I noticed that customers were very friendly and showed their fullest respect to me. One the other hand, most of my American colleges, who were also waiters, never felt that their work is lower compared to white-collars. However, It isn't the case in China. Most Chinese seems only show respect to people with high-end job. At the same time, many waiters and other low income workers in China accept such unequal social status.
In my opinion, such phenomena is caused by the culture and history. As we know, US is a country in which individual human right is highly valued. On the other hand, although China on the way to democracy, the deep rooted hierarchy idea hasn't been extirpated completely due to the long history of feudal dynasty.
Understanding the culture difference and the reason is very important to facilitate communication and enhance relationship between people from difference culture.
Hey yixin, it must have been really interesting to work overseas as not only would you have made a new experience, you would have understood the culture of the country much better :D i myself stayed in the United States for a year but that was when I was really young so I won't remember much of it.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, coming back to what you mentioned, I agree that in the west, the people are much more opened and do not look at one based on one's qualifications. For instance, in europe, even the young do jobs like cleaning and washing dishes but in Singapore, we youngsters shun this job as we associate the job with being low class and not suitable for us. In a sense, I feel that the westerners do have a much more caring and open-minded society and this is something I feel that asian countries like us should learn from :D
Hey Yuxin!
ReplyDeleteIt must have been an eye-opening experience for you to have not only studied overseas, but also to work in a country that is almost culturally opposite to your homeland. As in, in school, your experience is sort of limited to only an age-group, but working in a restaurant, you are able to meet and observe people from different age groups and backgrounds and get a feel of their culture.
When I read your blog, it made me love this particular culture in the US. I personally feel that we should not judge people based on their jobs but we should judge people based on their character and good mannerisms. Sometimes, we are too quick to think that we are better than others because we have higher-paying jobs etc etc. But we are deeply mistaken. I am not going to delve further into this matter because i think that it could get very philosophical. haha. I just hope that you could be one of those people who are able to change the mindset of the people in China!
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