I know well that most of the international students are not really confident in writing papers, even when they have spent a considerable amount of time and effort studying in English both in their home country and the United States.

As time goes by, most of them will eventually be skilled in speaking English regardless of their native accents. However, many students still have a hard time composing papers for their assignments in college, although apparently, they have no difficulty communicating with native English speakers. Needless to say, their problem of writing in English mostly results from their lack of language proficiency and academic level vocabulary power.

Even after painstaking efforts to master the English language, some may still have problems writing in English. It is because they do not really pay attention to the English writing style. I want to discuss this issue at this moment because one of the most overlooked factors is the different writing styles based on the cultural differences.

Here is the article about the contrastive analysis of eastern and western writing styles in the blog that I want to introduce you to take a look at:

Western Style Writing vs. Eastern Style Writing

This article was not written based on academic literature review, as the author, Aaron Brazell confessed that he is not an expert in this field, but he discussed the different writing styles according to the cultural perspective based on his careful observation.

Brazell started his professional blog on May of 2004, He has carried on a wide variety of conversations and discussions on his blog. He explained the differences between western and eastern writing styles clearly in plain language

He emphasized in his blog that a western style post typically has the thesis up front; an article written in an eastern style generally has the thesis statement in the middle of the piece.

Some controversial comments from the readers of his blog can give you a chance to ponder over this topic. One of the readers’ comments, I found some interesting point of view regarding different speaking styles based on cultural differences. For instance, some Indian candidates living in Britain would be disadvantaged on job interviews due to circular and non direct answering of questions although they are well qualified.

You will check your organization of contents and structure of development in your writing in light of western composition style.

I want to drop more lines about the differences of eastern and western writing style based on my personal experience and literature review. Here is my observation regarding this topic.

There are different organizational patterns and structures for different language based on the cultural differences. Kaplan’s work (1966) has suggested that Anglo-European expository essays follow a linear development; essays written in Oriental languages use an indirect approach and come to the point only at the end. (cited in Connor, 1996, p.15). To sum up, the western writing style mostly follows a deductive writing manner that has the thesis statement in the initial position and the main idea is located at the end of the first paragraph. However, the main idea is usually placed at the beginning of the last paragraph in the eastern style.

Non-native English speakers especially from eastern cultures are more likely to develop their idea in circles. They tend to write their thesis elaborately in the spiral of the context and also place interpretative responsibility on the readers rather than responsibility on the writers. This digressive writing strategy contributes to make their articles nonlinear.

Actually, I had been taught in the early student years to follow a four part pattern: ki-sung-chon-kyul, typical of Korean prose where there is an introduction, the development of a topic, a turning to a somewhat unrelated topic, and a conclusion. While working as a journalist, I avoided repetitive patterns and exhibit originality in my writing style and I was concerned about suggesting and not spelling out my idea obviously. Also, I challenged the readers to understand the topic by producing open-ended essays. Obviously it is the very opposite spectrum to the linear, conclusive, objective style of American writing Thus, I also had to make efforts to be familiar with the American writing style since I began to study in America.

In general, the western writing style can be summarized like the following:

An author’s position is stated assertively and strongly at the very beginning part of the article. Topic sentences appear in the first sentence of each paragraph, and they are strongly related to the main idea by being supported with specific details. Therefore, even if the readers read only the first sentences of each paragraph, they can figure out what the author means.

Therefore, it is important that international students learn discourse features and writing techniques of the English language so that their writings cannot be limited in their own cultural written form.

<References>

Choi, Y. H. (1988). Text structure of Korean speakers’ argumentative essays in English. The source of World English 7(2). 129-142.

Connor, U. & Johns, A. M. (1990). Coherence in writing: Research and pedagogical perspectives. Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc. Alexandria, Virginia. 89-94.

Connor, U. (1996). Contrastive rhetoric: Contrastive rhetoric: Cross-cultural aspects of second-language writing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 28-45.

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother

Actually, whenever I say that I came back to the United States for my daughter’s education, some American people say, “Wow…you Korean people are so obsessed with education.” Their response made me think about what is the difference between American and Korean perception of children’s education. This video clip instantly caught me because Tiger mom’s point of view about her own children’s education was very familiar to me. You can have a chance to consider your own view of educaiton based on cultural differences.

When I watched CNN about the story of the author, Amy Chua and her book, “The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother”, I was automatically interested in the issue that the book raised. Since I was brought up in the traditional Korean collectivistic culture, I am very familiar with a strict parenting style. Mostly, I agree with Chua’s way of raising children, even though the way she pushes her children for their excellence seems harsh. However, in the western culture emphasizing individual right and self-esteem, her training methods are absolutely bizarre and ferocious. Therefore, her book provokes controversy between western and eastern way of raising children.

This controversial issue reminds me that when Yuna Kim won a 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic gold medal and set a world record in women’s figure skating competition, her mother, Meehee Park published a book, “Give Wings to Your Child’s Dreams”. It was about how she supported Yuna, sacrificing Yuna’s sister’s dream, disregarding her husband’s birthdays, neglecting any other house chores, and ignoring any family functions only for Yuna’s successful performance. Most Korean people praised her unconditional devotion; regardless of Yuna’s great achievement, many western people criticized her reckless method after her interview with The New York Times. Unexpected negative responses from western audience made me think about cultural differences on parenting.Amy Chua has had many interviews in a variety of programs in order to respond to the heated debate issue about parenting that her book, “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother” caused. In most of the interviews, Chua repeatedly stated that it is not a how to guide for raising child prodigies, but a memoir and made her position clear that the article from The Wall Street Journal is an excerpt from her book, but the content of the excerpt unfairly consists of inflammatory and anti-Western parenting portions. Besides, the headline, “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior” is absolutely provoking and against her intention.

This is the interview that Amy Chua had with Alison Stewart of the program, “Need to Know” on PBS.

Chua to spend enough time on defending her point of view and dealing with all the criticism in every detail. First of all, she was able to explain that she did not have any intention of offending Western mothers’ self-pride in terms of raising children. Second, both interviewers asked questions by quoting some controversial sentences and gave her a chance to dispute those arguments. Third, Chua seemed to succeed in drawing something positive from the audience by clarifying that the headline of The Wall Street Journal failed to adequately reflect the book as a whole, but she would be responsible for the article because the excerpt was from her book.     

Overall, Chua was considerably confident by using powerful language and making determined facial expressions while being interviewed. She knew how to focus on getting one main message across in the interview. For instance, she emphasized that the book was a memoir full of personal experience as a mother, and an excerpt in The Wall Street Journal just caused an international firestorm. However, she never forgot to mention her parenting philosophy, such as “Be firm!”, “Listen to your child!” and “Don’t assume your child is weak!” Besides, she always smiled during the interview even when she was asked some unpleasant questions. Although she spoke at a brisk pace, it was easy to understand because she enunciated with a clear voice.

Her interviews with TV shows seemed to be quite a success in terms of mitigating hostility toward her strict parenting and helping the audience not to react emotionally without concerning cultural differences. She also took advantage of her attractive appearance and maintained a humble attitude in order to draw out a positive reaction from the audience. She stimulated the audience’s sympathy, telling people that she was not a tiger mother, but a rabbit mother who cried out for help because she did not know how to deal with her kid’s sudden rebellion.

When it comes to raising children, there is no right or wrong method because nobody knows what works until it gets done and also it cannot be applied in general. Although Chua kept saying that the sensational excerpt of The Wall Street Journal induced people to misunderstand her, the book would not have made a big hit without the provocative title, “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior”.        

References

GIBBS, N. (2011). Roaring Tigers, Anxious Choppers. In , Time (p. 68). Time Inc. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.