By Nina Kao & Hanna Huang

On Friday, February 17, 2023, TAP-Austin had the unique opportunity for first professional workshop since the pandemic to snag Eric Tsai, OFTaiwan founder and current TaiwanPlus content producer. Eric is a Taipei American School graduate that studied and worked on the East Coast for several years before returning to Taiwan and joining TaiwanPlus. Longtime TAP-ATX member, Sam Ni, made the introduction to featured local speaker, Julie Lee, a current marketing professional at Netspend. Julie had the opposite trajectory as Eric. She grew up in Taiwan and worked in Western-founded companies before coming to the US to continue her studies at NYU. She also had the experience of working at the World Journal in New York, an organization that is run more like a traditionally Taiwanese one. 

The workshop was hosted in the private dining building of Taiwanese American-owned Sugar Pine for a more intimate session that allowed for free-flowing conversation and Q&A with attendees. The event garnered about 75% new attendees to TAP that had not been to an event before! It was a great mix of 1st, 1.5 and 2nd generation Taiwanese Americans. After dinner, the moderated conversation with the guest speakers began. 

While Julie had the experience to work in both Taiwanese-and Western-founded corporations, she shared about how collectivism and individualism could be manifested at work, respectively.  Employees working in a Taiwanese-founded corporation tend not to leave work until the supervisor leaves even if they have already finished their work. She noticed her coworkers in Western-founded corporations are likely to separate themselves from work when the job is done for the day. 

To recognize the cultural differences in workplaces is a learning process. Although certain cultural cues may still not be understood, both Julie and Eric advised us to embrace the differences. Being curious and genuinely interested in the surroundings help the cultural interpretation at workplaces become much easier.  

It was a fantastic conversation where both speakers shared the differences they encountered while working. 

Link to more pics: https://photos.app.goo.gl/T1NBBePJMbtRoetX9