“Why do you find, in a music conservatory, a lot of Asian would-be concert pianists but comparatively few Asian opera-singers-in-training? There's a physical limit to how many hours a day a person can sing but not to how many hours one can practice sonata.” (Forbes, May 11 issue).That’s the view of Richard Nisbett, who outlines his view that I.Q. is more malleable than we typically think in his book Intelligence and How to Get It: Why Schools and Cultures Count.
He says Asian-Americans score higher on the SAT and Asian students perform better on math and science exams than American students because of their culture and educational system. It emphasizes connectedness. Asian schools have a students work out math problems on a chalk board while classmates make suggestions. American businesses recognize this by using different advertising strategies in the US and Asia. Samsung’s message in the US is "I march to the beat of my own drum," appealing to American individualism while the company’s Korea ad campaign focuses on families staying connected.
Stephen Goforth
