ctlmdjb, very interesting comments as my personal experience is completely opposite yours.
I’m a chinese american educated in america then moved back to HK to work for a british firm after spending about 10 years in california (5 of which I was working). I had trouble at first because I was always giving my honest opinion and ended up offending people. Then I was told that the british tend to be more courteous and agreeable at least on the surface, always carrying a gentlemenly smile on thier faces even though they don’t agree, whereas the americans generally shoot from the hip.
Now that I’ve been in Asia for the past 10 years I’ve learned to raise objections and disagreements in a more diplomatic manner, probably due to british influences during the 7 years that I worked there. Very interesting indeed.
And I’m in my late 30s now and I also found myself having fewer and fewer friends and friends I meet nowadays are also more suferficial … mind you I admit I’m perhaps the superficial one as I think I’m getting lazier by the year to “develop and cultivate” freindship. Whne I was in my 20s and early 30s I was known to be the guy to organize things like ski trips, a nite at the football game, or just dinner. I moved to beijing about a year ago and started doing that with a bunch of expats in beijing … unfortunately while the group started out with a few dozen people as time goes by the number of people who’d show up seemed to decline. Perhaps I’m just not that great of an organizer, and gradually I’m also losing interest as others lose interest as well. Is it all due to age ? I have no idea; perhaps someone with a sociology background or a pyshcology degree can enlighten us here …
