Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Hanson]

Alright, so many people on this board generalize (don't we all?), whether it be about Koreans, or Canadians, or Americans, or whomever, and then someone invariably plays the "You're generalizing - that's not true in all cases!" card, which is then rebutted to say that "yes I was generalizing, so it's not true in all cases, but it's true most of the time", at which time a new poster enters the thread to support one of the afore-mentioned sides on the generalizations debate.

Sound familiar?

So, my question is...




















Is it ok to generalize?

[Hanson]

I actually think that Dave's people would agree to disagree sometimes. But that might be me just generalizing!

[Homer]

Taking a shot at it.

It is ok to generalize when you have sufficient information to do so. It becomes a problem when a person generalizes based on nothing more then a few personal experiences and then does so continuously (it happens a lot on here).

Then again, in general, it is not ok to generalize unless you generalize about something general or are in fact a general yourself because everyone knows a general on a battlefield can do whatever he pleases.

[d503]

It is okay to generalize so long as your realize that it is a generalization.

I mean isn't the official motto of English is their is an exception to every rule.

[schwa]

Stereotypes are necessary mental shorthand or we'd go nuts cataloguing every exception. Perfectly valid too.

But we choose the generalizations we express, & negative ones regarding races, nationalities, or social groups tend to be hurtful, & reflect badly on the person expressing them.

I try to stick to positive generalizations.

[Moldy Rutabaga]

Generally speaking, we shouldn't generalize- or overgeneralize. Is there a difference between these words?

But sometimes generalizations help us to understand complicated ideas. When you think about it, a road map is, in fact, a generalization. A country is depicted as being orange or red, and the border is shown as a giant black line, when in fact this is a lie; the country isn't really orange and we can't actually see a borderline. But the lines and colors help us understand things about the country.

Ken:>

[Rock]

I've been accused of this on the Taiwan board at times. But in general, it's the status quo that don't like you to make so called 'generalizations' to dispute their 'rationalizations' against rather dubious 'insinuations' that may defame their 'characterizations' to the contrary.

It's really just people giving their opinions, not generalizations. Experience may depict one person wrong and the other right, but in the long run, I can't stand those who speak out for the entire crowd when the 'general opinion' is. . .

There are three truths in life: The knowns, the known unknowns, and the unknown, unknowns.

[AdamH]

It's closely linked to the way general cognition works, in humans and many animals. As an example, if you feed a piece of cake to a rat and it thinks it's delicious, next time you show it a similar piece of cake, it will want to eat it with minimal hesitation. If you then poison the cake so the rat gets ill, next time it sees the cake it will be wary, and might shy away from it altogether.

We think in the same way with generalisations: If we have pleasant experiences of X, then we will be predisposed to think and react favourably to X again in future, and vice-versa.

I'm sure there's a pertinent quote or two from logical philosophy as well about a theory only being valid until proven otherwise, but I'll stop before I get out of my depth.

[Ya-ta Boy]

A lot of the problems with generalizations can be avoided by adding simple words like 'usually', 'most' and 'some'. It isn't hard to do. MOST fluent speakers are capable of doing it. The problem is that MANY don't.

I do something similar to what schwa does. When I make a generalization about people, I make sure it is positive. When I want to say something negative, I make sure it is about an individual.

"Most of the Korean people I know work really hard but Mr. Kim is the laziest SOB I've ever met."

[Hanson]

Interesting posts.

I was just thinking that a lot of people jump on the "you're just generalizing!" bandwagon whenever they disagree with one. If they agree, on the other hand, then it's somehow ok. Seems to be a double standard going around on this board...

For example, one generalization I often hear (and agree with) is that many (to use a page from Ya-ta Boy - good point) Koreans stick to eating Korean food when on holidays abroad. If not, then it's "Oh, I wish I had some kimchi with this Thai curry" or something to that effect. Now I'm not saying that I don't sometimes miss home cooking, but this (Koreans "needing" Kimchi) to me is simply absurd. I've noticed this on trips when my wife and I have met Koreans abroad and I simply don't get it.

Now, is this generalization "acceptible"? I'll grant, it's a little on the negative side, but again, does that make it untrue, or not acceptible?

[Ya-ta Boy]

[Hanson]

Lots of generalizations being thrown around lately...

[the_beaver]

[Hanson]

[cunning_stunt]

People suck . But not all people . Just other people .