Culture Values and Patterns

Lead-in Scenario -- Stay Hungry Stay Foolish

Read the story and answer the questions:

On June 12, 2005, Steve Jobs (Apple Computer’s former CEO made a Commencement address at Stanford University. After sharing three stories from his personal life, he concluded with: “Stay hungry. Stay foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.”

Since then this saying has become well-known and has been inspiring more and more Chinese people. Although it has been translated as “保持饥饿，保持愚笨” or “求知若饥，虚心若愚”, people still literally interpret “stay foolish” as “you are still a fool, no matter how much you have learned or experienced” without discovering its real meaning or the value behind it. It's still unclear what Jobs really meant by“foolish”.

If you really know about Steve Jobs' life and experiences, and really understand why he gave up his studies in college, you would be able to exactly interpret what he meant by “stay foolish”. 

Questions for Intercultural Understanding

So what are the interpreted meanings behind the saying? They are values, the core of culture.

Objectives:

Upon completing this unit, you will

²Increase your understanding of the nature of values.

²Understand the definitions of cultural values.

²Know the components of cultural patterns.

²Grasp the influential models of cultural value orientations.

²Know some fundamental cultural values in Chinese culture.

Further reading: