[TEAMspinella] Chinese New Year--how big a deal is it?

"Hi Steve, Can you enlighten me a little? We are in the process of hiring some folks from Asia to help with our workload a little.  Our internal contact there was telling my manager that they want to have the interviews done before the Chinese New Year, which I guess starts this Thursday(?).  So my manager is like "Why in the world are they insisting that this be done before the Chinese New Year???""

Happy Chinese New Year! (Really that should be simply, "Happy New Year!" The lunar year is the traditional one in the Chinese world, and so (Chinese) New Year happens sometime around early February, on a date set by a lunar calendar (which has a thirteenth month every few years to make up for the difference between the lunar and solar calendars.) This year it's Friday, February 12, but it starts at sundown or maybe 6pm on New Year's Eve, so really Thursday, 2/11.

Anyway, I responded to my friend, but then I thought, probably a few others of you would be interested in this. And of course, our friends in Taiwan can snicker a bit that we know so little about this, or maybe correct me gently as well. So, if you're interested, read on....

Chinese New Year is the biggest holiday of the year in the Chinese world. Among other things, everyone tries to visit both their own parents and their spouses parents, every organization has end of year celebrations, and everyone gets one to two weeks off. So essentially no new business gets done for the one or two weeks around CNY. (Think: your org, your client's orgs, your wife's orgs, your wife's client's orgs, your social orgs, etc.)

I suppose there is no reason why you or your manager would know this, and also no reason why it would occur to someone in the Chinese world that you wouldn't know this :-).

The bottom line is that since any interview done right now would be worthless anyway, it's totally reasonable to wait until after CNY, e.g., at least a week or two after CNY, before conducting these interviews. Given that this is Monday, I question whether it's reasonable to do these interviews before CNY, but if they are not done by Wednesday, they certainly will be done some time after CNY, no matter what anyone says. Waiting until after CNY, e.g. a week or more, would be preferable if you really want a good interview, which I assume you do. Most people get a week off, and then it takes a while for things to wind up to speed again.

This is particularly true in China because people may be working at great distances from their families. (Taiwan is much smaller and has no COVID also. They also have a 2-week quarantine requirement.) I have no idea how COVID is impacting this in the mainland, but I'm sure that is a factor as well.

BTW, good on you for realizing that this might benefit from an explanation and asking for one. This is always a great first step when working interculturally.

Steve

PS Did you know that it is traditional to get an extra month's salary at CNY? I certainly didn't, and my staff put up with this for some number of years before I was gently and gradually, but persistently enlightened. I think I was embarassing them :-( and CCG in their families and social contexts.

Steve and Laura Spinella

US: 1930 Springcrest Rd, CO Springs 80920

mail: 9685 Otero Ave, Colorado Springs, CO 80920

Steve cell 719.355.4809, Laura cell 832.755.4261
<spinella@alumni.rice.edu> <

lauraspinella@gmail.com>

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[TEAMspinella] What about the kids?!

No news here these days, so I thought I would write you about something I think about.

I "grew up internationally." People like me often come up with short ways to say this because the details are too complicated for social situations. My next elaboration might be, "I grew up in California, Texas, Costa Rica, and Venezuela."

I know that this way of growing up is not the norm. Most people in the world grow up mainly in one place. If they do move, it typically does not involve airplanes and passports.

Because it is somewhat different, people have long debated whether growing up internationally like I did is good for the kids or not. There are strong opinions about this, both among those who have experienced it and those who have not. So, when I took a mathematical model building course in college, this seemed like a natural question to explore. It was a lot of fun, although I did not publish any ground-breaking research.

I had some wins, such as discovering and obtaining a microfiche (for you millennials, this is something like an online textual database) including someone's year long effort to collect all the then-extant research on the subject, paid for by an interested non-profit. (Thank you, WBT and Steve VanRooy!) I also discovered some then cutting-edge research on randomized mathematical models, housed in my university, and was introduced to the researcher. This was great stuff, although it is no longer cutting-edge 40+ years later. Now there are whole branches of research in this domain.

I found some interesting challenges. First, growing up internationally does not define a normal population. (Some of you knew that, but in this case, I mean that there is no statistical norm around which the population clusters. Rather it is a collection of outliers.) Also, there is no clear population with which to compare. Perhaps the closest comparisons might be with children of similar parents who, for whatever reasons, did not grow up internationally, but of course every family is unique and there are lots of confounding variables. (Again, I mean that mathematically.) And even more, what is good for kids is open to a lot of discussion. If we base success on outcomes, do we talk about wealth, education, values, contributions and accomplishments, social status, health, happiness, or some combination of all of those?

To sum up what I found, growing up internationally neither assures success in all of life nor does it doom kids to poor outcomes. While it is an obvious difference, it is not the most important difference. In fact, no matter where you grow up, the two most important variables are the family that surrounds you and the person you happen to be. After that, everything that happens to you and all the relationships you have outside the family are also strong influences.

This is both relevant and informing to my work. I encourage those I care for to love those closest to them well, to respect, cherish, and nurture each child, grown up or not, in their uniqueness, and to provide safe, stimulating relationships and experiences as much as it is in our power to do so. Beyond that, I think we all need to pray a lot! As one of my favorite sayings goes, "Our parents disciplined us for a little while as they thought best, but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in God's own holiness."

In the one who keeps us, with love,

Steve and Laura

PS There are some outcomes that growing up internationally is associated with. Statistically, kids who grow up this way tend to be wealthier, have more education, and score better on standardized tests. They are also more likely to affirm their parents' values. If you are curious about any of these, let me know and maybe I will write more about this in the future.

Steve and Laura Spinella

US: 1930 Springcrest Rd, CO Springs 80920

mail: 9685 Otero Ave, Colorado Springs, CO 80920

Steve cell 719.355.4809, Laura cell 832.755.4261
<spinella@alumni.rice.edu> <

lauraspinella@gmail.com>

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