Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Different Culture Between Chinese And Saudi Arabia

  I have studied in EAP 1 for 1 mouth. I have seen lots of situations. These situations show the different culture between Chinese and other countries.
  First, I want to say, in my culture, it's impolite and maybe immoral to use people's name in public poster unless you are very close. So today I don't use any real name instead of Mr.A or some like that.
  The first difference is the way we talk to others about our score. Yesterday and today, Scott give us our mid-term score. Everyone has different reactions about the score. That's because some people get good score some did do well at this exam. But I just focus on these guys who get high score. They still have different reactions. Mr.A comes from Saudi Arabia. He got a good mark, I don't know the detail about the exactly score about his exam. But he said very good when I asked him. And he ask me how about my exam. I told him it's ok. I think I can use very good or something like that. Because I get 2 100% and the worst one is 89%. But I just say that's ok. I just want to point out i didn't mess up rather than show him how good score I have got. This is a very big culture difference. Chinese people always don't want to people know how good they are for the following reasons. First, We always think humility is very important. If you always say I'm good, in our opinion thats means you are not humility. Second, Chinese people like middle. Chinese all know some sentences. "The big tree always need to fight against with the heaviest wind." or" the bird will be killed unless the bird hides good." These sentences last for thousands years. A lot of awesome people who showed how good they are always end up with failed. Because if you show you are good, all the people will be your enmeys in your area. Because Chinese people don't like someone success. We can be all failed. But if you success and I failed that's not good things. So some of them will do something immoral. It happens all the time in Chinese. The reason is easy. We have a lot of people that means you have a bigger chance to get trouble than western. And that also means it's harder to find out who did it. besides, If you find out, lots of people did that, you can't punish all the people. So these three reason make do some bad things behind people  become a  normal thing. that's why I just say I'm ok.
  Another big different is Chinese people often silence at class if teacher ask them to answer or they are very familiar with that teacher. The familiar I just mentioned is like that you can just walk in the office and do some chat without appointments. But people from Saudi Arabia always very activity in the class. Maybe some time their answers are not right. By the way, you may think I'm activity at class. Because I have thought these difference and find a good way to deal with it. Why Chinese people always silence at class, I think there are reasons. Firstly, we are afraid to say something wrong. This is also because of our ancient. In the past, if students say something wrong at class they are  laugh at by classmates. Because they think you want to show you good than us by answer one question that we don't know. And lucky for them that you failed to answer that question. So they will laugh at you to embarrass. Second,the teacher will hit your hand to punish you because you answer is wrong. So Chinese people are afraid to speak their opinion in public.
  And there are a lot of difference I have experienced. But I don't want to write too long to make you fell tired. So thats all. No concluding sentences. Chinese people always like to end up with no concluding sentences thats make you have some space to think. :)

2 comments:

  1. I really enjoyed your analysis of some of the cultural differences in our class. I've noticed too, that if I didn't pick the Chinese students to say something in class, sometimes they might never say anything in class. On the other hand, if never picked anyone, the same people would be trying to answer all the time. It's really interesting - don't you think?

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  2. every country have every culture~~~

    it was so different~~~

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