“mean, really, PG pretends to do ethnography in countries from Brazil to Japan; I wonder how many of those languages she speaks.”
Thanks for the insult! I didn’t do academic quality ethnography; I did it for capitalist multinationals who valued me enough to hire me again and again. The horrors!
(You don’t think I used translators?)
Unlike most people I know, I don’t speak and read multiple languages. It is difficult enough to understand what someone from another, very different, culture is trying to tell me, when it is a language I sort of understand, and even more difficult when the person interpreting for me has already put some sort of interpretation on the meaning of the conversation and then I interpret the interpretation. filters and filters and filters… and possibly moving further and further away from whatever the original speaker meant. This seems inevitable to me, and is a huge issue for me, since I read so much in translation. Maybe this is on-topic for this thread, maybe not.
I guess we aren’t talking about tiger parenting any more…
cultural differences, and interpretations of them by those inside and outside the culture, with “tiger parenting” being the starting point and many looking at it through non-Asian eyes?
Just who is this media/public the OP asks about?
Marketing research tends to be considered a very shallow facsimile of the ethnographies done in most areas of academia by most academics and grad students I’ve known.
Also, the use of translators in academic research at the MA/PhD level would be considered unacceptable in academia. Most academics or even grad students who’ve done ethnographies would scoff at the use of translators.
It’s one critical reason why most social science/humanities and even some STEM MA/PhD programs require proficiency in one or more foreign languages. And that proficiency needs to be proven through translation exams using complex nuanced materials.
One major reason cited for failure to complete such graduate programs is failure to pass foreign language proficiency exams after a maximum number of chances(Usually 2-3 in programs I’ve looked into). Failing to pass such exams to the department’s satisfaction means as far as they’re concerned, the grad student concerned isn’t ready to feasibly commence research on his/her dissertation or even complete some readings in his/her comp exams*.
One of the ironies of CC is that one might wind up rushing to support a poster with whom one has often disagreed in the past. That is the case with me and Pizzagirl.
She is not an academic ethnographer, and never claimed to be one. She is an observant leader/participant in discussions in many different countries, and has had to recognize cultural norms and adjust to them, in order to do her work. There are different cultural norms in different countries, and there are different cultural norms in different regions in the US. For that matter, the cultural norms in the state where I live differ slightly from the norms in our bordering states–enough so that a faculty member being interviewed for an upper administrative position remarked that some of our students were so culture-bound that studying in Wisconsin would be like an international experience for them.
A difference between PG’s travel and tourist travel is that in PG’s case, she has to succeed in her work, within various international cultures. In my experience, that demands a higher level of adjusting to the cultural norms than the most polite of tourists needs.
That being said about cultural differences, I repeat that I do not think that Amy Chua’s practices represent Asian parenting styles, except perhaps in carrying them to a distant extreme.
“Also, the use of translators in academic research at the MA/PhD level would be considered unacceptable in academia. Most academics or even grad students who’ve done ethnographies would scoff at the use of translators.”
This merits a big fat “so what.” It’s of no concern to those who aren’t in academia. Talk about navel gazing and self importance. Why would I waste one minute worrying about any so-called “scoffing”? Who cares?
Thanks, QM. For mamalion and company - would you rather I remain ignorant of cultural differences, and assume that the same techniques, ways of engaging, and work styles work equally well in the US, China, Japan, India, Italy, etc - and that ALL I need is a translator to translate materials and off I go? How culturally insensitive would THAT be? sheesh
The PC culture has become untenable. Heaven forbid one assume any sort of cultural commonality, be it related to food, style of dress or body presentation, type of music enjoyed, social attitudes, parenting styles etc.–that would be stereotyping and oh so evil. But heaven also forbid we don’t pay homage to the grand idea of diversity–that we are not all the same but rather have different perspectives, preferences and customs that often have roots in language and culture. Thus, college students want to be granted special spaces and privileges because of their skin color or gender orientation or some general trait, as if those traits implied some greater commonality of experience, and yet are offended when anyone assumes that just because they have X trait, they all think or behave a certain way.
I am confident that Pizzagirl can quite successfully assess important cultural norms as they relate to her business activities. Doing so is normal and expected for someone engaged in international commerce. It doesn’t constitute failure that she doesn’t do that in the same way that an ethnographer or linguist would. How ridiculous this conversation is becoming!
GFG, diversity and respect for other cultures are not opposites. The problem. for many here, is that acknowledging difference does not mean stereotyping. It requires complex thought, nuanced observations, and not statements like “Contrast that to Germans who, well, they’re Gernan, always prepared, and ready to work to completion.” It also might mean that you cannot pretend to be an expert because you saw something at dinner or your translator told you what you wanted to hear.
Aren’t we all ethnographers of our own worlds? Looking at the universities from outside and thinking about PC culture is interpreting a culture. Someone living and working in an academic community may interpret it very differently. There may or may not be a right or wrong interpretation.
I’ve had to go back and reassess my reaction to Chau after this thread.
eta: I am making a real effort to listen to what those from cultures unlike my own are saying when they try to tell me something, after my kids cautioned me several times about speaking for others and their experiences.
I think Chau and I have some cultural commonalities. But maybe not as much as I first assumed.
This has drifted off topic and gotten too personal towards a member or two. I think the original topic was thoroughly discussed in any case. Closing thread.