quiet-the-power-of-introverts-in-a-world-that-cant-stop-talking-susan-cain

professors were so patient, just listening
to everyone.” She nods her head comically,
mimicking the overly respectful
professors.
“I remember being amazed. It was a
linguistics class, and that’s not even linguistics
the students are talking about! I
thought, ‘Oh, in the U.S., as soon as you
start talking, you’re fine.’ ”
If Hung was bewildered by the American
style of class participation, it’s
likely that her teachers were equally
perplexed by her unwillingness to
speak. A full twenty years after Hung
moved to the United States, the San
Jose Mercury News ran an article called
“East, West Teaching Traditions Collide,”
exploring professors’ dismay at
the reluctance of Asian-born students
like Hung to participate in California
university classrooms. One professor
noted a “deference barrier” created by
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