Michael Chang Quotes

I used to think that my mother got into arguments with people because they didn't understand her English, because she was Chinese.

I say the same thing that I've said for decades now, which is: don't go over to Japan trying to change it, thinking that you know better. Go there trying to understand.

Some things are really sacred and important to other cultures, so you have to be aware, politically, about those things before you just adopt them.

I don't think that people understand enough about each other's cultures any more.

I navigate different cultures daily, and I understand how people can make false assumptions because of their lack of interaction with the cultures I find myself in. But if they don't frequent these spaces much, how can they rush to judgment?

I feel Delhi always has a problem in understanding different regions and cultures.

Across all U.S. intelligence agencies, there is a lack of cultural respect and a poorly tuned attitude toward foreign peoples and cultures.

Cultural differences can be delicate situations we have to work within the respectful boundaries of.

I jumped off a bridge in Italy, is that culturally insensitive? Is saying 'mamma mia' culturally insensitive?

Africa doesn't leap on you immediately; it seeps slowly, and it's incredibly important to be respectful and humble there.

The two cultures of East and West are very different, and the priorities are very different. So when you understand that - if you are from this side or this side - when you understand that the other is different than you, and you respect these differences, you can build communication.

Some Indians will come up and say that a story reminded them of something very specific to their experience. Which may or may not be the case for non-Indians.

I haven't met everyone from all different cultures, but I do know Aussies are very tough.

When you travel, remember that a foreign country is not designed to make you comfortable. It is designed to make its own people comfortable.

I don't think anyone could write about another culture and get it 100 percent accurate.

We have to allow ourselves the freedom to make mistakes, including cultural mistakes, in our first drafts. I believe it's okay to get cultural details wrong in your first draft. It's okay if stereotypes emerge. It just means that your experience is limited, that you're human.

I decided that Europeans and Americans are like men and women: they understand each other worse, and it matters less, than either of them suppose.

I've been to Africa three times. All right? You can't bring Western reasoning into the culture. The same way you can't bring it into fundamental Islam.

You know, you're living in a society where if you say something that you might think may be OK, when it's more sensitive to that particular culture. You have to be very, very careful.

I visited a new cultural center in Shanghai in 2005 that was pretty much perfect, except for the really badly translated Chinglish signs: a handicapped restroom that said 'Deformed Man's Toilet,' that kind of thing.

For a journalist who covers the Muslim world, we have responsibilities to be familiar with that culture and to know how to respond to that.

There are cultural issues everywhere - in Bangladesh, Latin America, Africa, wherever you go. But somehow when we talk about cultural differences, we magnify those differences.

Seriously, some Americans just shouldn't leave the country.

It's different cultures that make the world go 'round at the end of the day.

I try to study the background of the country I am in and what were my hits there, so I can at least give them some of what they want. It's like a wedding - give them something old, something new, something borrowed and definitely something blue!