Chap 7: Different cultures, different emotional expectations...

After going through this chapter in class and reading Chapter 7's points and examples regarding the role our emotions often plan in our ability to communicate effectively and appropriately in various situations, I actually felt that I could relate to a lot of the issues discussed in this chapter.  One of the aspects in this chapter that I found I was able relate very well to was the term emotion work, or our effort to generate what we think are appropriate feelings in particular situations that we face every day.  In specific I really understood the conflict they described on page 176 about the influence that cultures have on our interpretation of emotion work in various situations because each culture has different social standards for expressing one's emotions.  Researcher Kimberly Gangwish (1999) found that many first generation Asian American women face a difficult situation of "living in two worlds" in terms of expressing their emotions because the standards for expressing emotion in many Asian cultures are so very different from American standards and expectations.  The example provided especially rang true for me because it echoed my own experiences in class as a child.  Whereas many Asian classrooms have very rigid communication rules (the teacher is usually lecturing for most of class and students are supposed to be very quiet and never speak out during class as that could be seen as a sign of disrespect for one's elders), classrooms in America are the exact opposite!  Here participation, questions, and comments by the students during the class are highly encouraged and children as young as first or even kindergarten can receive participation grades for how outspoken and inquisitive they are during class. Basically the two cultures have different perceived ideas of students are seen to be actively engaged and learning in class: in Asian culture students are thought to study best when they are quiet, attentive, respond quickly when called upon by the teacher, and are able to absorb the information and understand it that they can write effectively about it on tests and essays.  To be too outspoken is often seen as a sign of disrespect.  In contrast, in American culture, a student is perceived to be actively engaging in learning the material if they constantly ask questions, speak out often during class, and are very vocal about their ideas.  Because I had originally been brought up in that Asian culture style of being quiet in front of elders and only speaking up when an elder addressed me first, I felt like I was at a great disadvantage in the American schools as a child.  Since I was so used to keeping my thoughts to myself and expressing my understanding of the material through writing rather than interactive discussions, I was often marked down as a child in my participation grades because American teachers felt that I was too shy and not contributing enough ideas during class time.  Even today, I still worry about whether or not I am participating enough because I still have a lot to improve on in terms of doing emotion work to cultivate a confidence to express all my thoughts in front of the class and repress the feeling that I am doing something wrong in vocally expressing my opinions.