ISTM in Hong Kong

*You did a good job. I am proud of you (?)

Thank you Aline.

Your presentation is very good. I'm proud of you. I will keep this power point to the resource file in JCAC Hall.

From,

PW

I received this e-mail after the presentation about Cambodia I did for my group-mates. Actually, I am going to Cambodia with CityU. The project is called “Uncover the truth of poverty. Cross-cultural study-adventure”. This project has several purposes :

1) To make us realize that even if Hong Kong is a modern, rich and beautiful city, many citizens here cannot share the Hong Kong prosperity. Hence we will do a local service with Hong Kong families in need.

2) Poverty is an international problem. So in January, we will go in Siem Reap, Cambodia for one week. First to understand the social development of the third world, and then to contribute to and to help the Cambodian children.

This study was open to everyone. Our group is multicultural : it is composed by students from Hong Kong, Mainland China and exchange students. In fact I am the only exchange student, because in January, most of the other exchange students will be on their home-countries…the other international student is a Chinese girl born in the United-States. She is doing her master’s degree in CityU.

In our 16 people-group, I am the only one who knows a little about Cambodian culture, and who can speak Cambodian. So I did a presentation about Cambodia, its history, culture…and how to behave with Cambodian people. When I received this e-mail, I was quite surprised : why is the tutor so proud of me ? It is just a presentation ! He can be thankful because he has learnt a lot thanks to my presentation, but he cannot be proud of me ! We do not know each other ! We are just group-mates and do not have any close relationship !

But I realized that according to Hofstede’s study [1], China is a collectivist country. That means that Chinese people think collectivism. If someone in your group has done something wrong, you feel ashamed as if you did something wrong. In the same way, if somebody in your group has done something good, you feel very proud ! So when you do workgroup, think of that : in France and in other individualistic countries such as the United States, it is only your own problem if you do a bad work. But in a Chinese workgroup, the identity unit is not the person but the whole group. So in this case, do a good work, otherwise the entire group could be ashamed because of your personal bad-work…

[1] Hofstede, G. (2001). Culture’s consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions, and Organizations across Nations. 2^nd Edition Thousand Oaks. CA: Sage.

posted by yonali @ 2:25 PM