Subtitles section Play video
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Hmm. Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo.
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Hi. James from engVid.
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I've often said that learning language,
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a foreign language is great. In this case, you're learning English, so congratulations.
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But a lot of students, they learn the language, and they kind of forget about the culture,
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like it doesn't really matter. Being an English speaker, I was born in England, and the culture
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from England is very different from the culture from Canada, even though they are closely
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related. So if you can imagine the cultural difference between someone from, say, China
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and Canada, that would be fantastically different.
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Well, as they say, as much as we're different, we're the same. But in this case, I want to
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do a lesson on eight differences in culture
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that if you're learning the language, which would be important.
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Now, what I've done is shown the difference between the East and the West,
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because frankly, you may be from the Middle East or Asia,
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and you want to do business with Canadians or Americans or British people,
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and you should see what we think are important.
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And as well, this helps out English-speaking people about how we should communicate with
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you when we're trying to teach you English. You like that? Let's go to the board.
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We have Mr. E, here. He wants to eat his... Let's see. What should he eat? I'm going to
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suggest that he has a pizza, because that's easy to draw, and anybody who knows me knows
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I'm a terrible drawer.
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There you go.
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Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo. He's having a piz-... Pepperoni pizza.
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What would you suggest he eat with? A knife or a fork, or chopsticks?
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Well, it seems obvious:
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Use your hands. See, when you understand, you can manipulate or use things to your advantage.
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Let's go to the board.
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We'll start out with the West, which is where we are. All right? In the West, we say
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"respect is earned". That means I cannot give you respect or look up to you until you have done something
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to show me that you deserve my respect or I should give it to you. Just because you
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say: "Hello, my name is" doesn't mean anything. You have to say:
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"Hello, my name is, and I have done these things."
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Because of that and if you do something that helps me, I will give you my respect.
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Okay? In the East, it's a little different. In the East, what we say is:
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"respect is due to hierarchy". Hierarchy? Well, just like the word says, think "high",
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okay? The higher you are-okay?-the higher position you have. So if I come in and say:
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"I am Generalissimo Kareer." You go: "Oh, I must give you great respect", in the East,
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just because I am the General. I don't have to be a good General; I just have to be a
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General. You must give me respect. Well, in the West, you'd have to be a good General
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that's done a lot of good things.
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Okay, number two:
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open debate is encouraged. If you're going: "What is open debate?"
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Open debate is conversation,
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but it's more conversation where two ideas are conflicting or they don't
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go together. You think A, they think B. So you don't both agree necessarily. Maybe you
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think: "I don't agree with this person, or I don't like everything they say",
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so you have a debate, which is a conversation to try and change each other's mind. Okay?
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Open debate in the West is encouraged. If you don't like my idea, I'll say: "Why? What's wrong
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with it? Why don't you come up with something? Tell me what you think, or tell me what's
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wrong with my ideas." The challenge, we think, brings a greater result. In other words, if
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you talk to me and we have a really good open debate, things should be better at the end
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of the debate. Let's look at the East. In the East, open debate and confrontation is
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avoided. Partly, this is because in the East... Remember we talked about hierarchy? There's
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a level or layers? Well, if you question someone and they are on a higher level, you are not
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showing them the respect they deserve, so it is almost better to do your debate... Or,
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not even debate, but questions in a less public area. So it is not open debate; more of a
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private thing with you and that person, and even then, you shouldn't really question them,
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but ask questions of them. Okay? That's number two.
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Number three, let's look at individual success and material success. In the West, they matter,
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it's important. Yes, who I am is important, but it's who I am, just myself.
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Have I done well in school? Have I made a lot of money? Have I bought a lot of things?
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If so, I am good and I'm very successful, and this is great. Okay?
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It sounds normal, until we consider
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in the East, success is group success. That means: Yes, I've done well, but: How is my
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brother? How are my parents? How is my sister? Is my family doing well?
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If your family is not doing well, you cannot claim to be successful in the East. So they look at not even just
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the family, but your society. Is your country doing well? Is your city doing well? If your
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whole country is doing well, you are successful. If they are not, things are not good. While
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in the West, it doesn't matter. Look at Donald Trump. Okay.
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[Laughs].
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If you don't know who he is, please watch The Apprentice and My Failure to be President, if you watch those
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two movies or programs, you'll see what I'm talking about. Anyway. Where are we?
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Next, let's go back here. Vocal leadership. In the West, we like our leaders to talk,
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talk, talk, and tell you: "I'm the leader, listen to me because I'm the one who knows
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what's going on. I am the important one. You should know this. I'm the leader. I make the
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most, I talk the most. And look at me."
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In the East, leadership is silent. It's not that
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the leaders won't speak, they speak, but remember it's about group success? They will talk more about:
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"We have done this, we are doing this. We, as a society or a group, are coming forward.
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I am proud of my people." Versus: "I did it, and I'm the one."
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Okay? So the leadership is a little bit more silent.
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They say: "We lead from behind",
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which is we lead, but we let the people take the credit or get the... Get praised.
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While in the West, I stand in the front and I should get the praise, because I've done it. Okay?
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Where are we now? Let's go down to five, which is strange: law more important than the relations.
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In the West, we have what's called "the letter of the law". If the law says do this, you
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must do this. It doesn't matter if you're my mother, my father, my brother, a good uncle
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or a good friend. What does the law say I have to do? That is more important, that comes
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first. In business relationships, let's say. Not necessarily family, but especially in
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business relationships, we love contracts. We love to have the piece of paper, we like
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to have the writing, because that tells us what I'm supposed to do and what you're supposed
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to do, and everything's organized so there's no questions.
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In the East, we notice relationships
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are more important than the letter of the law.
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This is true and not true. In the West,
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we used to be more like this, but in the East it's still so, which is: When we shake hands,
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that is the bond. The contract shouldn't be necessary. We... They do it because it is
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the modern world, but they look at you as a person. If they don't trust you, they don't
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care about the paper. What is the relationship like? Is it a good relationship? Then they
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will sign the paper because they trust you, and they know that what you say they believe
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will happen, not what the paper says. While in the West, we point to the paper and say:
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"You have to do it because the paper said it. I don't need a relationship with you."
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So in the East, they will try and actually make relationships, go out for dinner, meet
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you in maybe your home just to get to know you so that they know when you say something,
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they can believe it or trust it.
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In the West, recent accomplishments matter.
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An "accomplishment" is a deed or a goal. You
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have done this, and you can show people: "Look what I have done. I have made a million dollars.
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I have built a house. I have finished school and graduated."
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They care or we care about recent. What have you done today?
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Or Janet would say: "What have you done for my lately?"
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We want to know what you've done today. We don't care about 20 years ago, that was 20 years ago.
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Maybe you were a great movie star 20 years ago.
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Tom Cruise, what have you done recently? Mission Impossible, what?
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Okay. You know what I'm saying. Right?
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When you look at that, we're looking at today. What matters is today. And it's true.
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The sun comes up today. If you died 10 years ago, you don't matter anymore.
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But today, what are you doing?
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Talk to me about that. In the East, it's a little different. They like to look at you
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might say character. Remember we talked about relationships? They look at what you've done
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in the past because they believe what you did before-okay?-is what you're going to do
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in the future. They think:
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"Okay, if you've always been a good person, even if you make a mistake today,
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you've been a good person, you'll probably be a good person again in the future."
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Or if you're a bad person, you've always been bad: Just because you're good
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today doesn't mean you're going to be good forever. And between those two differences,
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you might say: "Wow, that's a really big world difference", because one seems to be based
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on just the here and now with no thought to the future and no caring about the past. But
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in some ways, in the West, we're more apt to... We're more able to say:
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"Hey, look, if you change and want to be a better person,
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we'll support that because we look at what
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you're doing now. Maybe you were bad before, but you're good now. We give you a chance."
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Well, in the West... The Eastern way of looking at it, if you were bad before, you're probably
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still bad and shouldn't be trusted. Which is better? I don't know. Okay.
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Now let's go to number 7: results matter. In the West, it's not what you were thinking about.
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I wanted to help my friend who was on drugs,
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and he was really, really, really, really needing them, so I bought the drugs so he would feel better.
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That's my intention.
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In the West, if that person dies, you can go to jail because: "Hey, he died."
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But you would say: "I was trying to help them."
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And we would say: "We don't care. What you did, what happened, the result was, that's what matters."
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Okay?
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If you look at the East, it's difference.
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They talk about: "What were you trying to do?
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What was in your head at the time? We know the person maybe died
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because they took too many drugs, but you were trying
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to kill them? No. You were trying to make them feel better,
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to relax them, to make their life easier.
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Oh, okay, well, that makes everything different."
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And this goes back to the relationship thing.
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If you have a relationship, there's a trust built in, so they look for your intention
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and they go on that. Well, in the West because we're looking at what's happening now, the
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result matters. What happened in the end? That's all that matters.
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One last, one way to look at is here: exact time. What does that mean?
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In the West,
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12 o'clock means 12 o'clock.
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In the East, 12 o'clock means
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12 o'clock or 12:10, around that. Okay?
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It's approximate. That's an important one, because if you have to meet somebody
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from the West, especially if they're from Germany, meet at 12 o'clock. If they're from
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maybe China or maybe, I don't know, Laos, 12:05, you'll be okay. All right?
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Now, I want to do a test to see if you understand the cultural differences.
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Actually, just before that, let's just go over really quickly.
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What I want you to understand is there is really
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no better one. I'm not saying West is better than East, it's just something to keep in
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mind because we have a lot of relations, and our big world is becoming smaller, and in
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order to understand each other, we have to understand how we think. And then we use our
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language, we can use the right language at the right time with the right people.
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Does that make sense? Good. I'm going to help you, because we're going to go do a test now to
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test how well you understand the difference between here, which is relationship-based,
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and here, where we base things on facts and exact matters. Or you could say:
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the individual versus the society or the collective. All right.
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Are you ready? Let's go to the board.
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[Snaps].
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Okay, test time. Now, just once again, I mentioned it, remember this is a generalization.
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Countries such as Japan and Korea are, when I talked about the time thing, they're very much on
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exact time, but in general... General thought, when we're saying that East has more of a,
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we say, circular dynamic, they approach things a little bit holistically, while we are more
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direct. Is one better than the other? Do you remember about the pizza? Is it better to
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eat pizza with a knife and fork, or chopsticks? It's better with your hands.
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So I would say a synthesis or bringing them together would be best, but let's do our test and take a look.
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Here we go. Cowboy mentality. Cowboy mentality is the Western mentality. Right? We are like...
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We are strong, we are individuals, we do everything by ourselves, even though the roads, and the
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ships, and the airplanes are built by lots of other people, that doesn't matter.
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If I'm a pilot, I fly the plane. I didn't make it, I didn't design it, I didn't invent it.
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But that is our Western mentality, but it's kind of cool, because we think we can do anything
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if we put our minds to it as an individual. Samurai mentality is this...You go:
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"Samurais are individual soldiers." Not really. The Samurai, which is the Eastern mentality,
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they serve, they serve a master, and they serve the greater good.
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So even though they are powerful like a cowboy, they say: "I use my power for my master",
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and in that way, we serve everybody; everybody is served.
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As the individual, you would say:
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"By my great accomplishments, I bring up society."
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And in the East, they say: "By working together, we bring up society."
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Yin and Yang. [Laughs]. Anyway. Moving on.
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Quiz time. All right? Are you ready? We have top four questions on the board.
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I'm going to ask the first one, and I want you to try to think carefully about all the information
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I gave you: What would be the appropriate way to interact? Because that's what this
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lesson is about. Yes, you speak English, but what kind of English should you be using?
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A more direct line, talking to a Westerner, or coming at it from a side or a little softer,
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on an angle for an Easterner? Let's go to the board.
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When having an interview with an Asian manager, would he or she care more about
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your past history, your performance over time,
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or your recent accomplishments, what have you done lately? Remember Janet Jackson? Miss Jackson if you're nasty.
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Okay. Think about it. Take a second.
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That's right. They would care more about your past history. They're going to...
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Even in the West, don't get me wrong, we do look back at your history to see what you've done,
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but we're more looking at, you know, accomplishment, accomplishment, and then we
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want to know: What are you doing now? What's important now? In the East, they're more looking
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back at your character: What decisions have you made and what kind of character have you developed?
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Similar but different. Right? Keep that in mind. So they're going to be looking
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more for your past history, because they say that will show us what you'll do in the future.
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Well, in the West, we'd be looking at: "Hey, what you're doing now is important, because
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then we'll see what you're going." Right? So, answer to this one is: past history of performance.
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Let's do number two. If you are having a conversation with a Western friend and you disagree with
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them, which is your best approach? Have an open debate,
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or say nothing and let them figure it out?
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That's right. I was too quiet.
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As a Western person, I would have said: You need to have an open debate.
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