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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

#71

Post by laurieg »

greggman wrote: post #44
ajeet_dhaliwal wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a UK comedy show from a few years ago called Little Britain that has this same thing happening in a recurring skit except with English. There was a British woman who claimed to never understand what an old Indian woman wearing a sari with an Indian accent was saying despite it being quite clear. I wonder whether this is some low level passive aggressive behaviour around the world due annoyance of dealing with…

The difference in Japan is you can have zero accent and speak fluently and just by looks some Japanese will have some kind of mental block understanding and/or acknowledging your Japanese. Examples: I can call some business on the phone and people won't know I'm a foreigner. No accent. I've gotten in a cab late at night, talked to the driver for 10 minutes, and then had him freak out went he turned around to collect…

I share the same experience in Japan. Once a blue moon someone will just not be able to process a white face speaking Japanese.

I think it's because languages are all about expectations. If some piece of information has primed me to hear one version of a homophone the other meanings never even pop into my head.

I've noticed a related effect while watching videos on youtube recently. I'm a native British English speaker. When I click on a random youtube clip I don't know what accent I'm going to get. If it's a strong accent I don't hear often it usually takes 5 seconds or so for my brain to 'work out' the accent. During that time I don't really understand what is being said. As soon as it clicks I can rewind the clip and hear the exact same audio with perfect understanding.

I think when the Japanese people don't understand me a similar thing is happening. They see my white face so are trying very hard to hear English. The sounds come out and are run through the 'process the English' part of their brain. Of course, they can't make heads or tails of it so end up not understanding anything.

I'm not a linguist but I'd love to know if anyone had any references on this effect.

Re: Adapting to American culture as a Chinese student

#72

Post by russdill »

rayiner wrote: post #34
kutkloon7 wrote: post #9

It strikes me as really odd that mocking Asians this way is acceptable, while almost any remark about black people can be interpreted as serious racism. In my opinion, people in the US are, without realizing it, very hypocritical and very stuck-up when it comes to racism. If your roommates joke that you will study all day, they are being really rude, but making fun at a cultural difference which is indeed very notica…

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…

That Asians don't encounter racism in the aspect of salary inequality is false. Yes, on average Asians earn more. However, once you control for education or examine individuals with the same qualifications, Asians actually earn less than whites.

Re: Adapting to American culture as a Chinese student

#73

Post by webmaven »

SturgeonsLaw wrote: post #46
klagermkii wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a lot of it comes from the modern definition of racism involving power + prejudice. As a group Chinese people appear to be relatively successful in society (certainly in tech) and so sit slightly higher up the power scale than black people do. So if a white person makes a negative comment it's going to appear as societally "punching down" much further if it targets a black person vs a Chinese person. Basicall…

That's not the "modern" definition of racism, that's an arbitrary modification that only exists in academia and is used to justify racism against whites and sexism against men. Whether you're punching up or down, racism and sexism are ugly and disgusting, regardless of what Bidel-Pavda[0] and her ilk would claim. [0] http://wetasphalt.com/content/why-racism-prejudice-power-wro...

Look, you're complaining against the fact that 'racism' is more narrowly defined than just gender discrimination and requires privilege to enforce/reinforce the latter for it to be considered the former. How hard is it really to adjust to a more finicky definition?

Or are you denying that when backed up by a prevalent privilege (or an inverse stereotype), all other things being equal, discrimination becomes more damaging (and harder to withstand)?

No one is denying that plain discrimination is still ugly, after all.

Re: Adapting to American culture as a Chinese student

#74

Post by yolesaber »

witty_username wrote: post #65
VLM wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Except it is. The text of the 13th amendment:

>Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

"Except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted..."

Hundreds of thousands of Americans toil away in prisons as free labor due to "tough on crime" policies and the militarization of police forces. McDonald's, Whole Foods, Walmart, they all use prison labor where the prisoners get paid literally cents an hour and sometimes not at all.

There were big prison strikes and protests about it earlier this year - https://theintercept.com/2016/09/16/the-largest-prison-strik...

It's terrifying.

Re: Adapting to American culture as a Chinese student

#75

Post by throwthisawayt »

future1979 wrote: post #29
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…

Interesting comment on being called fat. I'm a bit, shall we say, big boned. And I experienced two odd instances where a Chinese person I barely knew casually remarked how fat I was. It was otherwise a pleasant conversation and had me a bit confused. If a stranger said that to you in America, it would certainly be considered mean.

Not in the rest of America (I.e Latin America) where that would be common and even a term of endearment (gordita). It's common in South Asian cultures as well.

To me Americans are focused on being PC while not dealing with the root cause. In the case of "fat" the root problems is that Americans tend to shame & hate those who are fat. It has become a negative stigma, but instead of attacking the root cause we have removed fat as an adjective and think that by removing the hateful term (hateful by usage not by definition) we have solved the problem.

Re: Adapting to American culture as a Chinese student

#76

Post by throwthisawayt »

future1979 wrote: post #29
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…

Interesting comment on being called fat. I'm a bit, shall we say, big boned. And I experienced two odd instances where a Chinese person I barely knew casually remarked how fat I was. It was otherwise a pleasant conversation and had me a bit confused. If a stranger said that to you in America, it would certainly be considered mean.

Not in the rest of America (I.e Latin America) where that would be common and even a term of endearment (gordita). It's common in South Asian cultures as well.

To me Americans are focused on being PC while not dealing with the root cause. In the case of "fat" the root problems is that Americans tend to shame & hate those who are fat. It has become a negative stigma, but instead of attacking the root cause we have removed fat as an adjective and think that by removing the hateful term (hateful by usage not by definition) we have solved the problem.

Re: Adapting to American culture as a Chinese student

#77

Post by russdill »

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?

Here's the frustrating thing. You could have 9 out of 10 students who fit in and conform to social norms. But that one student who doesn't is the one that will always stick out in people's mind and by which they judge the other 9.

Re: Adapting to American culture as a Chinese student

#78

Post by ido »

Symbiote wrote: post #39
future1979 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting comment on being called fat. I'm a bit, shall we say, big boned. And I experienced two odd instances where a Chinese person I barely knew casually remarked how fat I was. It was otherwise a pleasant conversation and had me a bit confused. If a stranger said that to you in America, it would certainly be considered mean.

Yet Americans would tell a stranger that they're tall, or occasionally short.

You can't change how tall or short you are tho, so that's not in any way commenting on your character.

In "western" (not just American) cultures, calling somewhat fat is basically calling them gluttonous or lazy (both among the 7 deadly sins).

Re: Adapting to American culture as a Chinese student

#79

Post by sandesp »

future1979 wrote: post #29
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…

Interesting comment on being called fat. I'm a bit, shall we say, big boned. And I experienced two odd instances where a Chinese person I barely knew casually remarked how fat I was. It was otherwise a pleasant conversation and had me a bit confused. If a stranger said that to you in America, it would certainly be considered mean.

You would be surprised to learn that in some impoverished countries like Nepal being called fat is a compliment. People use same word to describe someone who is fat or muscular. It is a compliment because being fat means you are rich enough to have more than enough to eat.

Re: Adapting to American culture as a Chinese student

#80

Post by khuey »

leemailll wrote: post #63
rz2k wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

The mainland is at least 95% of "China", depending on which definition you use.
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