Tall Poppies

There's something called Tall Poppy Syndrome in New Zealand. That means that you shouldn't try to be better than everyone else (like a poppy sticking up way higher than the others).

New Zealand is a very egalitarian country with a smaller proportion of very rich and a smaller proportion of very poor. There's not as big of a range in salaries for different occupations, either. For instance, a doctor might make 10 times as much money as a janitor in the US, but in NZ they would make about 5 times as much.

Culturally, it's not proper to brag. Remember my sign that said I was "The Greatest Teacher in the Room"? (look behind my head) It's not funny here because it's slightly inappropriate. It's also not culturally acceptable to be too overtly ambitious or driven like it is in the US.

One expat who moved here from The Netherlands expressed his frustration about his coworkers who weren't exactly slackers, but didn't exactly have their noses to the grindstone either. In the US (and I guess in The Netherlands), there's more of a strong cultural expectation for excellence and for success. In NZ, there are still plenty of excellent workers and successful people, but it just isn't as high of a priority to them. Kiwis are more laid back. From one perspective, being laid back is good because that means a slower pace, priorities on enjoying life more, etc. But the other perspective is that the cashier will not be as prompt, or the employees won't get as much done. From a national perspective, too many top university graduates go to UK or America to work, and the NZ government is currently trying to lure them back.

Realising this cultural difference helped me understand my students more. American students who walked into my class expected to work the entire time. Their parents expected them to work. If I showed a movie one day, I felt guilty – like I was cheating somehow and not doing my job properly. Parents even complained if too many teachers showed movies on the last day of the term.

But my Kiwi students don't expect to work the entire time non-stop. (I was shocked. What did they think school was for?) In class, it's not that students are teased if they have the right answer; it's just that there's not the same competitiveness to be the one with the right answer. It's a slight cultural difference. There's no glory in being the tallest poppy.