Joined: 19 Jan 2006 {Posts: 223 } Location: Southern California
Posted: Mon 26 Oct 2009 19:26 Post subject: Hotel Owner Tells Hispanic Workers to Change Names
Saw this one today....
Quote:
TAOS, N.M.— Larry Whitten marched into this northern New Mexico town in late July on a mission: resurrect a failing hotel.
The tough-talking former Marine immediately laid down some new rules. Among them, he forbade the Hispanic workers at the run-down, Southwestern adobe-style hotel from speaking Spanish in his presence (he thought they'd be talking about him), and ordered some to Anglicize their names.
No more Martin (Mahr-TEEN). It was plain-old Martin. No more Marcos. Now it would be Mark.
Whitten's management style had worked for him as he's turned around other distressed hotels he bought in recent years across the country.
The 63-year-old Texan, however, wasn't prepared for what followed.
His rules and his firing of several Hispanic employees angered his employees and many in this liberal enclave of 5,000 residents at the base of the Sangre de Cristo mountains, where the most alternative of lifestyles can find a home and where Spanish language, culture and traditions have a long and revered history.
"I came into this landmine of Anglos versus Spanish versus Mexicans versus Indians versus everybody up here. I'm just doing what I've always done," he says.
Former workers, their relatives and some town residents picketed across the street from the hotel.
"I do feel he's a racist, but he's a racist out of ignorance. He doesn't know that what he's doing is wrong," says protester Juanito Burns Jr., who identified himself as prime minister of an activist group called Los Brown Berets de Nuevo Mexico.
The Virginia-born Whitten had spent 40 years in the hotel business, turning around more than 20 hotels in Texas, Oklahoma, Florida and South Carolina, before moving with his wife to Taos from Abilene, Texas. He had visited Taos before, and liked its beauty. When Whitten saw that the Paragon Inn was up for sale, he jumped at it.
The hotel sits along narrow, two-lane Paseo del Pueblo, where souped-up lowriders radiate a just-waxed gleam in the soft sunshine as they cruise past centuries-old adobe buildings. One recent afternoon, a woman slowly rode her fat-tire bicycle along a cracked sidewalk, oversized purple butterfly wings on her back and a breeze blowing her long, blonde dreadlocks.
The community includes Taos Pueblo, an American Indian dwelling inhabited for over 1,000 years, and an adobe Catholic church made famous in a Georgia O'Keeffe painting.
After he arrived, Whitten met with the employees. He says he immediately noticed that they were hostile to his management style and worried they might start talking about him in Spanish.
"Because of that, I asked the people in my presence to speak only English because I do not understand Spanish," Whitten says. "I've been working 24 years in Texas and we have a lot of Spanish people there. I've never had to ask anyone to speak only English in front of me because I've never had a reason to."
Some employees were fired, Whitten says, because they were hostile and insubordinate. He says they called him "a white (N-word)."
Fired hotel manager Kathy Archuleta says the workers initially tried to adjust to his style. "We had already gone through four or five owners before him, so we knew what to expect," Archuleta says. "I told (the workers) we needed to give him a chance."
Then Whitten told some employees he was changing their Spanish first names. Whitten says it's a routine practice at his hotels to change first names of employees who work the front desk phones or deal directly with guests if their names are difficult to understand or pronounce.
"It has nothing to do with racism. I'm not doing it for any reason other than for the satisfaction of my guests, because people calling from all over America don't know the Spanish accents or the Spanish culture or Spanish anything," Whitten says.
Martin Gutierrez, another fired employee, says he felt disrespected when he was told to use the unaccented Martin as his name. He says he told Whitten that Spanish was spoken in New Mexico before English. "He told me he didn't care what I thought because this was his business," Gutierrez says.
"I don't have to change my name and language or heritage," he says. "I'm professional the way I am."
After the firings, the New Mexico chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens, a national civil rights group, sent Whitten a letter, raising concerns about treatment of Hispanic workers. Whitten says he sent them a letter and posted messages on the hotel marquee, alleging that the group referred to him with a racial slur. LULAC denied the charge.
The messages and comments he made in interviews with local media, including referring to townsfolk as "mountain people" and "potheads who escaped society," further enflamed tensions.
Taos Mayor Darren Cordova says Whitten wasn't doing anything illegal. But he says Whitten failed to better familiarize himself with the town and its culture before deciding to buy the hotel for $2 million. "Taos is so unique that you would not do anything in Taos that you would do elsewhere," he says.
Whitten grew subdued as a two-hour interview with The Associated Press progressed. He said he was sorry for the misunderstanding and insisted he has never been against any culture.
"What kind of fool or idiot or poor businessman would I be to orchestrate this whole crazy thing that's costed me a lot of time, money and aggravation?" Whitten said.
Whitten should have dealt with the situation differently, especially in a majority Hispanic town, said 71-year-old Taos artist Ken O'Neil, while sipping his afternoon coffee on the town's historic plaza.
"To make demands like he did just seems over the top," he says. "Nobody won here. It's not always about winning. Sometimes, it's about what you learn."
Posted: Mon 26 Oct 2009 19:41 Post subject: Re: Hotel Owner Tells Hispanic Workers to Change Names
Quote:
Larry Whitten marched into this northern New Mexico town in late July on a mission: resurrect a failing hotel. ... Whitten's management style had worked for him as he's turned around other distressed hotels he bought in recent years across the country.
Were I in his shoes, I would walk away and leave the place as he found it. Apparently, they prefer ethnic identity even if it means poverty and unemployment. Their choice.
Posted: Thu 29 Oct 2009 22:42 Post subject: Re: Hotel Owner Tells Hispanic Workers to Change Names
fwsweet wrote:
Quote:
Larry Whitten marched into this northern New Mexico town in late July on a mission: resurrect a failing hotel. ... Whitten's management style had worked for him as he's turned around other distressed hotels he bought in recent years across the country.
Were I in his shoes, I would walk away and leave the place as he found it. Apparently, they prefer ethnic identity even if it means poverty and unemployment. Their choice.
I wonder if he bought a hotel in cancun with most guests from the USA would he have made this demand. I very much doubt that the guests care how Martin pronounces his name provided that he treats them professionally and respectfully.
Any case identity is an important part of self esteem as all those white Americans battling in Iraq and Afghanistan know. I wonder how they would feel if they were told to Arabize their nmes, etc to not offend the locals who might otherwise think that they are an alien invading force.
Posted: Fri 30 Oct 2009 01:42 Post subject: Re: Hotel Owner Tells Hispanic Workers to Change Names
caribj wrote:
I wonder if he bought a hotel in cancun with most guests from the USA would he have made this demand.
Undoubtedly so. You want a job catering to U.S. tourists? You had better speak English and have an easily anglicized name.
caribj wrote:
Any case identity is an important part of self esteem as all those white Americans battling in Iraq and Afghanistan know. I wonder how they would feel if they were told to Arabize their nmes, etc to not offend the locals who might otherwise think that they are an alien invading force.
I agree. My point is that if I am your employer, and I order you to wear a chicken suit and call yourself "Shirley," you will either comply or find another job. Does it offend your "self esteem? Then quit. Is it demeaning? Then quit. Persuade the authorities to try to force me to run my business with political correctness? Then I quit, set up my business elsewhere, and your whole town is out of work. Everyone has the right to put their own personal dignity and self-esteem over getting paid. I respect that decision.
But a person's name? Mahr-tin as opposed to Mahr-teen? That's a bit much. And not allowing employees to speak spanish amongst themselves because of his paranoia?
Joined: 07 Feb 2007 {Posts: 1829 } Location: Lookin DC Metro, Feelin Geneva
Posted: Fri 30 Oct 2009 10:38 Post subject:
Indian call center works (in India) do this all the time. They don't say "Hi, I'm Seresh, can I help you"? They say "Hi, I'm Sam, can I help you"? In their best American accent. Most of my Chinese and Korean friends have English names, for example. Kim Taehyung is David Kim. I'm not sure he does that to "please" Americans, it is more like 75% of Americans can't pronounce his real name and he gets tired of trying to explain it and people saying it incorrectly.
Not speaking a foreign language on the job in mixed company is just good manners. Sorry. I work with many Asians. Most of them were not born in this country. I rarely here them speak their native languages to each other on the job, they speak English. The only time I hear it is when they are talking coming back from lunch or they are on the phone with family. The Hispanics at work (mostly cleaning staff) always speak Spanish all the time, although they can speak English (most of them). I've worked with educated Hispanics who have lived in America for decades and they do the same thing.
This is a cultural difference, I think that (I can't stereotype millions of people from diverse Hispanic origins) but in my encounters it seems that HIspanics are more ethno-nationalist, especially Mexican Americans I have met, far more than Asians. Asians stereotypically attempt to conform much more than Hispanics I know. I am 100% certain that if this guys employees were Korea, Chinese, Vietnamese, even Filipino, they would not have a major issue with this, maybe one or two, but the majority would not.
Posted: Fri 30 Oct 2009 21:59 Post subject: Re: Hotel Owner Tells Hispanic Workers to Change Names
fwsweet wrote:
caribj wrote:
I wonder if he bought a hotel in cancun with most guests from the USA would he have made this demand.
Undoubtedly so. You want a job catering to U.S. tourists? You had better speak English and have an easily anglicized name.
caribj wrote:
Any case identity is an important part of self esteem as all those white Americans battling in Iraq and Afghanistan know. I wonder how they would feel if they were told to Arabize their nmes, etc to not offend the locals who might otherwise think that they are an alien invading force.
I agree. My point is that if I am your employer, and I order you to wear a chicken suit and call yourself "Shirley," you will either comply or find another job. Does it offend your "self esteem? Then quit. Is it demeaning? Then quit. Persuade the authorities to try to force me to run my business with political correctness? Then I quit, set up my business elsewhere, and your whole town is out of work. Everyone has the right to put their own personal dignity and self-esteem over getting paid. I respect that decision.
Will I be ordered to call myself Michael rather than Michel if I worked in a Parisian hotel managed by an American and catering to American tourists? Will speaking French to other employees be banned?
Some one's name has legal status. Should they be ordered to change it?
You are free to establish your business wherever you chose and you will note that the ultimate success of your entity depends on how happy your employees feel.
I guess you have never been to Miami International Airport.
Last edited by caribj on Fri 30 Oct 2009 22:17; edited 1 time in total
But a person's name? Mahr-tin as opposed to Mahr-teen? That's a bit much. And not allowing employees to speak spanish amongst themselves because of his paranoia?
I can well imagine what would happen at Miami International Airport if a man like him became manager.
Some one's name has legal status and cannot be changed willy nilly. Suppose one of the staff stole from or assulted a guest who then sought to have legal redress. He will go looking for Michael when its Miguel who he ought to seek.
Clearly demanding that employees speak English only in the presence of CUSTOMERS (even if amongst themselves) is well within his rights. Kitchen staff speaking amongst themselves should not be subject to hat restriction.
The fact that he demands English clearly means that the staff is bilingual so I do not see why the Nativist demands that "they ought to learn English" ought to be relevant.
Indian call center works (in India) do this all the time. They don't say "Hi, I'm Seresh, can I help you"? They say "Hi, I'm Sam, can I help you"? In their best American accent. .
The Sam instead of Suresh is an attempt to hide the fact that the caller is in India. I run into enough Suresh or Raj in New York to not care what he is told to call himself. What is more irritating to me is when these callers lack knowledge of their product/service as evidenced by their inability to answer basic questions, or simply lack the cultural competence to communicate with people living within a western environment. That to me is more important than Sam rather than Suresh or Roger rather than Rajendra. There are many "American" names i.e. some of Polish origin, that are a good deal more difficult to process. We all learn to deal with it.
I suggest that you go to Flushing, NY where many stores lack even signs in English or English speaking staff even though that community is multi ethnic.
Posted: Sat 31 Oct 2009 02:15 Post subject: Re: Hotel Owner Tells Hispanic Workers to Change Names
caribj wrote:
the ultimate success of your entity depends on how happy your employees feel.
It appears that you have never owned a business. Business success depends on bringing in more money than you spend. Nothing more, nothing less. In a service business, like a hotel, revenue depends on the customers' being satisfied, not the employees.
Posted: Sat 31 Oct 2009 04:24 Post subject: Re: Hotel Owner Tells Hispanic Workers to Change Names
fwsweet wrote:
caribj wrote:
the ultimate success of your entity depends on how happy your employees feel.
It appears that you have never owned a business. Business success depends on bringing in more money than you spend. Nothing more, nothing less. In a service business, like a hotel, revenue depends on the customers' being satisfied, not the employees.
I own a business. Successful businesses depend on happy, appreciated and fulfilled employees. After all they are the interface with the customers and angry staff can sabotage you in all sorts of subtle ways. It is clear that they did so in this case.
You will note that he didnt demand English because of the customers, in which case it would be been justified. It is in poor form to be talking loudly in front of customers in a language that they dont understand.
He demanded that they speak English so he could understand everything that they are saying. Their PERSONAL business. If a customer isnt waiting to get service who cares. Why is he so paranoid as to need to know every detail of every conversation?
I also have never heard Americans saying that they refuse to go to Cancun or Miami because the employees are named Jose and Maria. I have been to San Juan several times and this didnt seem to be a problem. And PRs tourism industry is very heavily dependent on US business.
I even wonder who is really concerned about the name of an employee once they are treated with courtesy in a professional manner and their needs are attended to. This to me seems important. Not forcing MartEEN to pronounce his name MAARTin. Because if MAARTin is incompetent it really doesnt matter what he calls himself.
The world is a good deal more global and multi cultural than it used to be and most people can deal with this. In fact some people are even irritated by the "Michael" whose name is really "Miguel" as if they are neanderthal racists lacking the competence to deal with difference.
The core concept here is because of his haughty attitude to the employees he will most likely lose his investment. He didnt have to.
PS I think that a run down hotel is more off putting than employees named Josefina and Maria.
Posted: Sat 31 Oct 2009 10:11 Post subject: Re: Hotel Owner Tells Hispanic Workers to Change Names
caribj wrote:
I own a business.
Very well. I shall grant that you know more about how to succeed in the hotel business than the individual in question. And yet, rather than go into competition wih him, and become more successful than he, you choose to tell him how to run his business and how to use his money rather than risk your own. Yours is an interesting if repulsive moral philosophy. I guess we must agree to disagree.
To me the interesting question is: What makes some people willing to sacrifice their earnings and their families' wellbeing in favor of "ethnic" pride, while others will "dress like a chicken" as I put it earlier, if it brings them and their children financial freedom. Obviously, I am of the latter group (after all, the name on my birth certificate is "Francisco Ramon Valiente Rivero"), but I am acquainted with impoverished but proud people of the former group.
I have thought that it is just one of those inexplicable differences that make human diversity fun. But DH just posted some reports of possible genetic tendency towards individualism (or the reverse). And he also suggested that Chicanos might be more consistent in this than other groups. Do different populations differ significantly in this dimension? Is individualism (or the reverse) taught in early childhood? Is it genetic? Is it both (as DH's sources imply)?
Joined: 02 May 2006 {Posts: 443 } Location: Île-de-France
Posted: Sat 31 Oct 2009 20:16 Post subject:
I saw this whole thing differently. I was under the impression that a lot of Taos' appeal as a tourist destination was its history, specifically its cultural heratige, including a recently confirmed DNA link to conversos who fled persecution in Spain. That is what I thought the mayor was referring to when he stated:
Quote:
Whitten failed to better familiarize himself with the town and its culture before deciding to buy the hotel for $2 million. "Taos is so unique that you would not do anything in Taos that you would do elsewhere," he says.
I guess I was just imagining myself as a tourist in Taos, there for the reasons I would go there. I would have found the fake names and ban on Spanish quite tacky, but perhaps most of the guests are not cultural tourists and are just there to ski. I don't know.
Joined: 07 Feb 2007 {Posts: 1829 } Location: Lookin DC Metro, Feelin Geneva
Posted: Sat 31 Oct 2009 23:00 Post subject:
caribj wrote:
Dragon Horse wrote:
Indian call center works (in India) do this all the time. They don't say "Hi, I'm Seresh, can I help you"? They say "Hi, I'm Sam, can I help you"? In their best American accent. .
The Sam instead of Suresh is an attempt to hide the fact that the caller is in India. I run into enough Suresh or Raj in New York to not care what he is told to call himself. What is more irritating to me is when these callers lack knowledge of their product/service as evidenced by their inability to answer basic questions, or simply lack the cultural competence to communicate with people living within a western environment. That to me is more important than Sam rather than Suresh or Roger rather than Rajendra. There are many "American" names i.e. some of Polish origin, that are a good deal more difficult to process. We all learn to deal with it.
I suggest that you go to Flushing, NY where many stores lack even signs in English or English speaking staff even though that community is multi ethnic.
Why would I want to go to Flushing NY and shop at a store where I can't communicate with staff to begin with?
I go to Korean and Chinese stores in the Washington D.C. area regularly but not shockingly I'm one of the few non-Asians in there most of the time (but for a place called H Mart). I speak Mandarin so I can talk to Chinese staff. My wife needs to buy certain ethnic foods that she can usually find at Korean places (maybe more than Chinese) so we deal with it. If we did not have to deal with it we would not deal with it, we would solely go to the local neighborhood store which is full of fluent or nearly fluent English speaking staff, with packages we can read, etc.
I live in a multi-ethnic community too, Fairfax, VA, there are more Asians than blacks here. The difference is, although it has a large immigrant component, most are educated Asians who speak a high level of English. There kids tend to be well integrated with the majority white community,primarily because their is no class difference, if anything the Asians might be a little better off. The blacks here, I would guess, just based on experience, that about 1/2 the black men in Fairfax County have a nonblack wife (I see more than the norm for black women/white male couples here). The Hispanics (mostly Central Americans from Honduras and El Salvador) tend to be poorer, do construction, janitorial work, stockers and baggers at grocery stores, etc. I don't see them at the places I usually socialized unless they are working there.
My wife is an immigrant as well, but she does speak English fluently and has a college level vocabulary (as she went to school here, which is higher than most Americans), most of her friends are similar. They don't tend to speak Japanese in mixed company (I'm not talking about me or if they have a spouse, I mean at parties, work, etc)...that's just rude. It is equivalent to me of you and Frank having a conversation and I start whispering to him so that you could not hear.
As far as who one should feel closer to or not.
I think the difference in our experiences is that I was in two nations where the whites were also visible minorities in a culture that was fairly insular. Therefore if a white man from an Anglophone country heard me speaking, he would gather I was American (or Canadian) that was the basis for conversation. I also worked with a few whites from various Anglophone nations. I'm sure "skin color" was a basis of conversation for some, but in reality the French and Germans I knew in Tokyo and China associated with themselves, we didn't have many French speakers hanging out with us, a few Germans (because they spoke fluent English). Russians definitely didn't associate closely with Anglophone whites, they stayed to themselves in their own groups from what I saw. I knew a Russian girl while in China and I was the only person she associated with who was not Russian besides a few Chinese girlfriends who were also students.
In China we were all foreign students, studying Mandarin. There were no African students at my school. The African students I knew went to the neighboring school and although I would run into them (usually at night clubs...) In Japan we were professional white collar workers, the Africans were not. They usually owned small business selling stuff (clothes, etc) or they were bouncers at clubs, etc.
Joined: 07 Feb 2007 {Posts: 1829 } Location: Lookin DC Metro, Feelin Geneva
Posted: Sun 01 Nov 2009 00:16 Post subject:
To answer Frank's question (well sort of). The person that I studied in grad school in regard to this was socialist, Prof. Geert Hofstede, Emeritus Professor, Maastricht University (Netherlands). His Cultural Dimensions' work is world renowned. He does not address if it is culture that leads to genes, genes that leads to culture, or just culture...
Power Distance Index (PDI) that is the extent to which the less powerful members of organizations and institutions (like the family) accept and expect that power is distributed unequally. This represents inequality (more versus less), but defined from below, not from above. It suggests that a society's level of inequality is endorsed by the followers as much as by the leaders. Power and inequality, of course, are extremely fundamental facts of any society and anybody with some international experience will be aware that 'all societies are unequal, but some are more unequal than others'.
Individualism (IDV) on the one side versus its opposite, collectivism, that is the degree to which individuals are inte-grated into groups. On the individualist side we find societies in which the ties between individuals are loose: everyone is expected to look after him/herself and his/her immediate family. On the collectivist side, we find societies in which people from birth onwards are integrated into strong, cohesive in-groups, often extended families (with uncles, aunts and grandparents) which continue protecting them in exchange for unquestioning loyalty. The word 'collectivism' in this sense has no political meaning: it refers to the group, not to the state. Again, the issue addressed by this dimension is an extremely fundamental one, regarding all societies in the world.
Masculinity (MAS) versus its opposite, femininity, refers to the distribution of roles between the genders which is another fundamental issue for any society to which a range of solutions are found. The IBM studies revealed that (a) women's values differ less among societies than men's values; (b) men's values from one country to another contain a dimension from very assertive and competitive and maximally different from women's values on the one side, to modest and caring and similar to women's values on the other. The assertive pole has been called 'masculine' and the modest, caring pole 'feminine'. The women in feminine countries have the same modest, caring values as the men; in the masculine countries they are somewhat assertive and competitive, but not as much as the men, so that these countries show a gap between men's values and women's values.
Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI) deals with a society's tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity; it ultimately refers to man's search for Truth. It indicates to what extent a culture programs its members to feel either uncomfortable or comfortable in unstructured situations. Unstructured situations are novel, unknown, surprising, different from usual. Uncertainty avoiding cultures try to minimize the possibility of such situations by strict laws and rules, safety and security measures, and on the philosophical and religious level by a belief in absolute Truth; 'there can only be one Truth and we have it'. People in uncertainty avoiding countries are also more emotional, and motivated by inner nervous energy. The opposite type, uncertainty accepting cultures, are more tolerant of opinions different from what they are used to; they try to have as few rules as possible, and on the philosophical and religious level they are relativist and allow many currents to flow side by side. People within these cultures are more phlegmatic and contemplative, and not expected by their environment to express emotions.
Long-Term Orientation (LTO) versus short-term orientation: this fifth dimension was found in a study among students in 23 countries around the world, using a questionnaire designed by Chinese scholars It can be said to deal with Virtue regardless of Truth. Values associated with Long Term Orientation are thrift and perseverance; values associated with Short Term Orientation are respect for tradition, fulfilling social obligations, and protecting one's 'face'. Both the positively and the negatively rated values of this dimension are found in the teachings of Confucius, the most influential Chinese philosopher who lived around 500 B.C.; however, the dimension also applies to countries without a Confucian heritage.
We can look at several nations in terms of Individualism
Mexico ~25
El Salvador ~13
Spain ~47
China ~11
Japan ~41
India ~42
United States ~88
UK ~85
Jamaica ~42
I don't see a clear pattern just based on that but some of the other categories likely play into this.
I esp.I agree with dragon's post if you are in company with people of mixed languages, speak English. It is just being polite.
When speaking privately, one-to-one or to someone who does not speak English,fine.
In the schools I have worked at, the Spainsh speaking staff will speak their first language and it does not matter what the social situation is.,ex.staff meetings.
When speaking privately, one-to-one or to someone who does not speak English,fine.
.
I believe that the workers were speaking amongst themselves NOT in the presence of guests. What is interesting was the motive in terms of language wasnt to make the guests comfortable but so that he would be able to listen to the PRIVATE conversations that they were having with each other.
Posted: Mon 02 Nov 2009 23:07 Post subject: Re: Hotel Owner Tells Hispanic Workers to Change Names
fwsweet wrote:
caribj wrote:
I own a business.
Very well. I shall grant that you know more about how to succeed in the hotel business than the individual in question. )?
I am in a service business and I know that unless the workers are on the same page with me we will not deliver the quality of service tat teh customer wants. You dont dicate to adults. You outline your expectations, the reasons for that and some benchmarks. Teling MartEEN that he ought to pronounce his name MAHRTin has nothing to do with service delivery. Now if MartEEN is chatting S[panish at the cxounter when guests are around or if he acts ailly if a guests pronounces his name MAHRTin (in his view incorrectly) then that is another matter.
Bottom line is the workers are hostile. DService delivery poor. The guests are frustrated and he will lose his investment in thathotel and, given its run down condition and the involvement of proetestors no one will but it from him.
I also suspect that people dont go to Taos expecting the environment of a New England inn.
Joined: 07 Feb 2007 {Posts: 1829 } Location: Lookin DC Metro, Feelin Geneva
Posted: Tue 03 Nov 2009 11:24 Post subject:
caribj wrote:
Dragon Horse wrote:
[
Why would I want to go to Flushing NY and shop at a store where I can't communicate with staff to begin with?
tc.
Your point was an implication that Asians almost always fully assimilate. Or at least so I understand it. My point being that they dont always.
No, not my point, my point is more that they tend to be more integrated over all than Hispanics immigrants. There are reasons for this as I mentioned, such as class/education upon coming to this nation. However, some of it is just cultural attitude that begins (at least with North East Asians) with Confucianism. There are a couple of sayings common with Koreans, Vietnamese, Chinese, and Japanese..."the highest nail gets hammered down" and "the tallest blade of grass gets cut"...this attitude does not change when they leave home, often it becomes more entrenched, especially with their children. I've seen this many many many times as I interact with this community a lot if not most of the time.
'
FAQ
Search
Register
Log in
I'm not sure he does that to "please" Americans, it is more like 75% of Americans can't pronounce his real name and he gets tired of trying to explain it and people saying it incorrectly.