Journal Entry 1

My first two lessons on the subject culture differentiation education are very enriching, and now, it is time to reflect on what I have learnt.

Firstly, I found the culture difference studies very interesting and fruitful because I am able to gain a lot of knowledge especially on the western culture. For example, I learnt about the principles or core values of the Americans such as efficiency, science and technology, as well as freedom. Compared to the Chinese side, I think the main difference can be summarised to a single principle: openness and trust. The Western are very open towards everything, for instance if the president is not doing his job well, the populace will reprimand him while at the same period when Mao Zedong is still the chairman of China, it is against the law to say something bad about the chairman. It is evident in the book Mao's Last Dance, when the main character Li Cunxin realised how different the world is outside China. I personally prefer the American's way of thinking  as I personally love their openness to one another as well as the freedom in which they trust  people to do the right things. (well that's a bit imaginative after so many shooting incidents haha ;)

Secondly, I also learnt how a company really works and why America's science and technology is advancing so quickly. The sole but extremely helpful example Mr. Karplus gave till now is Google. Based on the American's core value, Google hired the smartest people they can find and were given the best facilities to eat, exercise and enjoy themselves. Ironically they are not restricted to certain projects but instead were asked to give their initiatives, which in Chinese's perspective, will not work as they feel that these people may take the chance not to work seriously. However, this kind of freedom actually gave these intelligent beings the willingness and desperation to work harder and come out with more interesting things. This actually shows that American's core values are not so unrealistic and instead it can bring success to the organisers. On the other hand, the Chinese's core values which is mainly on obeying and collectivism, seem to be very different from the American's culture yet they can succeed as well. Therefore, what I learnt from these three periods of lesson is that different cultures definitely have a lot of difference but it does not restrict them from succeeding in every area. Instead, if the  cultures I combined and the positivity of the culture is mixed, it will take very long to blend and for sure there will be many setbacks at the start but after all, it will become more powerful; I wonder if it is possible.

I cannot wait for more case studies such as Lenovo and even Xiaomi because it originates from China and can give me a better view of the difference in  how culture influences the way the company is managed.  For example, Xiaomi's employees have poor welfare and had to push their limits due to  the Chinese mindset of work first, play later (先苦后甜). This is a striking contrast with the Google company which gave her employees wonderful welfare as mentioned earlier.  I am also very interested in the discussions that will be taking place soon. The exchange of thoughts between my classmates and I will be able to make me less biased and more capable of viewing from different perspectives. For sure, it can boost my knowledge as well. I hope that I can have a fruitful journey in Mr. Karplus's awesome cultural differentiation education class and gain good grades while gaining great knowledge.