Walking in Two Worlds 1-2

There's a book written by a professor at my alma mater (Go Blue!) called The Geography of Thought. It addresses how significant differences in culture result in different ways of thought. The author, Richard Nisbett, posits that people actually think about—and even see—the world differently because of differing ecologies, social structures, philosophies, and educational systems that date back to ancient Greece and China.

Initial reviews - written by Westerners - were skeptical of Nisbett's "proofs", but as a child of immigrant Chinese parents raised in the U.S. I embrace the work as I immediately was able to identify the source of a lot of the internal conflict I had trying to reconcile the differences between American and Chinese culture. Here's an excerpt from Chapter 3:

"...the social organization and practices of modern Asians resemble those of the ancient Chinese and the social organization and practices of modern Europeans resemble those of the ancient Greeks. In this chapter we’ve seen that modern Asians, like the ancient Chinese, view the world in holistic terms: They see a great deal of the field, especially background events; they are skilled in observing relationships between events; they regard the world as complex and highly changeable and its components as interrelated; they see events as moving in cycles between extremes; and they feel that control over events requires coordination with others. Modern Westerners, like the ancient Greeks, see the world in analytic, atomistic terms; they see objects as discrete and separate from their environments; they see events as moving in linear fashion when they move at all; and they feel themselves to be personally in control of events even when they are not. Not only are worldviews different in a conceptual way, but also the world is literally viewed in different ways. Asians see the big picture and they see objects in relation to their environments—so much so that it can be difficult for them to visually separate objects from their environments. Westerners focus on objects while slighting the field and they literally see fewer objects and relationships in the environment than do Asians."

Here's an example of how this plays out - it's never overtly taught, but the Chinese language itself reinforces holistic/community world view in its greetings within the family:

- brother and sister in English translate into the terms for: older/younger brother, older/younger sister;
- grandmother/grandfather translate into mother's/father's grandmother/grandfather; 
- aunt and uncle translate into terms that not only identify mother's/father's side but ALSO whether they're older or younger than one's parents;

The point is that one is taught to understand that they are a small part of something bigger than themselves - and they know exactly what their place is in relation to everyone else. The result as described from the book - when asked to describe what they see when looking at fish in a pond, a westerner might point out the largest or most brightly colored fish, while an asian might say that he/she sees a pond. 

Another way that I've personally experienced is in the western concept of causality. I tutor test prep (ACT/SAT/ISEE/HSPT) and I've tutored students from community based cultures where both "A" and "not A"  are not mutually exclusive; if anything, with yin-yang "A" actually *proves* the existence of "not A" and there is no cognitive dissonance with mutually exclusive facts or concepts. Events occur in cycles instead of in a linear fashion.  So as they've struggled with making inferences and drawing conclusions and despaired of being intellectually incapable, I've been able to reassure them by explaining the differences in thought process and describing linear thinking like forging a chain one link at a time and witnessed how my students were able to embrace this as a consequence of culture rather than one of intellect - and improve their ability

Another big difference is the aspect of shame and its impact on individuals is much more severe in community based cultures than in western/individual based cultures. This topic deserves its own dedicated post.