I cannot accept many of Nisbett's arguments in this chapter because I feel that they are too fixed and do not take any exceptions into consideration. For example, statements such as, "In general, East Asians are supposed to be less concerned with personal goals..." sounds a bit too strong to me (48). I mean in Japan, it has always been a part of culture to come up with individual resolutions and wishes at the beginning of the year, during the Star Festival in July, and sometimes even at end-of-year parties. Although good health and fortune for the whole family or company is a common hope expressed at these events, children, for instance, are encouraged to write their own personal goals such as doing well at school or becoming a baseball star.
I personally did not like how Nisbett mentions only "sushi chefs and math teachers" when he is trying to make the point that self-criticism continues throughout peoples' careers (55). Maybe he uses that in the way that our ELP teachers changed the historical figure to George Washington in Meiland to make it easier for us to relate to. However, I feel like those examples are kind of stereotypical... don't you think? lol I guess I feel this way because when I lived in the States, my classmates assumed that I was good at math because I was Asian and asked me if I ate sushi everyday. Unfortunately math is one of my worst subjects and I don't have enough money to afford that much sushi! lol
The objectivity in Nisbett's arguments are growing weaker to me. I know that there must be many similarities between Asian countries such as Japan and China since they are close in geography, share some religions and writing systems, but what about those countries compared to India? Or Hong Kong? Hong Kong probably has many similarities with Britain, making it closer to the Westerners. Thus, he is not including all Asian countries when he says "Asians". In addition, I feel like Nisbett often compares modern Western cultures with traditional Asia (particularly China). For instance, the quote "the peg that stands out is pounded down" sounds like something that came from an ancient proverb and would not be encouraged in modern day schools (48). I tried looking up the origin of this expression on google, but the top results were sites that directly cited that expression from Nisbett. So I'm still unsure where this expression came from and now I'm a bit suspicious if Nisbett really translated this correctly. Do you guys know this expression?
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It's a famous Japanese proverb and is 'the nail that sticks up gets hammered down" and is still in operation now. At my son's school I had to get him a Landsel backpack as that is what kids use at Elementary School - my arguments that a small hiking backpack is better for the kids backs was not listened to at all as tradition said landsel. Also kids need to get shoes the same colour too - so conformity at all costs. Even in the ELP I had to fight really hard to be able to assign my own choices for summer reading for my program C students for next semester as most of the other teachers in A and B and some in C are not doing this - most are following the route of "anything for summer reading is okay" more or less as long as it has more than a certain number of pages. Judging a book by the number of pages!!!!? Hmmm - not a good eay to judge books I think. And how can teachers give critical feedback on book P and D's and book reviews if the teachers have not read the book covered? How could I give comments to you all on Nisbett's book if I haven't read it? yet this is the plan that many teachers are conforming to. Just like everyone in the ELP is supposed to teach MLA style exclusively and I got some flak for not doing this and teaching Zotero instead. So yes this attitude is common in Japan unfortunately and even in the ELP - but fortunately for you guys I don't pay to much attention to this kind of pressure and Zotero is the order of the day! But my son is still young and not ready to fight against this kind of discrimination yet. So here Nisbett is correct unfortunately.
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