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Adapting to American culture as a Chinese student

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Re: Adapting to American culture as a Chinese student

#61

Post by emddudley »

VLM wrote: post #53
rayiner wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is nothing odd or hard to understand about it. The rule for mockery or jokes in the US is generally "you don't punch down." No cop has ever flipped out and shot an unarmed Asian kid based on stereotypes about how hard asians study. There is no such thing as "driving while Asian." Asians make more money on average than even white people, they live longer, etc. They are well represented in higher academia and hig…

"unintegrated" is the key word. If a Chinese guy comes to America and walks the integration path, from just visiting, to being hyphenated, to eventually becoming mainstream American, there is no cultural stress or taboo against that from his own people because the Chinese culture is not going to run out of participants anytime soon. However black Americans have had the weird status of being majority in some states wi…

> black Americans have had the weird status of being majority in some states with a unique subculture and history while also being a tiny minority across the entire country.

One small correction: Blacks are not the majority in any state. Mississippi has the highest percentage, at 37%, but it is still 59% white.

Re: Adapting to American culture as a Chinese student

#62

Post by VLM »

berneezy3 wrote: post #52
SturgeonsLaw wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> roommates who mocked me Just curious, did you perceive a certain level of malice with their mocking, or was it more lighthearted? I can't speak for Americans, but here in Australia, mocking from your friends is a sign of acceptance and mateship. It's a way of indirectly indicating that you're comfortable enough with someone to knock them around a bit, it's a complimentary way of saying "I know you're strong enough…

Yeah, we also love to give our friends shit here in America :) But to clarify, the group text began before they met me. They only told me about the texts after realizing I was Americanized and deciding I was "one of them". However, I do conclude that there was a degree of malice to their jokes. This is because while they were telling me about the texts, they voiced their legitimate concerns about living with asian pe…

"colleges were accepting way too many Asians"

Some of this is just kids being dumb, but some is Americans have a weird relationship with their Empire.

On one hand their parents and student loans are paying more money to fund the foreign exchange students and every foreign exchange student present is quite literally one local taxpayer who isn't getting an education yet is somehow supposed to pay for the system without an educated-level job. Even if the school accepts everyone, that just means the local taxpayers are on the hook for capex to make huge buildings that wouldn't be necessary without the demands of the Empire.

That sounds like a horrific deal for the local taxpayer, and it is, but Empires always suck at some level or another for pretty much everyone involved. However from a foreign aid and propaganda perspective that money is well spent, who else gets to propagandize the entire world's youth for practically no cost compared to military expenses? Its a lot cheaper to indoctrinate the world's kids at an American school than to wave expensive F-35 fighters at them in a threatening manner a decade later. In typical American corruption we officially spend like 0.1% of our federal budget on foreign aid and then bury things like state Uni budgets in the individual state budgets to pretend our Empire spends roughly nothing on foreign aid, but we really do spend lots of money on the Empire, for which we're theoretically running a profit, or if not "we" at least someone is running a profit.

I'd estimate the total cost to the GDP of empire has got to be something like 5% but its cheaper than the alternative, or so the people getting rich off the empire insist.

At any rate, my point is some of it is just kids being dumb, yet some of it is knowing for federal level foreign policy reasons their old high school buddy named XYZ can't go to college with them, despite his having to pay for it in taxes, because a foreigner is there in his place and supposedly everyone is better off for it, yet fundamentally on a personal level they still miss their old high school buddy XYZ.

Re: Adapting to American culture as a Chinese student

#63

Post by leemailll »

rz2k wrote: post #45
leemailll wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is not a Maoist thing. Why you think the two would have any connection?

Weren't criticism and self-criticism[1] integral to overturning respect for traditional social superiors and making personal dignity more dependent on political compliance?[2] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Struggle_session [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-criticism#Communism

Do you know China is not just the mainland?

Re: Adapting to American culture as a Chinese student

#64

Post by [deleted] »

VLM wrote: post #56
shaobo wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He is asking why are you overthinking this? People in China have put the cultural revolution behind them, it might be helpful for others to do the same when attempting to psychoanalyse present day Chinese behaviours. Your weight, your age and how much you earn are not taboo subjects in China, so people will bring them up in casual conversations.

To localize the argument, aren't you claiming something like "the civil war ended in 1865 therefore historical black and white issues are no longer relevant in modern America"

[deleted]

Re: Adapting to American culture as a Chinese student

#65

Post by witty_username »

VLM wrote: post #56
shaobo wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He is asking why are you overthinking this? People in China have put the cultural revolution behind them, it might be helpful for others to do the same when attempting to psychoanalyse present day Chinese behaviours. Your weight, your age and how much you earn are not taboo subjects in China, so people will bring them up in casual conversations.

To localize the argument, aren't you claiming something like "the civil war ended in 1865 therefore historical black and white issues are no longer relevant in modern America"

Well, slavery is mostly no longer a relevant issue in the U.S.

Re: Adapting to American culture as a Chinese student

#66

Post by Moshe_Silnorin »

walshemj wrote: post #48
codingdave wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your roommates in college mock you for studying all day,they may be missing the point of college, and you may want different roommates anyway.

But college (university) is more than rote learning and getting a 4.0 or a first.

Yes, it's also an overpriced IQ test, binge drinking retreat, and dating service.

Re: Adapting to American culture as a Chinese student

#67

Post by VLM »

emddudley wrote: post #61
VLM wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"unintegrated" is the key word. If a Chinese guy comes to America and walks the integration path, from just visiting, to being hyphenated, to eventually becoming mainstream American, there is no cultural stress or taboo against that from his own people because the Chinese culture is not going to run out of participants anytime soon. However black Americans have had the weird status of being majority in some states wi…

> black Americans have had the weird status of being majority in some states with a unique subculture and history while also being a tiny minority across the entire country. One small correction: Blacks are not the majority in any state. Mississippi has the highest percentage, at 37%, but it is still 59% white.

Yeah that was poorly phrased on my part. The main point being there exist cultural and governmental areas that are definitely Black like Jackson MI at 80% or whatever other "homeland" type definition you'd like (perhaps based on some counties, etc) yet on a very large federal scale in a country with extremely strong dominant federal government they are a powerless minority.

The Blacks political problem doesn't help the situation. They're extremely politically polarized. If 95%+ vote democrat that means there will never be any internal competition in running their homelands which results pragmatically and historically in ridiculously incompetent small governmental bodies which results in failure. Meanwhile on the larger stage minorities can be kingmakers if and only if they are not polarized, polarized equals marginalized. The D party knows they'll get 95%+ of the vote regardless what they do or promise so they have no motivation to do or promise anything for Blacks. Meanwhile the R party knows they'll get rounding down to 0% of the votes no matter what they do or promise so they also do nothing for Blacks. Net result is Blacks will never have any political influence on national politics until their voting records are closer to 50:50, or at least further from 100:0, until that happens they are disenfranchised above the local level.

That is a side cultural issue in that no one wants to live in a dysfunctional local government if they can avoid it, and disenfranchisement at a higher government level means their unique concerns are going to be eternally ignored if not actively worked against, and neither trend helps integration overall.

The situation in the USA is somewhat similar to the townships system in the bad old days of South Africa, just unofficially. That system wasn't really conducive to integration or positive race relations in general.

Re: Adapting to American culture as a Chinese student

#68

Post by ht_th »

berneezy3 wrote: post #54
wcummings wrote: post #50

A lot of the stuff in the first response feels like it could be easily taught (eye contact, deodorant, basic smalltalk), do universities offer some kind of class or workshop to help acclimate people?

OP here. That is a business opportunity I have pondered a lot about... Do you think its a viable idea?

No (and yes). I think that if foreigners are motivated to integrate in the local society and culture, they will find a way to do fine. If that motivation isn't there, I doubt any of these cultural courses and workshops will help much. On the other hand, I do think many if not all people do know that integrating is hard, so a course/workshop/self-help book/whatever will be attractive. Therefore, yes, here lies a business opportunity.

Re: Adapting to American culture as a Chinese student

#69

Post by walshemj »

VLM wrote: post #59
walshemj wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But college (university) is more than rote learning and getting a 4.0 or a first.

However, look at it from their point of view. If they're from a foreign culture or country then they've already given up on socializing with their own people by becoming exchange students. Theoretically they could learn or gain something from local kids, if kids had anything useful to teach them, and if they planned on staying after graduation. But if they don't plan on staying, then no matter how much or how little…

If you think leaning in the widest sense is only to do with memorising what a lecturer says in class then you have missed the point.

Re: Adapting to American culture as a Chinese student

#70

Post by neolefty »

gaius wrote: post #13
KennyCason wrote: post #2

"Confucian behaviorism is optimized for a Confucian society, and western behaviorism is optimized for western society." This is so true. Speaking Chinese/Japanese on a daily basis and regularly interacting with these two cultures, I would regularly encounter such differences. In Japan, if you speak Japanese well, eventually they stop forgiving you as "oh, he's just a foreigner", and they hold you to similar standards…

Chinese people will call you out very directly, maybe even embarrass you in front of people to the point where you are too shy to speak I wonder if this is an inherent Chinese thing or a Maoist thing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Struggle_session

I think it's the other way around -- existing Chinese culture gave rise to what we call "Maoism". Mao took things to an extreme that were already present: the susceptibility to groupthink, frankness about people's weaknesses and failings (as well as strengths -- for example, everybody knows who the #1 student is).
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