4 ms·

What cultural differences are these? We're talking about Americans not foreigners. All my Asian American friends are just Americans. If you talked talked to th

What cultural differences are these? We're talking about Americans not foreigners. All my Asian American friends are just Americans. If you talked talked to them on the phone you wouldn't be able to tell them apart from any other American.

woofie11 7y ago
Cultural traits persist longer than accents. Not forever (if you wait many generation), but longer (often a few generations). If you talked to me or my sibling on the phone, you wouldn't be able to tell I wasn't any other American. On the other hand, many of our personality traits are reflective of the culture our parents were born in. Growing up, I always thought those were places where I was socially awkward and didn't fit in. It wasn't until I did a deep dive into cultures and started managing international teams that I saw that these lined up completely with the culture my roots come from. I can't talk about specific differences since how people from India differ is not the same as how people from Tanzania differ. A good survey for general differences is Hofstede's writing. In addition, there are major differences in communication styles. I will mention a few major ones: 1) How positive one is. Americans always smile. They're always doing "well," "fantastic," or similar. Eggs start at medium, and go up from there. That's not true of most of the world. 2) When and how much one shows emotions or talks about personal details in professional settings. Immigrants from cultures who show them less (e.g. Japan) seem emotionally stilted. People from ones who do this more (including many African American communities -- you can't get more American than that) seem unprofessional. 3) China: Emojis / "cute pictures / etc. in professional communication. 4) When one disagrees (and especially across hierarchies), how, and especially how much confidence one shows. This is a gender difference too. 5) Sense of humor (what's funny -- watch foreign films and see where people laugh) Most people have no problem getting over the big stuff (e.g. Middle Eastern gender relationships), but it's the subtle stuff that puts one in an uncanny valley. There's an almost fractal expansion of nuance in subtle ways language differs, what's appropriate, etc. That's really tough to manage unless both sides are expert in it.
- coffeeling 7y ago
  > 1) How positive one is. Americans always smile. They're always doing "well," "fantastic," or similar. Eggs start at medium, and go up from there. That's not true of most of the world. Whenever our American boss comes to visit this side of the pond, this drives me so nuts. Like, if things suck, just say so ffs. We royally fucked something up? We've had challenges. Some new thing is good but not mindblowingly amazing? Excellent. Your language has a range of expression, please use it :'D
  - woofie11 7y ago
    Americans do use a range of language too: [okay, not bad, decent, awesome, fantabulous] Depending on where you are, that might maps onto: [horrible, passable, average, good, excellent] In a management setting, those communications are sometimes obvious, but just as often you get into dynamics like: * American managed by non-American: Constantly feeling criticized, like they're failing. * Non-American managed by American: Often, not realizing when something went wrong. Both sides need to be aware of the difference for this to work. It's a fair learning curve, but well worth it.
  - dnautics 7y ago
    >Whenever our American boss comes to visit this side of the pond, this drives me so nuts. Like, if things suck, just say so ffs. We royally fucked something up? We've had challenges. Some new thing is good but not mindblowingly amazing? Excellent. > Your language has a range of expression, please use it :'D It's a bit of a stereotype, but be glad you don't have an anglophone boss from your side of the pond.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
billfruit 7y ago
For example I am thinking that Chinese American's may be exposed to the Confucian thought and way of living, which is kind of different world view from the American one. There are cultural differences between people.
achenatx 7y ago
Im asian-american and there are substantial differences between asian culture (especially if your parents are immigrants) from a typical white person greek system culture (even ivy league greek culture). Keep your head down, dont make waves, dont ask for raises, dont cause trouble, follow the rules, be humble, are all great for fitting in to the machine, but not necessarily for becoming a leader. In my neighborhood (mostly wealthy white) the people are so pushy, I can't believe the expectations they have for how the world should cater to them for every little thing.
- ip26 7y ago
  I would guess the wealth more than anything is what makes people pushy like that. Commuting through residential areas by bike, all the most entitled car drivers are found in the wealthy neighborhoods. (For example cutting me off or turning in front of me when I have right of way)
asiachick 6y ago
I find the replies super racist. Maybe I'm missing something wooflie says "Americans always smile.". Americans is a super set of "Asian Americans". If you're comparing to Asians from Asia then your reply is irrelevant, the topic is not about foreign Asians. If you're not then your statement " Americans always smile." is basically implying that "Asian Americans" are not actually "Americans" "Coffeeling" says "Whenever our American boss comes to visit this side of the pond". What does "this side of the pond" have to do with anything? The topic is about "Asian Americans" so same side of the pond. "billfruit" says "Chinese American's may be exposed to the Confucian thought". So what? So might a white American or a Black American. There's more cultural difference between a white person from New Orleans vs Santa Monica than there is between an Asian American growing up in Cleveland and a European American growing up in Cleveland.

woofie11 7y ago

Cultural traits persist longer than accents. Not forever (if you wait many generation), but longer (often a few generations). If you talked to me or my sibling on the phone, you wouldn't be able to tell I wasn't any other American. On the other hand, many of our personality traits are reflective of the culture our parents were born in. Growing up, I always thought those were places where I was socially awkward and didn't fit in. It wasn't until I did a deep dive into cultures and started managing international teams that I saw that these lined up completely with the culture my roots come from. I can't talk about specific differences since how people from India differ is not the same as how people from Tanzania differ. A good survey for general differences is Hofstede's writing. In addition, there are major differences in communication styles. I will mention a few major ones: 1) How positive one is. Americans always smile. They're always doing "well," "fantastic," or similar. Eggs start at medium, and go up from there. That's not true of most of the world. 2) When and how much one shows emotions or talks about personal details in professional settings. Immigrants from cultures who show them less (e.g. Japan) seem emotionally stilted. People from ones who do this more (including many African American communities -- you can't get more American than that) seem unprofessional. 3) China: Emojis / "cute pictures / etc. in professional communication. 4) When one disagrees (and especially across hierarchies), how, and especially how much confidence one shows. This is a gender difference too. 5) Sense of humor (what's funny -- watch foreign films and see where people laugh) Most people have no problem getting over the big stuff (e.g. Middle Eastern gender relationships), but it's the subtle stuff that puts one in an uncanny valley. There's an almost fractal expansion of nuance in subtle ways language differs, what's appropriate, etc. That's really tough to manage unless both sides are expert in it.

coffeeling 7y ago
> 1) How positive one is. Americans always smile. They're always doing "well," "fantastic," or similar. Eggs start at medium, and go up from there. That's not true of most of the world. Whenever our American boss comes to visit this side of the pond, this drives me so nuts. Like, if things suck, just say so ffs. We royally fucked something up? We've had challenges. Some new thing is good but not mindblowingly amazing? Excellent. Your language has a range of expression, please use it :'D
- woofie11 7y ago
  Americans do use a range of language too: [okay, not bad, decent, awesome, fantabulous] Depending on where you are, that might maps onto: [horrible, passable, average, good, excellent] In a management setting, those communications are sometimes obvious, but just as often you get into dynamics like: * American managed by non-American: Constantly feeling criticized, like they're failing. * Non-American managed by American: Often, not realizing when something went wrong. Both sides need to be aware of the difference for this to work. It's a fair learning curve, but well worth it.
- dnautics 7y ago
  >Whenever our American boss comes to visit this side of the pond, this drives me so nuts. Like, if things suck, just say so ffs. We royally fucked something up? We've had challenges. Some new thing is good but not mindblowingly amazing? Excellent. > Your language has a range of expression, please use it :'D It's a bit of a stereotype, but be glad you don't have an anglophone boss from your side of the pond.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

billfruit 7y ago

For example I am thinking that Chinese American's may be exposed to the Confucian thought and way of living, which is kind of different world view from the American one. There are cultural differences between people.

achenatx 7y ago

Im asian-american and there are substantial differences between asian culture (especially if your parents are immigrants) from a typical white person greek system culture (even ivy league greek culture). Keep your head down, dont make waves, dont ask for raises, dont cause trouble, follow the rules, be humble, are all great for fitting in to the machine, but not necessarily for becoming a leader. In my neighborhood (mostly wealthy white) the people are so pushy, I can't believe the expectations they have for how the world should cater to them for every little thing.

ip26 7y ago
I would guess the wealth more than anything is what makes people pushy like that. Commuting through residential areas by bike, all the most entitled car drivers are found in the wealthy neighborhoods. (For example cutting me off or turning in front of me when I have right of way)

asiachick 6y ago

I find the replies super racist. Maybe I'm missing something wooflie says "Americans always smile.". Americans is a super set of "Asian Americans". If you're comparing to Asians from Asia then your reply is irrelevant, the topic is not about foreign Asians. If you're not then your statement " Americans always smile." is basically implying that "Asian Americans" are not actually "Americans" "Coffeeling" says "Whenever our American boss comes to visit this side of the pond". What does "this side of the pond" have to do with anything? The topic is about "Asian Americans" so same side of the pond. "billfruit" says "Chinese American's may be exposed to the Confucian thought". So what? So might a white American or a Black American. There's more cultural difference between a white person from New Orleans vs Santa Monica than there is between an Asian American growing up in Cleveland and a European American growing up in Cleveland.