“He’s not a Chinese. What could he possibly know about medicine – let alone about history or politics?” Like most language learners, my listening ability was greater than my speaking ability. As a newcomer to living in Shanghai, China, my hospital colleagues simply assumed that I did not understand them. But their seemingly private […]
Until just days ago, when the WHO officially sanctioned the name COVID-19, today’s epidemic was best known as the China Coronavirus. This popular nomenclature was understandable: the disease originated in China and almost exclusively infected and affected Chinese. The response was also understandable: nations closing their borders to Chinese travelers in an effort to
Of course you are. Like most readers of this blog, in your heart you feel informed, concerned, and compassionate. But demonstrating these virtues in day-to-day life can be very challenging. Unfamiliar cultural dilemmas can cause people to appear insensitive and uncaring. Consider, for example, the negative repercussions of actions like looking an elder in
Most persons returning home from a significant cross-cultural journey go through a very unique experience termed cross-cultural reentry, reverse culture shock, or reentry shock. I experience this each time I return from Angola or China, and it consists of disorientation over relationships, economic life, activity expectations, and even attention span. These multi-fold disorientations
“I’m enrolling for classes and I have to take a foreign language. Which one shall I choose?” This dilemma is familiar to most. One challenge is that at the time we decide – usually in high school – we have no clue over where, ten years in the future, we will live or with
Success with a long-term commitment in a new culture is highly associated with the ability to verbally communicate. People who are fluent in the common language are at a great advantage. By contrast, inability to communicate most always results in frustration for everyone involved, and renders ineffective even the most talented, intelligent, and well-intentioned
The Cultural Competence Continuum, drawn from the work of Arthur Kleinman, suggests that there are definable levels in individual and organizational responses to cross-cultural interaction. What is your level? Cultural Destructiveness is the most negative stage, characterized by intentional responses to eliminate individuals, groups, or cultural practices. These often underlie genocidal, racial-ethnic, and
Language is powerful. Beyond its direct usefulness for communication, language also conveys one’s culture, social status, and history. Acquiring language as a child is an almost thoughtless, painless process. I continue to marvel over how my father never addressed me in Greek. While Greek is not highly useful outside of that tiny nation homeland,
I am fascinated with cultures. For one, they represent enormous richness of human experience. Tasting a variety of cultures also creates light and insight into our own personal cultures that we could never appreciate unless we step outside of them. With a right attitude, cross-cultural immersion can create some of the most enlightening,
Astute observations from Eva Holsinger, my pediatrician colleague here in northeastern China: “Do you want your doctor to tell you everything, right away, as soon as she knows something bad is coming at you? Take it another step: who do you want the doctor to tell first: you, or your family? In the US