Post by Prometheus on Dec 3, 2020 3:20:27 GMT
University life
In the previous thread, in the addenda, I mentioned that teachers come to the students. Let me be clear: Chinese students will be in the same classroom, with the same classmates for their entire tenure within a school. Your classmates on Day 1 of 1st Grade will be your classmates on the last day of 6th Grade. While this impacts certain socialization skills, it also creates great bonds of friendship. I know lots of Chinese people who, even in their 50's and 60's are still in contact with and even still regularly go out to dinner with friends from primary school.
University life turns this up to 11.
Since "choice" isn't a word usually associated with anything operated by the government, university curricula and schedules are set in stone. Not only will a class for a particular major attend all of their classes together, they will room together (boys and girls separately, of course). Four years of life together will result in strong bonds of friendship and probably at least one or two marriages between classmates.
Choosing a major
More and more, students are being allowed to choose their own major. You're probably thinking this is because of "communism" and "assigning workers" but it's not. That isn't to say that the CCP doesn't ever make such decisions. It does, but usually only for matriculating students who scored at the lowest percentile of the GaoKao.
I'm talking about parents. Remember, the children are the retirement plan, so parents will guide - or force - a child towards a money-making profession. The problem is that, with so many millions of people thinking the same way that gluts are bound to occur. Back when I first arrived, you couldn't turn around without bumping into someone with a "Logistics" or "International Trade" degree.
This was actually a boon to training centers that specialized in teaching English to adults as so many people were looking to have a skill that would offer more opportunities.
More and more, students are being allowed to choose their own major. You're probably thinking this is because of "communism" and "assigning workers" but it's not. That isn't to say that the CCP doesn't ever make such decisions. It does, but usually only for matriculating students who scored at the lowest percentile of the GaoKao.
I'm talking about parents. Remember, the children are the retirement plan, so parents will guide - or force - a child towards a money-making profession. The problem is that, with so many millions of people thinking the same way that gluts are bound to occur. Back when I first arrived, you couldn't turn around without bumping into someone with a "Logistics" or "International Trade" degree.
This was actually a boon to training centers that specialized in teaching English to adults as so many people were looking to have a skill that would offer more opportunities.
But even parents who tried to avoid gluts and maximize earning potential for their children ran afoul of their own ignorance and greed.
While teaching in one of the previously mentioned training centers for adults, I met a girl who was 25, and still hadn't found her first job. She had studied apiology in university. That's the study of honey bees. Her parents had taken the position that the scarcity of people in a certain metier would guarantee high pay and forced their daughter into this field of study. Supposedly, at the time she entered university there were less than a hundred apiologists in China. What her parents didn't realize was that was already too many.
While teaching in one of the previously mentioned training centers for adults, I met a girl who was 25, and still hadn't found her first job. She had studied apiology in university. That's the study of honey bees. Her parents had taken the position that the scarcity of people in a certain metier would guarantee high pay and forced their daughter into this field of study. Supposedly, at the time she entered university there were less than a hundred apiologists in China. What her parents didn't realize was that was already too many.
Oddly, "Bee Girl", finally ended up learning English very well and got a job in ... you guessed... a logistics company.
These days, more parents are a bit more liberal and telling their children they can choose whatever major they want, but they are still gently guiding them towards high-paying professions. "You can be any kind of doctor you want" sort of thing.
Back to university life....
Like 18-year-olds around the world, freshman students tend to go a bit crazy with their freedom and the distance between them and their parents. "Crazy" for Chinese students simply means going out for dinner before going back to the dorm to study and do homework until the wee hours. But since their weekends now include much more free time, they can be seen crowding into clubs and bars on Friday and Saturday nights. It's probably the only time they get to meet someone who isn't a classmate.
Students sleeping in class is common from Grade 1 of primary school, but university students are often barely functional. When they do function it's usually just to respond to a message on their phones.
Students sleeping in class is common from Grade 1 of primary school, but university students are often barely functional. When they do function it's usually just to respond to a message on their phones.
There are clubs and extracurricular activities and even extracurricular courses at university. Some are voluntary. Some are not.
Back before Mr. Xi started cracking down on "liberalism" in universities, I ran a post-graduate course at a local university about politics in the US. Many of my lesson plans were inspired by threads from the original Politics Board on IMDb.
I think that's about it for now. I need to do some food shopping. The cupboards are getting bare.
![[giveup]](http://storage.proboards.com/7182076/images/FSYefibmKqtatIXMgHZg.gif)
![[cheers]](http://storage.proboards.com/7182076/images/engyBVslEdpmpmdnBwZQ.gif)
