I have always viewed stereotypes as a negative thing. However, after reading chapter eight of Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers, I have come to believe that stereotypes do have truth to them and they are not so bad after all. Stereotypes are started from consistently witnessing a particular group repeatedly doing the same things. It may be the food they eat, the way they dress, the sports they play, they way they speak, the names they have, the types of jobs they hold, the hobbies they have or what they excel in. In this chapter, Gladwell uses the example of an Asian stereotype. Gladwell (2008) says, “Students from China, South Korea, and Japan - and the students from recent immigrants who are from those countries have substantially outperformed their western counterparts at mathematics” (p. 230). Gladwell feels Asians are great at math because of their cultural upbringing and beliefs. Many years ago when the Asian culture grew rice patties to feed their families. They did not have a lot of money to buy machinery to help them farm, they had to do al1 the work themselves. “Rice farmers had to become smarter, by being better managers of their own time …show more content…
Before the students take the test they were asked to fill out a questionnaire with over one hundred questions. The students that were able to sit and concentrate on the questionnaire questions were the same students that scored high on the test. The places that scored the highest were Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, and China (Taiwan). These are the cultures that place the highest emphasis on hard work, as well as the same cultures shaped by the tradition of the wet rice agriculture. Based on the examples given in the chapter I believe the success in a product of persistence. If you continuously practice and work hard for what you want success will be the