I have a cultural interview due, and I need to ask someone a few questions that is from outside of the US.?

Question

I need to know where you are from (city & country). In your country, I need to know a little about work practices. What types of jobs are most common? Are there laws to protect the workers? Are there labor unions? What are main concerns of the workforce (pay, job security, safety, layoffs)? At what age do people get their 1st job? Doing what? At what age are people expected to support themselves? Does this depend on the gender of the person? Also, tell me a little about the educational system (At what age to you complete schooling, does it prepare you for work, what age do you complete college, etc). Thank you so much! This is for a Sociology class at my college. Feel free to go into a lot of detail!

Answer 1

Thought your question was interesting because I have a cultural anthropology and multicultural marketing background so i'll help you out. My wife doesn't type english well so i'll do this for her.

She is Cantonese, lives with me in Zhuhai China within the province of GuangDong.

The ratio of jobs here is similar to the states for about 75% of the population with the rest being farmers and fishermen. In most parts of China the ratio is about 50/50.

There are many laws to protect workers here but enforcement is handled differently because of a fundamental cultural difference most westerners do not understand. Policy vs. law. In the west breaking the law will get you in trouble but policy is flexible. Here, the law can be changed from the bench if it violates policy. The implications of this are legion. It does, however, funciton more efficiently and provide more protection than the same processes in the west generally do if you are aware of how it works.

The main concern of most chinese is the same as anyone else. They want a good job, with adequate pay, and see this as a means to an acceptable lifestyle and community respect. Labor unions do exist but function differently.

Most people go to work immediately after school is finished and this trend, regarding starting wages and future potential, is becoming more global and multicultural at a phenomenal rate. That being said it is still a very "Chinese" affair with such things as an extended paradigm concerning the "law vs. policy" affecting how they approach it all both individually and corporately.

There is no legal and very little cultural difference regarding gender in the workplace. The typical mainland Chinese woman is much happier in and prone to marriage than in the west. The divorce rate here has never exceeded 9%... even during the bubble when divorce laws were liberalised. This, along with the fact that males outnumber females, puts most high level positions statisticallyin the hands of men though women are common in high positions. Also, there is a tendency for well educated women to marry late or not at all. They tend to find it hard to find men they don't intimidate, can provide a better lifestyle, or are not already taken. It is also common for well paid professionals to support close family (i.e. partents and so on) which makes it hard to marry if it means not being able to fulfill those obligations. There is a large population of beautiful, well educated, and available women between 30 and 40 in the metropolitan areas of China. The population of single males is also growing.

The educational system is improving by orders of magnitude every year in China as funds become available and the lower level educational institutions are able to produce higher caliber students for higher education. Secondary education is commonly finished at 17-18 with higher education lasting from 2-8 yrs.

The one child policy has had the effect of lowering crime (unwanted children being the largest traditional source of criminals in all cultures), putting an emphasis on your childs education and future (Chinese often spend the extended families life savings to send a child to school and/or university), and fostering a cultural paradigm of being willing to sacrifice for the future. The average Chinese saves 40-70% of his income compared to less than 4% for the US. They are willing to commonly sacrifice major lifestyle benefits for future gains that would be considered serious overkill by most in the states.

It is common here to be multilingual. My wife speaks mandarin, cantonese, english, and some french and porteguese. Most speak 2-4 languages with mandarin and cantonese being the most common. However, only 54% of Chinese speak mandarin, 48% speak cantonese, and other commonly spoke languages in metropolitan areas include english, japanese, french, russian, and thai. The official language in the schools is mandarin so large numbers of people are exiting the schools who are fluent in mandarin and making that statistic very fluid.

China has not yet matured its first generation of high level free market managers. You find many such posts in business being held by westerners but there is an accelerating trend to replace them from the domestic population. As they gain experience and expertise they perform very well. Their biggest problem is adapting to free market paradigms. It will take some more time but they are learning fast.

Answer 2

Hi ya.. Ill help you out..
I am from Sydney, NSW AUSTRALIA
Currently under the LIberal government, new Industrial Relation laws have all just been put in place for the work place. These new laws have to keep it short, wiped out ALL rights workers have. There is no unfair dismissal now, an employer can tell you how many sick days your entitled to, how much you will work a public holiday for etc.. We use to have unions, however they are basically useless now as under these new laws, if you are caught calling your union, it is a $33,000 on the spot fine for you to pay! This is an absolute joke! These laws are now the main concerns in all workplaces.
People generally start working at age 16 where they get a part time job whilst studying. The average pay for a 16 year old would be between $7.00 and $10.00 an hour. There are laws that stop women from doing certain things in the work place such as heavy lifiting etc.. Its all to do with Occupational Health and Safety!

You can finish school either in year 10 (age 15 - 17) after completing your HIGH SCHOOL CERTEFICATE or you can continue to year 12 (17-18) and get your HIGHER SCHOOL CERTIFICATE. Absoutley NO does this get you ready for work life/uni life, it is ridiculous!
if there is anything else you would like to know, feel free to email me at [e-mail]

Answer 3

I'm a Guyanese,there are mainly three levels of education primary,secondary and teritary(university). Depends on the economic situation of the parents employment varies for a child.In some cases a child may barely have a primary education and starts working at 13-14yrs old. And the next category is the person who have completed their secondary education who may start from 17-18 yrs,this individual may or may not go to the next level of education, and the may be persons who have completed their diploma/degree programme and may start working by 20/22-22/24. Those who barely have a primary education will do jobs such as vendoring,carpentry,masonary,unskilled job that may be available from time to time. The who have completed secondary may do jobs such as clerical jobs,teaching,bank teller,salesperson or any repectable job in their community.While those who have their diploma/degree will do the managerial jobs.There are labour unions but child labour is on the increase and unless the economic situation there is little the union can do.There are benefit eligible employees benefit from example NIS,medical schemes etc. Those who have their completed secondary and university education mostly enjoy these bnefits.The three major religion are christians,muslems and hindus any other question feel free to email and ask.

Answer 4

I live in Nassau Bahamas. Most jobs here are tourism based or government service jobs. The unions here are very pushy and workers are always striking to get what they want. It's a known thing that govenment workers especially abuse the unions to slack off on their jobs. The poor folks start working at 16 but alot of Bahamians go to college and start work at 20. First jobs, for those who don't go to college are often also tourist related.
People are expected to support themselves again the poor at around 18 but sometimes rich kids live with their parents indefinately. I think that Nassau is a very class segregated city. Here, women hold a lot of power in the work force and male unemployment is actually a problem. You finish high school here at 16, college at 20. It does prepare you for work and there is also a good technical college here.
hope this helps.

Answer 5

I live in squishyfordshire on the mire in lovely england, where most of us are indentured man servants to our overbearing and slightly homosexual masters. There are no laws to protect us from the headmaster, in fact, the crown has laws to extend our service time. There are no labor unions in the UK. Our main concern is the governmental distribution of prophylactics for homsexual contact, the institution of a national dental plan, and a hearty supply of bangers and mash. Most brits start out at the age of 10 working in a sweat shop for one bowl of porridge per day, fabricating toothbrushes (only for export, they are not used domestically). Our educational system is in dire need of improvement.

cheerio.

Answer 6

go to Home Depot at about 6:30 am...ask the group of swarthy men "Who wants worka?...pay $1 for each interview...