Thursday, November 04, 2010

Who really won?

One neat thing about China that we don’t see much in America is their collectivism; their interdependence.

When I’m teaching, we usually have some sort of game or competition. Ever since I started teaching, no matter which age the students were, I always noticed that when a team won, they’d all stand up, jump around, and cheer. If the other team won, that team would do the same. If the game ended up in a tie, everybody would.

I don’t know about you westerners, but when I am in a competition and the game ends in a tie, I think to myself: “Well that was a giant waste of time.” or “Nice, a competition where nobody won. Was that even a competition in the first place?”

When I’m teaching and we’re doing these competitions, I always try to rig the games so that everybody wins. It’s the best. Nobody ever complains. They always cheer. I think we can learn from the Chinese in that sense. Sometimes we compare ourselves to others and really only feel happy if there is a loser. It’s kind of nice here when the best competition is the one that doesn’t have a loser.

Until next time,
Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Please leave comments and questions here!