China series, Part 4: Education - Part 3

[Prometheus]

Methodology:

Rote memorization

Pre-approved information is provided through ceaseless drills in order to be memorized and then regurgitated for a test. No real thinking is required nor desired.

Here's where I (once again) need to caution any reader from thinking this has anything to do with communism except as it applies to Chinese Civics classes. The tradition of testing students for what they had memorized stretches back over 2,000 years to the Han Dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD).

Considering that the Chinese use characters to represent whole words rather than a phoneme, one can immediately see how memorization is an essential tool in Chinese culture. One can even see how memorizing formulas might give an edge to match and science students. However, when it comes to learning another language that is not similarly-based - such as English - the process falls apart... at least as long as we are talking about talking.

Students are taught to memorize words and phrases in a call and response manner but usually with little understanding of how to use them nor how to use other words withing the grammatical structure.

A Chinese man was driving a rental car in the US when he was involved in a horrible accident. When rescue workers arrived on the scene and peered into the wreckage, one called out, "How are you?"

The Chinese man, barely conscious, turned his bloody head towards the voice and said, "I'm fine, Thank you. And you?"

But I'm sure he did great on the GaoKao.

What's worse is when Chinese students, deemed "clever" due to their ability to memorize, think that they can simply memorize stock answers to a myriad of questions and be accepted at prestigious universities abroad. I'm currently working with a group of 5 students who are preparing to take the A2 Key English Test offered by Cambridge. One of the students, a 10-year-old girl called, Angelina, does this very thing. When I asked the students to describe a recent vacation, she regaled us with a story about her family's trip to Barcelona. That it was memorized, was painfully obvious, but worse was her use of words that she probably didn't even know the meanings of. She mentioned the city's "dynamic atmosphere," so I decided to ask her what about the city made it's atmosphere so dynamic?

The look on her face was one of sheer terror. She didn't know how to answer because she didn't know what she had said, and she never considered that a follow-up question might be centered on those two words. She had memorized stock answers about particular sites that she mentioned in her initial response, but not for "dynamic atmosphere."

And this girl hopes that, one day, she will be accepted to study at Cambridge University. I told her that she won't... at least not until she learns how to say what she feels rather than memorizing what she thinks other people want to hear.

If that wasn't crushing enough to her ego and burgeoning sense of "face", I then asked Noah - an 8-year-old boy, who is held in contempt by his slightly older classmates for being a bit goofy - about a vacation. He told us about a trip to San Francisco. He told us about "trams going up mountains on ropes under the street" and how the Golden Gate Bridge was "big, long, and beautiful."

I praised Noah's answer. He didn't know the phrase "cable car" so he used words he knew to describe what he experienced. He didn't talk about the "structural design" of the bridge as Angelina almost surely would have, and just gave an honest impression.

I'm sure that both of their reputations suffered after the class, but I'm also sure that Noah doesn't care because he's a generally happy-go-lucky kid and that Angelina will simply take more care to memorize more responses rather than actually try to learn what words mean and speak from her heart.

Angelina is the present as it relates to Chinese education.

Noah is the future I hope for.

[ant-mac]

Rote memorization - I'm pretty sure I encountered that method more than once during my formative years.

Also, once during Music, I was expected to write an essay about something I had no idea or understanding of. The music teacher handed me a book, quoted some pages and left me to it. I turned to the pages mentioned and copied out a large section word-for-word without actually reading or fully comprehending it. Apparently, according to the teacher, I made an excellent argument... I still have no idea about what. But I got an A.

PS - Noah sounds pretty cool.

[Prometheus]

Dec 10, 2020 12:23:00 GMT ant-mac said:

Rote memorization - I'm pretty sure I encountered that method more than once during my formative years.

Also, once during Music, I was expected to write an essay about something I had no idea or understanding of. The music teacher handed me a book, quoted some pages and left me to it. I turned to the pages mentioned and copied out a large section word-for-word without actually reading or fully comprehending it. Apparently, according to the teacher, I made an excellent argument... I still have no idea about what. But I got an A.

PS - Noah sounds pretty cool.

1. It has its place, but without any accompanying impetus to use the information in any new and creative way, I see no purpose for it.

If you spend all week saying, "The cow is brown. The cow is brown. The cow is brown. The cow is brown...." and then have a test on Friday with a question:

The cow is ________.

a. pink

b. purple

c. orange

d. brown

It al seems useless if the students even encounter a white cow.

2. There's a teacher that needs to be taken out and shot.

3. Noah is definitely a cool kid. I wish I had him for other classes than just the test prep class so I could give him more of the grammar and vocabulary he needs in order to change the world.

Several weeks on and Angelina still gives me withering stares.

Time for another part in the series....