It has been 2 weeks since school has started, and I have been through 3 lessons of CDE. At the start for the first lesson of CDE, I totally had no idea of what CDE was and did not know what to expect. Well, after some explanation from Mr Karplus, my impression of CDE was to help us understand the cultures of the east and west, while also giving us an insight of their differences. I personally believe that understanding these will allow us to better view this world and understand people from other societies. This knowledge will also allow us to have a edge next time when we enter the workforce as when we interact with people from USA or China, we will be able to know what to take note of during the interaction.
For the first lesson of CDE, other than telling us about the curriculum, Mr Karplus also showed a few HSBC advertisements that displayed the importance of understanding the culture of people from other countries. For example in one of the advertisements, a foreigner went to China and had a business dinner with his Chinese counterparts. The main course of the dinner was a bowl of eel soup. He felt that it was rude to reject and decided to finish the whole bowl. However, he did not know that in Chinese culture, finishing your food shows the lack of generosity of the host. Thus, he was offered 2 more bowls of eel soup. This hilarious episode showcased the importance of understanding the culture of others.
After that, Mr Karplus also told us that a lot of the things we think we know about another culture often are only the tip of the iceberg, and there is a whole lot more about a culture than what we perceive. We definitely have to dig deeper to have a more all rounded view of the culture of others. We also have to try to minimise the amount of stereotypes that we chose to believe in about the other culture so as to better understand it.
For the second and third lesson, we looked into the 15 different values in the American culture. After analysing them, we also looked at the differences between these values and our traditional Chinese values. After that, we also looked at Google as a case study and try to understand their work cultures. The Google work culture is very different from many companies around the world in the fact that theirs is more relaxed and allowed their employees to enjoy their time at work. They had many facilities that provided material comfort for their employees and also canteen that serve up top quality food for free. They also have the rule of "20% time". All these show that Google looks at improving the welfare of their employees in order to get the most out of them.
Overall, I am looking forward for the CDE lessons this year and I truly hope that I can learn and understand more about the cultures of others. Other than that, I recognise the importance of CDE for BSP. As students learning to be bilingual and bi-cultural, CDE is crucial for us to accomplish that.
Hi Yun Zheng,
ReplyDeleteI feel that you have indeed learnt a lot from the first few CDE lessons. I agree with you that CDE has been an interesting subject to me as well. I also did not really understand what CDE was about or what we were going to learn. However, I soon found out that the case studies we were going to learn are actually quite interesting and in depth. They have aroused my interest in CDE as some of the topics are quite unexpectable such as the Google Way. I feel that Cultural Differentiation is rather important in today's society as we may in future need to interact with people from both the East and the West, therefore we need to understand their cultures and respect them. I also agree with you when you mentioned about the iceberg model. I myself was also looking at the surface of the iceberg before the first lesson but soon after a few lessons, start to look deeper and realise many other lessons we were going to learn. For the Google Way, I was also quite shocked as I had expected the workers to be very stressed up and have an enormous workload. However, I realised that it was actually the opposite. The workers get to enjoy many relaxation facilities. Whatever you name, they have it. They get free massages, free delicious food, free swimming etc. Overall, I think that you have benefited from the first few lessons of CDE and I certainly hope that you will learn more about the East and the West, to be bilingual.
Hi Yun Zheng
ReplyDeleteIt is a good and detailed reflection that you wrote. Learning CDE is really very helpful when we join the workforce next time. It not only helps us interact with them, but also helps us understands their cultures and habits more.
In the first lesson, I agree with you that after watching the HSBC advertisements, we feel that understanding the cultures of the people around the world is important as we will misunderstand them just like what happened in the advertisements. Also, I agree with you that our current knowledge is not even the tip of the iceberg yet, we have way more to learn. The second lesson taught us America values and I feel that the Americans are really different from the Asians, like what you said about Google.
Overall, it’s a nice reflection you wrote. Hope you enjoy CDE lessons as much as I do.
-Wang Ming Chuan
Dear Yun Zheng,
ReplyDeleteI think you have done well for this reflection. You have provided lots of details on the 3 lessons that Mr Karplus has gone through with us. You have also provided with examples of cultural differentiation like "a foreigner went to China and had a business dinner with his Chinese counterparts. The main course of the dinner was a bowl of eel soup. He felt that it was rude to reject and decided to finish the whole bowl. However, he did not know that in Chinese culture, finishing your food shows the lack of generosity of the host. Thus, he was offered 2 more bowls of eel soup. This hilarious episode showcased the importance of understanding the culture of others. "
I think that you have put in alot of detail and attention into this subject. I think you have done a good job. You surely benefited from the first two lessons. I hope you enjoyed learning CDE.
Also, I think that through the HSBC advertisements, we can see that if we don't learn about the cultural differences, we will be like them, making hilarious mistakes. Therefore we should put in effort into this subject so that we can communicate with foreigners of different culture and lifestyle.
ReplyDeleteYo!
ReplyDeleteI think that you had put in a lot of effort in your reflection, good work Yun Zhen! I also think that understanding both the Eastern and Western Values are very important especially when we are in the society or workforce. We can communicate with them well and know both their cultures and habits, which is definitely good for us. I also think that the HSBC advertisements are very creative and interesting as they show us that we still have a lot to learn about each other's culture and habits. We have to dig deep to really understand a country's values and cultures and i also think that we still have a lot to learn. Furthermore, I am also impressed by the facilities that Google provide and I am really jealous of the workers there. Things like free buffet and free gym and massage really make Google an outstanding working place. Overall i think your reflection is great and I hope you would enjoy your future CDE lessons!
-yikun
You spelled my name wrongly bro!! XD
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