Follow-Up Observations on Asian "Seating Pattern"

In February a blog posting was made based upon the study by Allen on Asian seating preferences in 19 denominational churches. It showed that Caucasians preferred sitting in the front whereas Asians (except Philippinos) tended to sit in the middle or back. During the past 5 weeks I've substituted teaching a Senior Fitness class at the West San Gabriel Valley YMCA, the last two with May Fu. An interesting observation is that every week in this class of 20-25 participants with 5-6 non-Asians (3-4 Caucasians, 2 Hispanics), 3 of the 5 participants in the front roll would generally be the Caucasian students (1 semi-handicapped Caucasian participant would sit in the back and do "chair" exercise routines)! The Asians? Generally they preferred being in the middle or back! The obvious lesson is that we should not "force" or pressure people to sit/stand where they are not comfortable. After rapport has been established, making such requests would be acceptable. But until such time, any actions to pressure people to sit in the front, for example, may be counter-productive.

Allen