5/24/2020 Individualism vs. Collectivism

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 Values between Culture Oriented to Individualism or Collectivism

“…a culture oriented to individualism might highly value being able to work independently, while a culture oriented to collectivism might highly value being able to work as part of a group.”

“…people who grow up in a collectivistic culture are likely to give very high priority to their social relationships and to have strong feelings of affiliation with, concern for, and obligation to members of their group. These feelings tend to lead people to develop goals that are more group-oriented than self-oriented”

“…family members in a collectivistic culture may desire or feel obligated to care for relatives in need, so accepting help from others may be viewed as evading family responsibilities (Boone, 1992).”

Culture Oriented to Individualism work together to achieve their goals because they belong to a group, family, or tribe in which their decisions damage or help their group. In many times their decisions are taken for their parents, elder people and they cannot say or express their feelings and they obey because they have obligations with others. Meanwhile, culture oriented to collectivism is independence because they have rights whereby they have individual choices. They work individually to achieve personal goals where they decide personally.  

In Mexico, a family is a group-oriented to collectivism where parents have the knowledge to make decisions and we have a saying that our parents declare “Más sabe el diablo por viejo que por diablo" (the devil knows more for being older than for being the devil, in English). The opinion for parents in Mexico is the most valuable because they live more than us then they believe that their choices are better than their children. Mexico has many sayings and phrases that reflect the importance of the role of parents in decisions. 

“¿Y a quién le pediste permiso, acaso ya te mandas solo” Who did you ask for permission, do you think that you make your own decisions?

“Yo sé lo que te digo” I know what I am saying 

“Cuando seas padre me vas a entender” When you will be a father you can understand me.

“¡Porque soy tu madre y punto” Because I am your mother and that’s all.

“Te lo digo por tu bien” I am telling for your sake 

“Ay de ti con que no me hagas caso!” If you will not pay attention you will have consequences.

Mexicans sayings demonstrate how important is the opinion for parents and how impacts them. Other cultures have the same influence as a group, tribe, or family. For this reason is important that ESL teacher understand the background for their students because if they are studying in a system-oriented to individualism, students and parents will feel uncomfortable or create misunderstandings.

References

https://video.byui.edu/media/05+Individualism+vs+Collectivism/0_ojon0rjc

http://www.ncset.org/publications/essentialtools/diversity/partIII.asp


Comments

  1. Zaida ADMMay 26, 2021 at 4:20 PM

    Hi Karina

    The truth is that Mexico in this aspect is very similar to my country. They are group oriented cultures with very strong ties in family and friendship relationships. I really like movies that reflect this like "Coco" or "Spanglish". As teachers it's an important element in our classroom management, especially because in general it's something very marked in the Latin culture.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Karina Rodriguez NietoMay 26, 2021 at 6:33 PM

    I agree with you Zaida that Latin culture is very similar with roots family and "Coco" movie is an example culture oriented to collectivism and ESL teachers need to understand the different aspect about collectivism and individualism in the classroom.

    ReplyDelete

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