In the final three chapters of The Outliers (http://www.amazon.com/Outliers-Story-Success-Malcolm-Gladwell/dp/0316017922) Malcolm Gladwell discusses how we should not shy away from our cultural differences, but instead learn how to use this knowledge to our full advantage. From flying airplanes, to taking math tests, and just school in general, the cultures we come from affect us in many ways. It is when we are able to not only understand, but except these differences that we are able to provide extraordinary opportunities for all. And as Gladwell has pointed out in The Outliers, nobody becomes somebody amazing without having these valuable circumstances.
Of all the factors thought for leading a plane to crash, cultural differences seemed an unlikely factor to me. For years the Korean Air flights had a terrible reputation for “losses” during international trips. At one point things got so bad, with seventeen times more losses than United Airlines, that outsiders were called in to help find the problem. At the center of the investigation psychologists were called in to listen to transcripts from “lost” international flights. Using a study by Geert Hofstede (http://www.geert-hofstede.com/) researchers figured out that countries such as Greece, Portugal, and Korea have high “uncertainty avoidances”. This means they are most reliant on rules and plans. It turns out these types of countries often times have high Power Distance Index (PDI) levels, with a deep respect for authority. This is attributed to the high loss of Korean flights because many times first officers knew of bad situations, and did not confront pilots for fear of disrespecting their authority. Also, a similar situation persisted when pilots were trying to communicate with Air Traffic Control. In one particular example a plane crashed because the Korean officer was too polite to tell Air Control they should reroute because they were low on fuel. I couldn’t believe that anyone would be disinclined to speak up in a situation like this. Any American I know would have insisted upon a closer landing site even if it was inconvenient to other flights. But it is just eh culture that the Koreans are emerged in. They were however able to learn from this and teach pilots and first officers fluent English, along with an American (low PDI) alternative identity to go with it. Today, Korean Air is one of the safest airlines in the world.
While the airline example of cultural differences seemed negative at first, they were able to learn from them to make Korean Air safe today. Some parts of Korean and other Asian cultures have lessons that even other countries, including the United States, can learn from. When it comes to mathematics, Asian cultures have always excelled well above Western counterparts. This is due to two cultural advantages. First, countries like China and Korea have logical counting systems, unlike the English number system which is highly irregular. The average Chinese four year old can count to forty, whereas the average American four year old counts only to fifteen. As a result, by age five American kids are already a year behind Asian kids in most basic math skills. Because of the clumsy Western linguistic structure, basic math rules become arbitrary and complicated. In Asia, there is a pattern for doing all math problems, no memorizing, and people actually enjoy math. I was very shocked when I read about how logical the Asian counting system was compared to ours. Instead of saying twenty-one, they say two-tens-one, which makes doing basic addition quicker and easier, and a patter is created.
Not only is the Asian language attributed to high math scores, but the agriculture is linked as well. In Asian countries rice accounts for the majority of the agriculture. Unlike western cultures whose farming is mechanically oriented, rice farming requires people to become smarter to increase their yields. They also must work hard than any other kind of farmer. But the work is meaningful, and complex, and autonomous in nature. As we learned in class earlier all of these are factors for being satisfied, with a clear relationship between effort and reward. As the Chinese proverb goes, “No one can rise before dawn 360 days a year and fail to make his family rich.” Now I wouldn’t want the lifestyle of a rice farmer for a week, let alone a year, but this is defiantly one part of the Asian culture Americans can definitely learn from.
As it turns out, some schools in American have tried to provide children with opportunities using the same hard-working culture of Asian countries. The KIPP Academy, the Knowledge is Power Program, is well known for successfully taking poverty stricken children and providing them with an opportunity, in exchange for hard work on their part. A regular school day at KIPP runs from 7:45 am to 5pm, which is 50 to 60% more learning time than a typical public school. The kids also attend school from 9 am to 1 pm on Saturdays. They even spend three extra weeks in July attending KIPP from 8 am to 2 pm, their “summer hours”. I know that given the choice any average American student would not even set foot in a classroom on a Saturday (kind of similar to how we hope our colleges classes are cancelled), let alone give up their summer vacation. But for a child born in to the poverty lifestyle, who would otherwise have no other opportunity for success, being accepted into KIPP is a dream come true. And with a lot of hard working hours (similar to a lawyer or a doctors daily schedule), success will almost certainly follow. Just form reading the KIPP chapter, I was thinking how similar the schedule and workload is to mine, being in college while having a part-time job. Only these are seventh graders, with a lot of mental endurance and motivation I might add. When I was in seventh grade I was more worried with social events and sports than actual school work. These kids spend four to five houses a night on school work. That’s equal to my college workload now. In the end, these final chapters prove that we can learn from our cultural differences, if at the very least, to provide opportunities that otherwise would have never existed. And any society can grow from these opportunities, in to a better place.
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