Jack Lfl,East West Differences

8/14/2019 Jack Lfl,East West Differences

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Linkage For Life LINKAGE FOR LIFEWhatI Am About

My purpose is to help you locate -- then chose to break -- those linksof your Genetic and Social Conditioning that serve force and fear,so you can freely choose new linkages with the Human Condition,

responsibly, sympathetically, and knowledgeably.

The life that is rich and happy is one that is fulfilling its possibilitiesthrough creative linkages with reality.

A mature person is not one who has come to a certain level ofachievement and stopped there.

He is rather a maturing personone whose linkages with life areconstantly becoming stronger and richer because his attitudes aresuch as to encourage their growth rather than their stoppage.

The Mature Mind by O.A. Overstreet


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Linkage For LifeAbout Jack

Last 6 years in China teaching English,business & culture courses (international

marketing, intercultural business communication,U.S. culture) in universities.

Before China, worked in Australia (alsoAmerican & Canadian has 3citizenships) developed & presented variousadult education courses.

Before teaching, inventor & entrepreneurstarting up his own businesses, husband &father, writer of poetry & prose.

Long time interest in Eastern Culture,China: Kongzi/Confucianism, Buddhism,Daoism Yi Ching, Poetry Du Fu, Li Bai


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Linkage For Life Jack of All Trades,

Mastered by None

A caveat or beware concerning mytopic of Cultural-CivilizationalDifferences

Amateur not a professional myconfessional

The etymology of the word amateurfromLatin word for heart amor

A person who does something for love ofit rather than for money

No career more a careen! Multi/X-Undisciplined! Roam the world of

ideas without borders passport=passion


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Linkage For LifeMy Scheme for Tonight

Analogy-metaphor of Human Brain & its functional-

structural, lateralization-dominance features

Applied to X-Cultural/Civilizational Differences West

& East

These differences as evolution of Human Species its

adventure the X-fertilization of cultural opposites

Comparative Dualities (compete & complete)

West vs. East

Left Brain vs. Right Brain

Male vs. Female

Reason-Death vs. Emotion-Life

Science vs. Art

Devil vs. Dragon

Ending with

Future vision of

best of West &East linked


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Linkage For Life

Learning For & From Yourself

You learn much that cannever be taught.

Educate etymologicallymeans to draw outofnot to put into.

Socrates never claimed tobe a teacher. He saw hisrole as a midwife thatcould help bring to birththe Good that was

waiting to be born inside ofeveryone.


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Linkage For Life

Learning For Yourself

"In ancient times,

men learned with

a view to their own

improvement.Nowadays, men

learn with a view

to the approval of

others. Kongzi


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Linkage For Life What Is Self-Knowledge

& Why Is It Important?

The most difficult

thing to know is

yourselfThales of

Miletus

"What the superior

man seeks, is in

himself. What themean man seeks, is in

others. Kongzi

Perhaps the essence of our

evolution as human beings

is to keep answering, ondeeper and deeper levels,

the basic question:"Who am

I." Thus, we define

ourselveslearning to take

more and more responsibilityfor our existence and well-

being. Nathaniel Brandon


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Linkage For Life Linkage Theory of Maturity

This linkage theory of maturitysees man as a creature who lives

by and through relationships; who

becomes himself through linkages

with the non-self. Growing upmeans growing intogrowing

into a complex set of social

relationships: linkages of

affection, sympathy, shared work,

shared beliefs, shared memories,good will toward fellow humans.

O.A. Overstreet


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Linkage For Life Challengesfor Todays Students & Early Careerists

Highly competitive first jobmarket with need to stand outfrom the crowd withattitudes & skills employerswant

Little Soft Skills self-knowledge, interpersonal &learning skills taught in todaysuniversity

Low self-confidence in many

Chinese young adults withparents & society often makingtheir decisions for them

Choose a job

you love, and you

will never have to

work a day inyour life.Confucius (Kongzi)


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Linkage For Life Discover the YOUniquelYou

Graduate from the University of You

Discover & create your

YOUniqueness to stand

out from the crowd &

succeed in the highly

competitive global

workplace. You may not beable to leave the

world a better

place, but you canleave it as a

better person.


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Linkage For Life

Awareness of Your Unawareness

Socrates seems to have often stated thathis wisdom was limited to an awareness

of his own ignorance.

Self-knowledge is about learning that you

do NOT know something & thenlearning it if important.

When you know a thing, to hold that you

know it, and when you do not know a

thing, to acknowledge that you do notknow it--this is knowledge. Kongzi


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Linkage For Life Noticing What We Have

Never Noticed Before

Now, to start us off, an

experiment.

Clasp your hands together

interlock your fingers.

Now, notice which thumb is on

top of the other is it your left

or right thumb on top?

Now, do the opposite, put theother THUMB on top &

interlock differently.


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Linkage For Life Noticing What We Have

Never Noticed Before

Now, think about how you putyour pants on in the morning.Do you put your left leg intothe pant first or your right leg?

You may have to move your leg toexperiment.

The point is, most of you are notaware which leg you put first

into your pants.


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Linkage For Life

CULTURAL

COMPETENCYRemember

most of what

you learned

as your

culture was

not taughtto you but

you learned

it without

awareness

1 - Unconscious

Incompetence

Not aware of your

ethnocentrism how your

culture has formed you

Might refuse to admit youare culturally biased

Your culture is best & no

arguments!

4 - Unconscious

Competence

Live long enough in

another culture to feel

at home

When return to homeculture feel reverse

culture shock since

you have adapted so

well to host culture

NOT

C

O

N

S

CI

O

U

S

2 - Conscious

Incompetence

Aware of ethnocentrism as

learn about culture Learning own & other

cultures results in better

intercultural relationships,

higher grades, faster climb

of career ladder

3 - Conscious

Competence

Theoretically

understand own & othercultures

Get hands on

experience of other

cultures & can see your

own through cultural

Others eyes.

C

O

N

SC

I

O

U

S

NOT COMPETENTCOMPETENT


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Linkage For Life Seeing Things Differently


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Linkage For LifeLEFT BRAIN

Abstract

classes

LogicPast/now

Verbal

Linear

RationalQuantify

Write, talk

Step by step

Planned

Motor controlDetails

RIGHT BRAIN

Concrete

relationships

IntuitionNow/future

Non-verbal

Cyclical

Non-rationalQualify

Draw, touch

All at once

Spontaneous

MusicBig picture

Brain of Right Handed Person,

Dominant Left Hemisphere


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Linkage For Life

BRAIN DOMINANCE (Lateralization)

Lateralisation refers to

development of lateral dominance

(right orlefteye, ear, hand, leg) and

development ofspecialised centres

and functions in the left and rightbrain hemispheres.

The right side of the body sends

messages to and is controlled by

the left side of the brain, and theleft side of the body by the right side

of the brain.


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Linkage For Life

BRAIN DOMINANCE (Lateralization)

Hemisphere dominance

does not mean that one side

of the brain controls the

other side.

Rather, a persons dominant

hemisphere is the one in

which the brains language

processes and the motor

capacities that facilitatespeech reside.


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Linkage For Life BRAIN DOMINANCE

Unilateral Cerebral Dominance "Most people develop

unilateral cerebral

dominance - that is their

dominant eye, ear, hand andleg are on the same side of the

body."

Test yourself now: check your

eyes & ears to see which, if

either, is stronger; think about

which foot you kick with or

put in your pants 1st.


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Linkage For Life

BRAIN CROSS-DOMINANCE

Approximately 20% of the population has mixed

dominance or other irregularities in the development

of dominance.

This may cause instability in perception and

performance. Immaturities and irregularities in

lateralisation can cause perceptual, organisational

and performance problems in all areas of life.

Stuttering, dyslexia, etc. can be learning problems.


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Linkage For Life X-Dominance & X-Cultures

Liability or Opportunity?

Just as X-Brain Dominance can make for

difficulties in learning it also appears to

make the person more creative and open to

doing things differently.

Trying to live with two very different

cultures, West and East, in one person is

the equivalent to have X-Dominance in

your brain-body connections.

I speculate we have a new sub-species ofhumanity on its way: a World Citizen

capable of thriving in both the West & East.


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Linkage For Life Between the Devil & the Dragon

EAST Dragon

Nature outside uncontrolled

= nature inside controlled

by outside Central Authority

Scarcity creates family as

survival unit

Emperor replaced by State

Dragon is a human

pretending to be an animal

WEST Devil

Nature outside controlled =

individual freed from authority

& nature inside as beast/Id

Abundance breeds isolatedindividuals in Welfare State

playpen/prison/mental hospital

Priest replaced by psychiatrist,

policeman, politician

Devil is an animal pretendingto be human


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Linkage For Life West=Male vs. East=Femalefrom Amaury deRiencourts Sex and Power in History

Paleolithic males worshipped womanhood (MotherEarth). At some point, men gradually substituted a

male god with a collapse of the cylical female cults.

The male concept of linear history arose culminating

in the Greek rational thought which broke away from

magic thought processes. The Greeks gave greater

value to culture than to nature, to the abstract Idea

than to concrete Life itself.

Greek society's psychological degradation of the

female principle was unknown in Easterncivilizations where a somewhat harmonious balance

was obtained.


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Linkage For LifeReason-Death vs Life-Emotion

from Oswald Spenglers The Decline of the West

"Scientific worlds are superficial worlds, practical,soulless...Life is no longer to be lived as something self

evident...but to be treated as a problem, judged by

'utilitarian' or 'rational' criteria.

Culture-men [peasants] live unconsciously, Civilisation-

men [urban dwellers] consciously. Intelligence is the

replacement of unconscious living by exercise in thought,

masterly, but bloodless...thus the sterility of civilised

man.

The last man of the world-city no longer wants to live.

REMEMBER: The West has been under-populated

since the 1960s! Couples have careers not babies!


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Linkage For Life West=Science & East=Art

WEST as Science What Joseph Needham,

the acclaimed British

scholar of Chinese

science & technology

called the Big

Question why didnt

the Chinese civilization

establish the scientific

method rather than theWest?

EAST as Art

Aesthetic thoughtcharacterizes Eastern

civilization. F.S.C. Northrop

claimed that Eastern

civilization has an intuitiveaesthetic character.

Recently, David Hall &

Roger Ames made the same

argument contrasting

Chinas aesthetic with the

Wests rational order.


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Linkage For Life

Etymology to Explain

Science from the Latin

Scire to know which

comes from the Indo-

European rootseq- that

means to cut, separate,divide, part

Keep this deep meaning

in mind when we

examine the culturaldimensions of Western

civilization

Art comes from the Latinword artem, (nom. ars) "art,

skill, craft," from IE *ar-ti-

(cf. Skt. rtih "manner,

mode);" Gk. arti "just,"artios "complete.

Thus art means to join,

connect, link, to bring

together parts to makeharmonious wholes: a

passable definition for the

creative arts.


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Linkage For Life No Cutting! Please!

"The honorable and upright man keeps well

away from both the slaughterhouse and the

kitchen. And he allows no knives on his

table." Kongzi (Confucius)

Konzi equated knives with acts of

aggression, which went against his non-

violent teachings. Some experts credit his

influence with the widespread adoption ofchopsticks throughout China; culture (Wen)

had triumphed over the warrior lifestyle.


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Linkage For Life

West=Surgery vs. East=TCM

Surgery was not much

performed in China (you

did have ancient surgeons

but relatively few) until

brought in from the Westwith its scientific medicine.

Traditional Chinese

Medicine looks at the

whole person and doesnot chop him up!


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Linkage For Life East = Chopsticks/Kuaizi


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Linkage For Life West = Fork & Knife


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Linkage For Life Spoon - Shared Utensil


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Linkage For Life WEST & EAST

Cultural-Civilizational Differences

Compare & contrast Western European Culture-Civilization

(mainly America but including other

English speaking nations); and

Eastern Asian Culture-Civilization(mainly China but including Korea &

Japan)

Until very recently assumed that if dig

under obvious cultural differences West& East, find we all reason & perceive the

world more or less alike.


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Linkage For Life Oh, East is East, and West is West,

And Never the Twain Shall Meet?

But new research (gathered in

the book The Geography of

Thought (2003) by the

American psychologistRichard Nisbett) shows East

& West perceive and know

the world infundamentally

different ways!


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Linkage For Life

West East Differences To Be Pondered

Patterns of attention and perception

Basic assumptions about what the world is made of

Beliefs about whether the environment can or should

be controlled Assumptions of stability vs change

Preferred patterns of explanation for events

Habits of organizing the world


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Linkage For Life

ANALYTIC WEST vs HOLISTIC EAST

Analytic--Taking

wholes apart to find

separate causes/effects

HolisticLeaving

wholes be and seeking

to harmonize the parts


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Linkage For Life COGNITIVE-PERCEPTUAL

DIFFERENCES

WEST

Attention on objects

Attributes of things

Abstract classificationaccording to fixed rules

individual-class

categorization (objects,

properties, simplifiedcausality and

relationship)

EAST

Attention on Context

Processes of things

Situational classificationaccording to concrete &

changing relationships

part-whole categorization

(relationships,substances, complexity)


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Linkage For Life

COW

Which TWO go together?

Chicken and Grass?

Cow and Chicken?

Grass and Cow?

CHICKEN

GRASS

East vs West

Do They Think & Perceive Differently?


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Linkage For Life Perception West & East

Family or Rule Based Classifying?


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Linkage For LifeWest=Rule Based Classifying

East=Family Based Classifying


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Linkage For LifeWest=Eye Movements on Object

East=Eyes Movements on Context

A C F


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Linkage For Life

Attent on to Context F e or

Attention to Object


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Linkage For LifeWest=Object Focused

East=Environment Focused


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Linkage For Life West: Yes OR No; East: YesANDNo

Experiment compared how Asian vs

Americans respond to contrary

arguments.

West got more argumentative when

argued against.

East got more accepting when arguedagainst.

Note: the word science means to cut

East never developed science nor

practiced surgery


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Linkage For Life Field Independence=West

Field Dependence=East

The Field Dependent (FD) person processes

information globally, less analytical, not attentive

to detail, and sees the perceptual field as a whole.

This whole resists analysis or being taken apart. The Field Independent (FI) person easily breaks

the field down into its component parts & not

influenced by the existing context thus can

make choices independent of the perceptual field.

FDs are more socially oriented, respond more to

reward & punishment, & less able to analyze.


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Linkage For Life West=Field Independence

East=Field Dependence


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Linkage For LifeFIELD INDEPENDENCE-DEPENDENCE

WEST- Hunting

Field Independent In hunting it is either you

or the animal that will die.

This gave rise to the notion

of duality. Hunting is risky.One has to take charge and

distinguish oneself. It

favours a competitive

approach. In Hunting

societies, accent was onautonomy & individualism.

EAST Farming

Field Dependent In agrarian cultures its

important to move with the

cycle of time, to be in tune

with your surroundings.Suppression of individual

impulses was required.

Planting cultures generate

notions of interrelated,

interconnected peopleliving in harmony with

nature.


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Linkage For Life

WEST Individualist

The individual identifies primarily

with himself.

Needs of the individual satisfied

before those of the group.

Looking after and taking care ofoneself, being self-sufficient.

Independence and self-reliance

stressed and valued.

Eric Hoffer


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Linkage For Life EAST Collectivist

Identity comes from membership androle in a group such as the family or

schoolmates.

Survival of group = well-being of the

individual.

By considering the needs and feelings ofothers, one protects oneself.

Harmony and interdependence of group

members stressed and valued.


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Linkage For Life

Individualism

Hofstedes

Dimension

Individualism(IDV) degree thesociety reinforcesindividual orcollectiveachievement andinterpersonal

relationships. Measure high orlow.


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Linkage For Life Exercise: Collectivist or Individualist?

You and the three other people have been working

on an important special project. Work is done andthe four of you have been awarded a cash prize of

$20,000.

Person A did 25% of the work.

Person B did 40% of the work.

Person C did 25% of the work.

Person D did 10% of the work.

How would you split up the rewards?


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Linkage For Life

Collectivist vs Individualist

Answers

COLLECTIVIST

Person A: $5000

Person B: $5000

Person C: $5000

Person D: $5000

INDIVIDUALIST

Person A: $5000 (25%)

Person B: $8000 (40%)

Person C: $5000 (25%)

Person D: $2000 (10%)


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Linkage For Life West=Internal Control vs.

East=External Control

Relations with Nature

Every culture evolved an attitude

towards the nature. How we relate to

our environment is linked to how we

desire to have control over our own our

lives.


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Linkage For Life West=Internalistic & East=Externalistic

Internalistic people see nature as a complex machine and

machines can be controlled if you have the right expertise.They do not believe in luck or predestination they are inner-

directed. They live the way they want. Man can & must

dominate nature. Freedom.

Externalistic people have a more organic view of nature.

Mankind should operate in harmony with the environment.They do not believe that they can shape their own destiny.

'Nature moves in mysterious ways', The actions of externalistic

people are 'outer-directed' - adapted to external circumstances.

Fatalism.


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Linkage For Life

Internalistic or Externalistic?

A research project gave the following set of questions

to groups of American and Chinese university

students and asked them to choose which one (A or

B) of the following two statements they most agreed

with:

A. What happens to me is my own doing.

B. Sometimes I feel I dont have control over the

direction my life is taking.


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Linkage For Life

West=Internalistic & East=Externalistic

Here was the result:

Percentage of Americans who chose A =

89%.Percentage of Chinese who chose A

= 35% .

Does this result seem right to you? Which

one would you choose?

A. What happens to me is my own doing.

B. Sometimes I feel I dont have controlover the direction my life is taking.

W E i E i (EE)


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Linkage For Life West=Emotion Expression (EE)

vs.

East=Emotion Suppression (ES)

In WESTERNEmotion

Expressed (EE) cultures

people do not object to a display

of emotions.

It isn't considered necessary to

hide feelings and to keep them

inside.

EE cultures may interpret theless explicit signals of an ES

culture as less important.


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Linkage For Life West=Emotion Expression vs.

East=Emotion Suppression

In EASTERNEmotion

Suppressed (ES) culture people

are taught that it is incorrect to

show one's feelings overtly.

Doesn't mean they do not havefeelings, it just means that the

degree to which feeling may

become manifest is limited.

They accept and are aware offeelings, but are in control of

them.


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Linkage For Life West vs. East: Reading Faces Differently

Culture determines whether we look at the eyes or

the mouth to interpret facial expressions, says newstudy.

In Japan people tend to look to the eyes for

emotional cues, whereas Americans tend to look to

the mouth, says researcher Masaki Yuki, a

behavioral scientist at Hokkaido University in Japan.

Japanese try to suppress their emotions more than

Americans do, he said.

Eyes are more difficult to control than the mouth,

thus provide better clues about a persons emotional

state even if he or she is trying to hide it.

E ti E i ;


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Linkage For LifeEmotion Expression;

West=Mouth vs. East=Eyes

Culture influences facial emotions.

Research shows that in cultures where emotional

control is the standard, such as Japan, focus is placed

on the eyes to interpret emotions.

Cultures where emotion is openly expressed, such as

the United States, the focus is on the mouth to

interpret emotion

American emoticons : ) and : - ) denote a happy face,

whereas the emoticons :( or : - ( denote a sad face.

Japanese tend to use the symbol (^_^) to indicate a

happy face, and (;_;) to indicate a sad face.


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Linkage For Life West Big Mouths vs. East Big Eyes


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Linkage For Life W vs. E in Sleeping Alone or Together

Almost all cultures babies sleep with an adult &

older children sleep with parents or other siblings.

Only in industrialized Western societies such as

those in North America and some parts of Europe

that sleep has become a private affair.

Mayan mothers told how babies were put to bed in

the US shocked, highly disapproved, expressed

pity for the American babies who had to sleep alone.

American mothers found this attachment worrisome

& emotionally or psychologically unhealthy. Movedbabies out of the parental room usually by six

months

G ( ) &


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Linkage For Life

LEFT BRAIN WEST

Low Context (EH)Low Power

Distance (H)

High

Individualism (H)Low Long-Term

Orientation (H)

Universalism (T-T)

Achievement (T-T)

Sequential (T-T)

Internal Control

(T-T)

RIGHT BRAIN EAST

High Context (EH)High Power

Distance (H)

Low Individualism

(H)High Long-Term

Orientation (H)

Particularism (T-T)

Ascription (T-T)

Synchronic (T-T)

External Control (T-

T)

Geert Hostedes (H) & Frons Trompenaars-

Charles Hampden-Turners (T-T) & Edward Halls

(EH) Cultural Comparison Dimensions


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Linkage For Life A Whole New Mind

Chinas Right Brain Opportunity

The American author Daniel Pinks book A Whole

New Mind

Agricultural Age (farmers)

Industrial Age (factory workers)

Information Age (knowledge workers)

Conceptual Age (creators and empathizers)

The fourth stage is where Pink focuses and how

businesses can be successful.


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Linkage For Life

The 3 As of Advanced Economies

It speculates that for the advanced Western economies

the shift has moved from dominance on left brain

abilities to right brain abilities because of three

things:

Abundance

Asia

Automation

6 New Economy Areas


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Linkage For Life6 New Economy Areas

for Competitive Edge

1. Design - Moving beyond function to engage the sense.2. Story - Narrative added to products and services - not just

argument.

3. Symphony - Adding invention and big picture thinking (not

just detail focus).

4. Empathy - Going beyond logic and engaging emotion and

intuition.

5. Play - Bringing humor and light-heartedness to business and

products.

6. Meaning - Immaterial feelings and values of products.


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Linkage For Life

Get a MFA Rather than an MBA

Masters of Fine Arts its about DESIGN!

Its about ESTHETICS, BEAUTY, ART!

Notice how mobile phones are becoming art objects?

Once utility/performance is reached via the LeftBrain Science the consumer need flips to the Right

Brain need for Art.

China is a Field Dependent, Right Brain culture

and its culture is right for the times!

So you students out there, think about an MFA!


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Linkage For Life

THE END

Best of luck with your academic studiesand your first career efforts!

Remember, when dealing with another

culture, it is just as important to ask: Whats my head within?

As it is:

Whats within my head?

Documents

Jack Lfl,East West Differences