I work in Germany. After a group meeting of 5 about a project that I took part in, my professor asked me how do I think about the project progress. I had the impression that we might not meet the deadline, but I think that as a newcomer, it is not appropriate for me to say so. So I just told him what I am going to do for the project.
Would there be any cultural differences in dealing with this (e.g. Asian country vs. Germany)? (Would the answer be different if I am in a non-academic field?)
Assuming your professor is a reasonable person, there is nothing wrong with truthfully sharing your view of the progress in the project. They wouldn't be asking if they did not think your opinion matters. Of course, if you are concerned about the project progress, you want to stick to the facts and not over-dramatise the situation of the project. It may also be a good idea to come equipped with at least some ideas how to go forward (since this will likely be the follow-up question if you share that the project currently could be in trouble).
I am sure there are cultural differences related to this, but I don't feel qualified to reason about what the correct way of framing this in an Asian country would be. However, the difference between academia and industry (in Germany) isn't very large - in both cases there is an expectation that you politely raise issues as you see them, rather than pretending everything is great until the car hits the wall.
Edit: one important thing I forgot to mention - this is under the assumption that this is more of an internal meeting. If the meeting also includes external people, most importantly representatives of the funding body behind the project, the only correct answer to "how is this project going?" is "great, we are going to achieve all of our goals." Letting whoever pays the bills know that it may be time to pull the plug on the project is unlikely to go over well.
