Comments on: Cultural Differences, Work, and Play http://motespace.com/blog/2004/10/31/cultural-differences/ Disclaimer: The following web space does not contain my own opinions, merely linguistic representations thereof. Sun, 13 Mar 2011 07:12:38 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.6.1 By: nick http://motespace.com/blog/2004/10/31/cultural-differences/comment-page-1/#comment-29 Mon, 01 Nov 2004 17:30:29 +0000 http://fairuz.isi.edu/blog/index.php/archives/2004/10/31/cultural-differences/#comment-29 No, that was exactly my point: that cultures with a more rigid work/play dichotomy are more likely to view only “real” studying as studying done in a library… while those with a less rigid dichotomy are more lax (rooms, coffee shops, etc). I definitely agree that the typical Taiwanese student at USC worked a lot harder to get here than the typical American student… In my mind, the comparison was between the typical Taiwanese student who studied and now works in the industry over there, compared to his/her counterpart in the U.S. But, yes, like you say, there are a lot more complicated factors…

]]> By: Liz Lawley http://motespace.com/blog/2004/10/31/cultural-differences/comment-page-1/#comment-27 Mon, 01 Nov 2004 12:36:11 +0000 http://fairuz.isi.edu/blog/index.php/archives/2004/10/31/cultural-differences/#comment-27 Well, there’s a pretty big assumption you (all) made here, which is that if you’re not studying in the library, you’re not studying. Most of my students, even the most dedicated and compulsive studiers, don’t use the library as a study–they study in their rooms, their apartments, coffee shops, etc. And looking back on my own college days in the 1980s, I studied in the library mostly for social rather than learning reasons.

Also, in terms of the comparison between where you and your Taiwanese friends “ended up,” keep in mind that it’s a lot harder to get from Taiwan to USC than it is to get there from a suburban American neighborhood. Too many complicating factors to draw clean comparisons, I think…

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