. I went to the OEPP round tables. Though we did not directly talk about the issue of stereotypes, we were still able to address them without having the situation be so uncomfortable. It still allowed the students graduate and undergraduate to learn about other cultures and ask questions they wonder about, while at the same time we could learn about them. It was interesting to hear what they thought was interesting about us. They has many questions about clubs and Greek life. The important thing is that no matter what we can all learn from each other and grow in our knowledge.
ReplyDeleteIt’s interesting how cultures in the world don’t really know each other thoroughly. Each culture has some kind of negative (maybe sometimes positive) stereotypical view of another culture.
ReplyDeleteIn any international engineering teams these issues will definitely need to be addressed, no matter what. It is an essential step in making teams work, and perform to their full potential. This is where human resources steps up to make this step possible. I always thought what they did wasn’t essential to a company. However, now their job is one of the most important.
One of the measures they could take is encouraging team members to learn more about the cultures of their colleagues. One way of doing this might involve after work socialization (just like the German do).
As for you if you happen to go to Asia, you will definitely need to know that respecting elders is a big deal. They are (were) the breadwinners of their families, they possess a great deal of experience, etc. That’s why I think Asians typically respect their elders.
(engr 103)