Susan Wong:
Thank you and welcome. I guess we’ll get started right now. I’m sorry for the delay. Come on in. Yes, I’m a graduate of Baruch, many, many years ago. I won’t tell you how long ago. I won’t give away my age. I’m very happy to introduce the three panelists to you: Dr. Otis Hill, Dr. David Cheng, and Dr. Irene Chung. They’re going to be talking to you about the importance of counseling. Before they start, I would like to introduce one very important person to you and that happens to be [Michael Johnson]. Please stand up. Thank you. Should we start with Dr. Otis Hill who is sitting right next to me?
Dr. Otis Hill:
Ok, I’d be glad to start. It’s most appropriate that an African American started CUNY’s counseling, since we are in Asian and Asian American cities. What I want to do is talk about some very general things today and then certainly entertain questions that you have. I think to talk about a CUNY counseling model, and to talk about counseling in general for specific subpopulations in the university population requires a number of things as I see it. This is just my opinion.
The first thing I think we have to do in this whole process is to identify who it is we are talking about as potential counselees. One of the things I’d like to do is look at data before making any assumptions about anything. When we talk about the Asian students in CUNY, as of Fall 2001, there were some 24,000 students who identified themselves as being Asian or Asian American. Where are these students in the school? Most are found in the five senior colleges, with Baruch of course, having the larges number, then Hunter and then Queens, with a fair amount of students in Brooklyn City College. What we call the comprehensive colleges – that would be John Jay, Medgar Evers, New York City Tech, and Staten Island, most Asian students are in New York City Tech or Staten Island. In the community colleges, the most are found at Queensborough, LaGuardia, and BMCC, with Kingsborough of course being the fourth in that title.
There are some very interesting statistics. For example 64% of the 24,000 students indicated that they are foreign born and the ancestry breaks down something like this: over 4,000 indicated that they were from China; 1,800 plus from India; 1,650 from Hong Kong; 1,650 from South Korea; 1,500 plus from Bangladesh; and 1,300 from the Philippines. Then the native languages broke down accordingly with over 4,000 indicated that they spoke Mandarin as the native language; 2,800 English; 1,500 Bengali; 1,400 Korean; and 1,200 Cantonese.
Now a very interesting statistic – 4,000 plus students (33%) indicated that they have not declared a major in college yet. These are students the Baccalaureate Programs. But of those who have declared majors, 42.9% (or 3,600) indicated an interest in something in the business or management area; 1,700 indicated that they were interested in computer, informational science or a math field; and only 482 indicated an interest in the social sciences. For those students in their Associate Degree level, 2,600 indicated an interest in business or commerce; 2,650 indicated an interest in data processing; and in the Arts and Sciences, there were 2,320 listed.
I thought those were some interesting things that we needed to look at to identify the populations. One of the things that we do in the Office of Student Development essentially is to always look at census data, compare it with the last census, and take a look at where people are located. Who’s living where and what are the services that they might request or require. For example, there was a large increase in the Asian population on Staten Island since the last census and the one that we took recently. A large increase in numbers in Queens, of course. You can see that reflected in the attendance at Queens College and College of Staten Island and Queensborough.
I think the second thing that people must do as counselors is to deal with the usual cultural stereotypes. That happens to any group that comes into the university in large numbers. There are all kinds of stereotypes that come about. For example, I was looking for some research data, I think it was by [Su and Su] (not this Sue). And it talked about some general cultural stereotypes. I wanted to look at that because you get people who talk about things like, they’re all geniuses; they’re all overachievers, and; all Asian students are great in math and science. They’re all very competitive. They’re not interested in fun. I had to disagree with that one. They’re all submissive, humble, passive, quiet, obedient, tend to hang out in groups, want to be Caucasian, stingy, some are rich, some are grocery store owners, some are drycleaners, a lot of restaurant owners and chefs. And they just go on and on with various stereotypes.
After you look at those as potential counselors, there are a number of questions that you have to address before you can be an effective counselor. I think you have to look at the subpopulation that you are looking at, even in the Asian community, and talk about the kinds of things that are relevant, and be aware of the things that are relevant to that particular subpopulation. For example, were there relocation experiences that were traumatic? Was their family separation? Has there been some educational disruptions? Are there different psychological or academic needs among the subgroups? And what are some of the psychological consequences as being labeled as the model minority?
I found very interesting in the research that Asians is labeled as the model minority, whatever that means. Are there gender issues? Are there counseling issues related to family or generational differences, such as dating, academic preference, and so forth? Are there issues in relation to the mix of traditional culture with Western culture? Are there conflicts in the belief systems? Is there need for parallel services in the community for any Asian students, or at least to have knowledge of those services? And there are several counseling models suggested by the same researchers, [Su and Su], and they correlate the counseling models to levels of acculturation, suggesting that especially among Chinese students that there is a high level of acculturation that they are probably more receptive to than the traditional style of Western counseling as we know it.
I think the other part that we have to do as non-Asians, those of us who work in the counseling area is, how do we address our assumptions about Asians and understand how our interactions affect the social, psychological, and educational needs of Asian American students in the counseling relationship? What can we do as a central perspective? I think I mentioned before that we can carefully watch and pay attention to census data, which informs us of population shifts. We can acquire knowledge of the Asian subpopulations reflected in our student populations, and get as much understanding of the culture as humanly possible. Have a willingness to learn and dialogue with people.
For example, I had a very interesting conversation back in March with the Vice Chancellor for Student Development from Shanghai University. We had a very interesting conversation over a two hour period, and then we had lunch together and it was amazing to me how much he was passing about issues that you would think would be relevant to CUNY. For example, he wanted to talk about the disciplinary process, and how we accept disciplinary hearings and how we go about leveling sanctions on students and what are the consequences. He also had a very interesting concern when I told him ours was made up of students and faculty that he might not be able to get students in Shanghai to participate in the disciplinary process. He wanted to know, is that a problem here? We talked about dorm life and several issues related to that. We talked about the influx of Western culture into the academic life.
I think if you’ve seen the last issue of the Chronicle for example, on the last page, there’s a feature on Asian students and how some of them disdain American culture, but are actually involved in American culture. In fact, the interview took place in the coffee place, Starbucks. I think there was a large Starbucks filled with students in this particular country. They were sitting there drinking Starbucks coffee, denouncing American ideas and Western culture, which I think was very interesting. But I think that we must do all of these things.
I see what’s happening now with the large influx of Asian students in the university, similar to what happened in the early 1970’s when I came to the university. I think it’s very important to engage professionals from the various in the universities. I would be the first to admit that there is obviously a paucity of Asian American professionals working in the university, especially in the higher levels. When we had a large influx of African American students and Latino students, one of the things that we did was to hire people from those cultures, because that’s important to make sure that they’re included and made a part of.
I think also it’s very important to include peers as part of the counseling and acculturation process in terms of the university. I think it’s important that we train peers from the various cultures to be a helpful part in the process. I’ll stop and answer questions later.
Susan Wong:
Thank you. Dr. David Cheng.
Dr. David Cheng:
Actually I didn’t prepare for anything. I prepared for this morning’s session and I raised some questions there, and I thought that perhaps I would use the afternoon session to hear your response to the questions that I raised.
I started my talk by quoting the New York Times article last week on the post 9/11 trauma and they studied the schoolchildren and they found the percentages in terms of the breakdown between different ethnic groups: 13.8% Hispanic; 9.2% Non-Hispanic Blacks; 9.9% Asian students; and 8% white students. And then they compared that with the New England Journal of Medicine that studied adults. As far as adults are concerned, they again get 13.8% (same as the other one) Hispanic. The Hispanic seem be showing the highest signs of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Then Blacks are 9.3%; whites 6.5%; and then Asians 3.2%. I thought that was totally…I just had questions about that particular statistic, especially when so many Asians live down in that area.
You think about the close proximity to the disaster site, and it’s so clear that many of them were affected psychologically and economically, and yet the survey, which was like a phone survey where they called people up randomly to ask about these symptoms, shows that they only had 3.2%. This is a very good example, again, as Dr. Hill was mentioning.
We talk about the statistics of the different schools or if we try to do a policy or get resources in terms of statistics or the number, it’s very hard to convince people because people that are not in the field would not understand the difficulty of Asians coming out and asking for counseling or getting psychological help. Because traditionally there’s the stigma that it’s a mental illness, or you’re crazy, or you have problems and you should try to work it out in your own family, or you should show it because you’re supposed to be stoical or you’re supposed to be strong. I think it’s really a very important point that we have to address.
As we see more and more people coming out and as I quoted, the three suicides in Baruch, two out of three were Asian females – Chinese females, more specifically. Then there was the article in the New York Times about the MIT student. Did you all read that? The MIT student, she was brilliant, she was smart, 18 years old, and very successful. Her SAT score was 799 out of 800 in verbal. So she was a very bright young student. And she burned herself. She locked the door to the dorm room and committed suicide by burning herself. I think the issue, of course it’s a big controversy now and the parents are suing MIT for millions because they feel like they should have been informed of the intent of this student. Now here it is, when you talk about a bright, young student who actually sought help, but she didn’t want her parents to know. So that whole myth or stereotype that you should talk to your parents and it should all stay in the family, it’s not true.
Many of the students that we see today do not feel that connection or that closeness with their family and very often the cultural identity issue that Dr. Hill often mentioned, the [Su] brothers did studies to show that there are different levels of acculturation and sometimes some people are more acculturated and some are less, and there are differences from the immigrant parents, so consequently there is some kind of barrier between them.
My head is spinning a little bit because today before I gave my talk, I got a call from one of my interns at our Counseling Center, and today as a matter of fact, one of our interns had to hospitalize a student, and this is an Asian-Japanese female student it happens, so just to show you that it’s not an uncommon thing. We’ve had three or four suicide watches in the last few weeks. It’s a very serious issue, but if you look at statistics, it shows it’s not there. They’re not seeking help. That means they are the model minority. They have no problems. They are coping very well and adjusting very well, and they have the expectation to perform well in school and they are supposed to be outstanding. It really goes against all the things that we see.
I think it’s so important that we need to be heard in terms of the resources for the Asian mental health issue. I’m a psychologist and a psychoanalyst and in my training, all those years, I never had an Asian client. That’s probably the reason I came to Baruch, because for the first time I’d get to see Asian clients. Asian people just don’t seem to find their way to psychotherapy or psychoanalysis.
I think there is such a tremendous need for people. I look at young faces and I see some familiar faces, people that are former externs from our counseling center in here. I think that you guys should think about going into the field because there is a need and there aren’t enough professionals to do the work. Then the question raised is, other counselors, if you are not Asian, can you in fact counsel Asian students? Of course you can. I think that has to do with the multicultural counseling training issue and that we hope that more people will take the multicultural counseling training seriously and that more people will go into the field.
So without saying any more, I really want to hear you talk, so I want to shut up now, and let Irene talk about the Asian Female part piece, and then maybe we can go back and have some response.
Dr. Irene Chung:
I was asked to talk about doing counseling with Asian American female college students, so I’m going to try to stick to the topic, but I also would welcome a dialogue, especially on the topic of suicide because I personally did my doctoral dissertation on suicidal behavior among Asian American college students and I’ve been following this topic very closely. In my private practice, I’ve worked with some female Asian American college students who have exhibited suicidal ideations.
Dr. David Cheng:
In fact, when you contacted me, that was before this wave of suicides.
Dr. Irene Chung:
Exactly. Right.
Dr. David Cheng:
Irene contacted me many years ago…
Dr. Irene Chung:
Right, I was doing my dissertation and I was desperate because, I think even to this day there’s no official data as to how many Asian American students have reported suicidal ideations or made suicidal attempts. I went to two national conferences on college counseling and I asked. The first time around I was really desperate and I needed data. I was asking everyone, do you have data? Nobody had anything, but everybody would say, it’s a very, very serious topic, you should really do a dissertation on this because we see an increasing number of Asian American students coming in for counseling. But nobody kept data so that is something that we should really seriously think about.
In my practice, I do happen to see a lot of female students and I have to concur with my two other panelist that there are a lot of myths around who Asian American college students are and how therapy should be done. I’d like to demystify some of those ideas. First of all, again because of this model minority myth, I think that counselors seem to think that when Asian American students come for help, it’s about academic problems. Sometimes people may come in and say I’m not doing well in school, but I guess if you look a little deeper and if you could probe a little deeper without stereotyping Asian students that they only interested in doing well in school, you’ll find that the predominant underlying problems are about relationships – relationships with families and romantic relationships.
In my dissertation, in all the subjects that I interviewed, you see a history of not feeling loved, not feeling validated by their families, and then going into a lot of disappointing romantic relationships. And that was very significant. I was a little surprised myself. Before I did the dissertation, when I saw Asian students, I guess I would stay with the academic problems a little bit more and see if I could help them with improving their motivation and how do they go about doing better in school? After my dissertation, I have to say it was kind of an eye opening experience for me, I think I worked through my own counter transference issues and I was more direct.
Usually in my first two sessions, I would as a student right away, so how are your relationships going? What’s going on in your social life? Usually I would get some honest answers about it’s not going well, either because my family doesn’t want me to get involved or I don’t feel comfortable, or I’m stuck in disappointing relationships. I really want to stress that Asian students are just like any other students. We’re at the age where relationships are important and feeling loved is really the most important issue here, so don’t let the academic problems distract you. It’s about love.
I have to say from a cultural perspective, I think that (this is not to blame the culture) the norms and the values in the Asian culture tend to sanction depression and anxiety and suicidal ideation. That’s a lot to say, and I’ll take responsibility for those statements. I think because we’re taught to be obedient and compliant and the way we were taught to communicate is in a hierarchical structure in the family. Whether you like it or not, that’s the way it is. I know that I have had some students who have said to me, we don’t speak much in class because unless you have something important to say, you don’t just raise your hand and start babbling off.
Given all those norms and values, you have to co me to the conclusion that we’re not encouraged to open up and talk about what’s bothering us. What it translates to in psychological terms is that there’s kind of a tendency to internalize a lot of the feelings. We tend to internalize some of the aggression that is directed at us. The consequence is that people tend to feel more depressed; they tend to feel like there aren’t a lot of options in their lives, and that they can’t speak up and express themselves. The anxiety is part of the depression because there is a lot of conflict. You don’t know whether to be yourself or to follow what everybody else wants.
In the Asian culture, I’m sure you have heard about this, the way that we define ourselves is very different from the way a Western person defines himself or herself. We define ourselves by our relationships with other people. There’s a lot of interdependence there, which as it’s merits. I’m not knocking that down. I’m just saying when things don’t go well, it could lead more easily to depression and anxiety.
Having said all these not so good things about the culture, I also have to say that I think that the culture itself has taught us to be a certain way and it’s very important not to pathologize those cultural traits. I’ve heard lots of times people say that Asians, especially Asian female students tend to have quote “low self-esteem”. And I have to disagree with that. I think there’s a fine line between having low self-esteem and – this is what I think our culture encourages us to do – to be not so assertive, to be modest and to a certain extent, self-defecating or more responsible for mistakes or problems in our lives, and we’re more introspective. We try to seek advice and approval from authority figures. We want them to say: yes, it’s ok, go do it.
From a Western counselor perspective, those character traits may be perceived as low self-esteem. I always try to tell my clients lets be more culturally sensitive here. We all grew up that way, we cannot all have low self-esteem. The way I define it is that maybe from an emotional perspective, we tend to be less secure. I think because of the cultural norms, we’re not good at expressing our feelings, we’re not good at showing our feelings and we’re not good at telling the other person what we need emotionally. So I would say that we’re maybe emotionally less secure.
But if I have a client who is emotionally depressed, they can still do their work pretty well. Their work may be slipping, but actually the structure of the work kind of binds the anxiety so to speak and the depression. I have heard people who will say I’ve got to do my homework, otherwise what else could I do? They maybe less motivated, they may be less productive, but from a work perspective, people feel pretty competent about their work. But from an emotional perspective people may feel less secure, because we don’t have those role models in our lives.
Our parents never show us how they’re going to be affectionate to each other. We don’t know exactly what a healthy relationship is because they don’t talk about it and we don’t see enough of it. From that perspective, we’re lacking. But that doesn’t mean that we all have low self-esteem. That’s what I like to stress. You need to look at it from a cultural perspective. I also find my Asian clients to be fairly articulate about their feelings. I think that what’s important is that they have to feel safe and supported and they can talk about their feelings. It’s also a learned way of expressing yourself.
We have feelings, there’s no question about it, but how do we express them? You have to learn the language and the lingo. So once you get used to doing it, either with psychotherapy or with other people, you will be able to do it. It’s really a choice of how much you want to do it. It’s neither good or bad, nothing to feel embarrassed about. This is the way we grew up; this is the way we were brought up. I also have clients who are very comfortable about sharing intimate information with me. I could ask them questions about their sex life, their sexual identity, and they would be comfortable talking to me. I want to demystify that Asian American students really wouldn’t be able to talk about intimate information.
Then there are some other issues about how Asian students – or not just students, but I guess Asian Americans in general – tend to terminate counseling prematurely. I think, again, that’s based on this traditional counseling model that once this person enters psychotherapy, they have to stay in therapy for years. I think if we look at the culture, we’re very focused on outcome versus process. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that, especially given managed care these days, I don’t think any one of us (well a small exception of our population here, there more wealthy clientele) could afford to be in long term two times a week psychotherapy, but by and large, students especially, you really cant. But I believe that it’s ok to have short-term therapy. If people trust they got something out of it the first time around, they will come back. I always have clients who come back, and it works. That’s my idea about how I don’t think that we need to necessarily adhere to a Western model where people need to be in psychotherapy long-term.
Last but not least, I just want to talk about what my recommendations are in terms of providing a culturally sensitive approach to working with Asian students. I think that first of all it’s very important to provide a safe and nurturing environment. I also think that, to use a psychological term, if you studied child psychology, when children are two or three years old, they go through a phase where they go out and explore the world and the mom or parental figure is in the back. The child will go take a few steps and look back and the mom is right there and will wave at the child. The child will then go back, and go out a little bit more, and will come back for an emotional refueling. I think that kind of a concept works very well for Asian students, because by and large, Asian students are very self sufficient and they like to feel that they can problem solve and they can do the work.
But when it comes to emotional ventures, they do need the support, and they need the role model. So if you’re the counselor or therapist and you could be this parental figure, where you will not judge the person, which again is something that is a little different from what our culture teaches us, that it’s okay to make mistakes and you go out and try it, come back and we’ll talk about it. I call that an emotionally corrective experience. I think a lot of times it works very well with Asian students. It’s a matter of accepting them and making them feel that they’re okay.
Last but not least, I believe also in helping them understand where their parents are coming from, because a lot of times there is a lot of intergenerational conflict. I think that reframing the conflict is important. I don’t believe necessarily in promoting individuation and separation, at least not right away, because I think that we grew up in a culture that promotes very strong family ties, and sometimes even though we have severe conflicts with our parents, the bottom line is that we still want to have that attachment. We still want that approval. So if we tell our clients, well your parents don’t understand you, just leave home and start on your own, I think that may not work out. It will backfire. I think it’s really important to reframe what’s really going on between the parents and the second generation and I think that it will work out much better in the long run.
I think I’m just going to end here and I want to hear feedback from your questions.
Susan Wong:
Thank you Irene. Thanks to all three of you. Questions? Remarks? Any comments for one of the three speakers?
Audience Member:
I’m going to be presenting about Asian Studies and the need for it, and I think that what you are talking about could also be part of the argument for it. Could you tell us, any of the Asian Studies Centers or Departments, if they offer psychological role modeling, mentoring, support for students, not only as a center academically, but psychologically for the students.
Dr. Irene Chung:
Let me see if I understand your question. You’re saying do we offer psychological services to help Asian students?
Audience Member:
No, not psychological services, but as a place where your students feel they can go where there are people that are role models for them.
Dr. Irene Chung:
You mean a mentoring program?
Audience Member:
If for instance, we have a lot of Asian professors then they are naturally located in that area that students are connected to. Would this help them psychologically, do you think, in your opinion?
Dr. Irene Chung:
I guess it depends on who the professors are.
Dr. David Cheng:
Also, I think that the leader sets the tone is very important. If you see a lot of leaders that come tougher and present themselves as role models, it’s easier to find. I think Irene’s point is that you can’t find a role model very often for Asian students. I have Asian students come to me and say I want to go into psychology, but there are so few people out there that want to go into…You see a lot of accountants and engineers, but if you want to talk about services that are more like law or psychology, you find much fewer. It’s harder to find role models in those areas.
Dr. Irene Chung:
Also I think within the curriculum of psychology or social work, there’s kind of a lack of culturally sensitive syllabi to help people who in the school to learn to be either a psychologist or social worker. How do they translate the cultural norms and bridge the gaps between what the Western model stipulates and what the cultural norms are saying. Because a lot of times they create a lot of conflicts for the students in the schools, and actually it creates a lot of stress for the students, and that’s why you don’t see a lot of mental health professionals who are Asian American. Most of them become maybe administrators in the mental health profession, but not clinicians, because it’s very hard to bridge those gaps.
Dr. David Cheng:
Also, I think that there are very few administrators who are Asian, so that’s another thing. Because I think they traditionally say that Asians are not good administrators. They’re not people, people. They’re numbers and research people. So I think that again, the stereotypes really do a lot of damage in many ways. That’s something we have to be very sensitive to.
Audience Member:
Though curricularly, Asian studies could help provide that academic venue as an in-depth study of the psychological problems.
Dr. Irene Chung:
I think that there should be a lot more research done on how you bridge the gap. Yes, if Asian studies could provide research opportunities to look at, what does the Western model teach and what are the cultural gaps, and how do you translate it into more culturally meaningful interventions. I learned from a Western model, and I didn’t feel comfortable. I was told as a student, you probe. I said: I probe? I’m going to ask really personal questions the first time I’m meeting my client? Now I can do that.
But what would have been really helpful for me was if someone, a role model, could say, look, you came from a culture that didn’t encourage you to probe the first time around. Maybe you don’t have to probe the first time around. Maybe you could do something else first. You need someone to normalize what your cultural norms have taught you and not to feel inadequate to begin with. Then you find ways to be compatible with what you have to do.
Audience Member:
Dr. Hill, to follow up on that, what do you think of the possibility of incorporating the cultural differences into the psychology curriculum? I think that’s one of the major issues, to incorporate that. And social work. I don’t think that it should be two separate issues – Asian Studies and I think that needs to be incorporated into the curriculum if you are going to major in psychology or social work.
Dr. Otis Hill:
On a personal level I would agree. But you have a problem with the system itself and how do you do that and how do you get people to be culturally sensitive?
Dr. David Cheng:
This is especially so with the administrators. I think often the administrators that make the policy, the policy makers, the people that are our leaders, they don’t really have an idea of what’s it about. I think counseling is really deadly, especially in CUNY. I went to the Counseling Center Directors’ meeting, and counseling, in different schools, means different things. Different schools include academic counseling, career counseling, and psychological counseling so you have to be very clear.
Very often when you have a specific problem, not any counselor can help you. It depends on the nature of the problem. Also, the point that you brought up is that many students are afraid to come in for psychological counseling. They would go through the back door. They have academic counseling, they go to career counseling, and then once they talk about their career, after the first session, you know that there are a lot of personal issues, relationship issues that come out. Then we can say, actually we need to make a referral. You need to see a psychological counselor. We need to be very clear about what kind of counseling also.
Dr. Otis Hill:
I think also a definition for two words – culturally sensitive, because that means different things to different people. For some people, that simply means identifying you as being part of a specific group, and that’s it. Culturally sensitive to the fact that you’re Asian. It should be a part of the curriculum, I think, if we’re very serious about doing it, but I think that’s going to be a long time coming.
Dr. Irene Chung:
Or even just tutorials will help. I think that let’s say you have an Asian faculty person who could do some tutorial work with Asian mental health students, in psychology or social work. That’s a good way to start to gather information about what the gaps are. How could you help a psychology or social work students translate the theories into a more culturally meaningful learning experience? I think tutorials are doable. Don’t you think so?
Dr. Otis Hill:
Sure. They are.
Susan Wong:
Let’s hear from some students. Any questions?
Audience Member:
I was going to ask a question. You guys do a lot of work using a Western model analyzing Asian students in this country. I was wondering if you have any research about Asian people in Asian countries, and whether or not it applies to people here in this new age of globalization. Do you think that they will face problems in the future?
Dr. David Cheng:
That’s a good question. I think that also what Irene was talking about, it’s really a Western model. We talk about transference, counter-transference, all of these concepts are Western concepts, Freudian concepts. How are we going to look at Asian students applying these Western models? That’s precisely what multicultural counseling is trying to do in terms of [Dan Su and Darrel Su]. They want to talk about how we can, not change it, but understand that from a cultural vantage point, and that’s where the term culturally sensitive comes in.
Unfortunately there isn’t any foundation in terms of Asian theoretical psychology. So we have to deal with what we have and apply it and constantly check to see if this applies or this doesn’t apply. That’s why the research idea is important. It’s really always keeping your approach in check and trying not to always use one model and not trying to fit the Asian into the Western model, making the Western model work for everybody. It won’t work for everybody. It doesn’t.
Audience Member:
Do Asian students usually have similar concerns?
Dr. Otis Hill:
The article that I referred to – the Chronicle article on the last page of last week’s issue – my interpretation and my answer to that would be yes, because they asked questions about the older culture, the traditional culture I should say, in China, and the students were denouncing that. The question became, so does that mean that you’re accepting the Western culture? No. I was left there with some inquisitive nature wondering where is it that these students are planning to go if you’re denouncing the traditional culture and you don’t want the Western culture, is there some thought about some new culture here? It’s just a thought question, but I think it’s a question for students in China as well.
Susan Wong:
Are you a psychology major?
Audience Member:
No, I’m just asking.
Susan Wong:
Would you consider going into that field and perhaps doing research in that area? It may be a good topic for you.
I hate to end this, I don’t want to, but it’s now 3:45. For those of you who want to go to the other workshops, feel free to leave the room. For those of you who would like to stay, and if the panelists would like to stay, I would like to stay too. Thank you.
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