Living in China: Chinese Education: Performance Based Teaching: Problems with Chinese Youth: Chinese Perspectives.My Student friend has already 'cheated' in 4 exams this school year. Well, he doesn't actually 'cheat', he just 'pretends' to be someone else, and does their exams for them. It's a simple process really. They merely substitute photographs in their identity cards. The first thing I had to tell him was that the reason I seem so happy, is that if I allowed myself to be controlled by all the 'negatives' that surround me, I would have to quit my job and go home. 'The Secret of Being Happy', I informed him, 'is that happiness comes from within you. It is not the result of happy experiences.'
'What advice would you give?' to two Chinese people,
one a teacher and the other a student,
who discussed some personal issues with me, and asked for my advice.
Case No. 1. On Christmas Day 2005 I received a telephone call from a Teacher, informing me that he was in Wuhan to stay with a friend for a few days, but wanted to know if he could first visit me and discuss something. Naturally I said that would be fine.
So what was his problem? Well, I already had some idea, since he had discussed the problem many times before. You see, this teacher is in his second year of teaching, and not coping too well. It's not so much that he has classes of 65 - 70 students, but that the system in place in China, means that he is constantly at the mercy of Students and their parents.
The problem is that while he has one class of wonderful, attentive, interested, and hard working students, which is well and truly demonstrated by their exam results, the other class is disrespectful, noisy, inattentive, and not the least bit interested in working. Naturally, this is reflected in their exam results.
Since student success is attributed not to the students themselves, but to the teacher, the poor exam results of this class 'demonstrate' that he is a 'bad teacher'. Never mind that by this same standard, his other class 'proves him to be' a good teacher; he is a 'bad teacher' because he has a class of students who are failing.
He wanted me to tell him not only what to do, but asked me to tell him the secret of being happy. [You see I am renowned for being a 'happy' person, who is always smiling and telling jokes.]
The first thing I had to tell him was that the reason I seem so happy, is that if I allowed myself to be controlled by all the 'negatives' that surround me, I would have to quit my job and go home. 'The Secret of Being Happy', I informed him, 'is that happiness comes from within you. It is not the result of happy experiences.'
He found this a little difficult to understand, because there is nothing happy in his life. He works too many hours, putting in more hours than are required.{Fnt} He spends a lot of time making sure that his teaching is correct, and tries his hardest to make the lessons as interesting as possible.
Unfortunately, his 'bad' class are not the slightest bit interested in his abilities or his attempts to make the class more interesting. He could accept the situation more easily, if he was the 'odd man out' amongst the teachers, but as he pointed out [unnecessarily, because I am totally aware of the situation], many of the teachers are unhappy, and have given up trying. They no longer care!
That they no longer care, is something quite obvious to the students, for it is one of the most frequent complaints students make about teachers.
I suggested to my friend that he decide what options he has, what choices he is actually able to make, the cost of each decision, and then decide what price he is prepared to pay for making a certain decision. I suggested that when he knew the answer, he should act accordingly.
But here's the catch. As much as he wants to continue being a teacher, there seems no way to solve the problem that he and other teachers face. And while he would be quite happy to find a job as an interpreter or translater, especially in a foreign company, he cannot leave the school without permission, and permission is not usually given.
[Something else of which I am aware. One teacher was refused permission to leave his school so that he could live with his wife in Singapore where she worked for a foreign company. Two weeks later he just 'left China'.]
I suggested to my friend that he and the other teachers should consider signing a petition and sending it to the government, but this was met with disbelief. 'If we did that," he said, "we would all lose our jobs!'.
Whilst that might seem to be an ideal solution to his predicament, in fact, given the way the system works in China, if this happened he would not be able to find work elsewhere, as he would not have his 'papers' and necessary work releases. He would be totally unemployable.
So what advice would you give?
(Fnt)Teachers Working Hours:
In China, teachers are required to be physically in their offices at all times when not involved with their classes. Even if they have no classes that day, they are still required to be at school; and this, despite the fact that they live just across the road from the school.
Yesterday, I was visited by a student who, after arrival received a telephone call, which created a problem. He asked me for my advice. His problem?
He has a friend who is not so good at English. This friend attends a different university, and today, must sit for an exam. He wants my student friend to do the exam for him. "What should I do?" my student friend asked.
"That is a question you should ask yourself!", was my reply.
To cut to the chase, the situation was this. My Student friend has already 'cheated' in 4 exams this school year. Well, he doesn't actually 'cheat', he just 'pretends' to be someone else, and does their exams for them. It's a simple process really. They merely substitute photographs in their identity cards.
Anyway, recently the universities have tightened security measures, and one girl was caught sitting for someone else's exam. This being a communist country, everything that happens in your work or private life, is recorded, which effectively counts as a 'rap sheet'.
Whatever problems it causes you, will persist all of your life. Access to private and confidential personal information is the rule in China, not the exception that exists (or so we think) in the west.
The real problem for my student friend however, was not the fear of being caught, but the 'cultural' ramifications of refusing to help a friend. "How can I continue my friendship with him if I refuse to help him?" he asked.
A Question of Culture
This 'cultural' problem is not restricted to just my friend. I have as a teacher, encountered it in my own classroom. Let me digress a little and tell you what happened this last semester. One day, I was giving a dictation test to a particular class, and despite my instruction at the end to remain silent while I collected papers, One girl turned around, and I heard her quite clearly ask the girl behind, 'What was that last sentence?"
I went straight over to them, took both their papers and ripped them up. The girl of whom the question had been asked, protested that the 'cheating' was not her fault. She came to me after class to discuss it further. She explained to me that as the other girl was her room mate, she could not 'refuse' to give assistance. It is a cultural 'no no'.
As this girl is a bright and successful student, I informed her that her current results would remain, and that I would not count this test in her overall scores. [My students are constantly assessed, either individually or as a class, and get an aggregate total which is divided by the number of 'personal assessments', to determine the average. Different Students may have a different numbers of assessments, depending on ability.]
I pointed out to her, that as she had been 'publicly penalised', that she was now in a position to tell her friend that in future, any such requests for assistance during an exam would be refused. She was quite happy with this, and thanked me for my kindness. The problem was not that the second girl was a 'cheater', but that she was bound by cultural conditioning to assist the 'cheater - pianzi'.
The bottom line in both sets of problems to which I have introduced you today, is one that concerns culture. Despite the Government's constant and strident efforts to remove Bribery and corruption from Chinese life [Yes they do!]; despite all the systems they have put in place to provide remedy to those who see themselves as having no remedy, the people are still afraid to break out of cultural thinking. [By the way - before someone starts saying that 'the specific culture' mentioned here, is the fault of the Communist Government, let me assure you that it pre-dates the communist revolution. It is quite traditional.
Possibly the biggest hindrance to such cultural reform in China, is the sheer size of the country, and the fact that despite western perception to the contrary, the whole of China is not 'controlled' from Beijing. Whatever the Central Government may do to alleviate some particular problem, that remedy can effectively be negated by government departments at either local or state level.
In presenting this article, I have shared with you the personal predicaments facing 'people I know'. Of course, I could have been politically incorrect and said, "You can't trust students in China, because cheating is the norm not the exception." (Did I mention my friend's complaint that within his particular year classmates at college, 80 students had their mobile phones stolen this semester?).
One of my purposes in writing this article was to get you, the reader, to react from a western perspective, to the various scenarios presented. I wanted you to immediately see the solution to the problem. The problem is however, that while it is easy to give advice, often times our advice is coloured by our own 'personal, social and cultural perspectives', which can be offered without any knowledge or understanding of the specific cultural ramifications of such advice.
The apathetic teachers mentioned in Case No 1., are apathetic because it is the only option that they feel is left open to them. As my teacher friend said: "People prefer to ignore the situation because it saves them from a nervous breakdown". "Some of the other teachers told me to stop caring, or I will have to pay a lot of money to a psychiatrist", he said.
As for my student friend in Case No. 2., do you know what his real problem was? It was not really about the morality of cheating, nor the fear of being caught. His problem was that he had planned to stay overnight with me and go back to school after lunch today. If he were to have agreed to do his friend's exam, he would have had to have gone home last night, or have left very early this morning. In the end, the real issue was one of choosing between personal 'convenience' and social culture.
When we make judgements or give advice which is 'factually' ignorant of the wider cultural issues and ramifications, our judgement and advice giving is not only useless, not only a waste of time, but demonstrates a sense of cultural arrogance.
Nevertheless, I still want to leave you with the opening question.
'What advice would you give?'
- especially now that you have some idea of the cultural background to the problems.
It was decided that unshod horses would not be allowed to be used in commercial ventures. People couldn't ride horses for a living; salesman couldn't load goods onto their horses; and horses could no longer pull carts. While it all seemed quite logical and humane, the unforeseen consequence of the law was that the supply of goods into and out of the town began to dwindle, until in the end, business after business went bankrupt. As time went by the whole city went bust until the only ones left were those who could not afford to move, and one of these was our blacksmith. One day, considering that since the council itself was now gone, the blacksmith decided to restart his business.
Any teacher who is legitimately employed, and properly registered, is able to pack up and leave if the going gets tough, but any teacher whose 'bona fides' (as a foreigner living and working in Baotou) are not legitimately established, could find themselves being deported from China. I would hope that all the problematical behavior of management at EET has long since changed, and that they are currently fulfilling their legal obligations. I would hope that anyone who goes to work there would be well treated or at least not abused, cheated or lied to. But foreigners who to write to me to ask my advice are either 'plants' working for EET or just plain foolish.
Today, I am using a recent letter from Jerry, to tell a story – a sad story. It is a story rooted in Ancient and Modern Chinese Culture. It is a story of an impossible love. It is a story I have heard so many times before, of families who refuse to allow their children to love whom they will. It is a story about how in the 21st century, Chinese children must still obey their parents and marry the one of whom the parents approve.
One would think that based on those two great truths that the Commonwealth Bank would have the organizational and managerial flexibility to deal with any situation to arise, but apparently they do not - OR - they don't wish to! But you just have to wonder if at the end of the day, the whole issue is not just about "a shortage of competent staff" and a lack of good old fashioned customer service.
American Chinese cuisine is not quite the same as regular homestyle cooking back in Mainland China. I think that it might be wise to bring a Mainland Chinese cook back with you, unless you are ready to install a MacDonald's restaurant on site. But a major problem that I think Dr. Smith is likely to encounter, is that far too many Chinese students who have passed the International Language Tests in order to study overseas, arrive on campus without any ability at all to understand what is spoken, or to be able to speak English. Such is the state of those tests.
A common thread running throughout Yang Guangyou's work life is that employers expect and demand so much of him but have consistently discriminated against him because he has no college degree. He is a diligent worker, professional in his various supervisory positions and is quite at home conversing in English. As of December 2011, he is again unemployed. (January 6, 2012 - Received word that he is working in Tianjin.) Jerry's Story: When a boy is around the age of 20, his parents will find a person to introduce a girl to him as a wife. At this time the family of the male part will give 10000 to 20000 [rmb] to the family of the female part. Generally speaking , they will not change the relationship once it is built. After that, the family of the male part will collect money for the wedding, 20000 RMB maybe. But that is not enough because the female part usually ask for a new house which can be built around 100,000 RMB in that place.
With something like a 70% Rural Population, many kids grow up in the countryside, in tiny little villages, or larger but still small towns. They run, play, fish and swim in the nearby fields and streams. Probably most don't have running water in their homes, and certainly not bathrooms. The outhouse is literally the outhouse, and the waste will run off into some fish pond or similar.
In China, the rights of society take precedence over individual human rights. This, we Westerners call totalitarianism and from an ideological perspective, desire to destroy it right? But ask yourself this: "What does MY country promote?" In China, there are many social problems that similarly exist in your country, and these are slowly being dealt with. But it seems to me that while China's totalitarian regime is focused on making China a 'harmonious society', that in the west, everything is aimed at promoting sectarian interests which divide society.
, 2006My Student friend has already 'cheated' in 4 exams this school year. Well, he doesn't actually 'cheat', he just 'pretends' to be someone else, and does their exams for them. It's a simple process really. They merely substitute photographs in their identity cards. The first thing I had to tell him was that the reason I seem so happy, is that if I allowed myself to be controlled by all the 'negatives' that surround me, I would have to quit my job and go home. 'The Secret of Being Happy', I informed him, 'is that happiness comes from within you. It is not the result of happy experiences.'
You may find this hard to believe, but Chinese students can memorise a 20 minute monologue - perfectly. They memorise their lesson texts. They might understand nothing. They certainly cannot commence at paragraph two or three: they must start from the first word and go through to the end. However, they can memorise perfectly. So this is what these two girls did.
Chinese Students: Chinese Youth: Problems of Chinese Young People. This file was intended to be added to on a regular basis. Unfortunately it wasn't. The friendship with Mingxing has however continued, and as can be seen in the photographs in the Confucious Temple article listed above.
As I turned in at the gate, I was dismayed to see people leaving. My arrival naturally evoked the expected 'LaoWei! LaoWei!' As I entered the church, the few people that were left rushed to greet me and began to explain in Chinese, whatever it was that they were explaining. My heavy sigh was sufficient to impress upon them my disappointment, and resulted in one man grabbing my overcoat and pulling me outside, whilst the rest pointed off in the distance. Ahah! I was being taken somewhere. We walked for about 15 minutes down the road. Now up to this moment I thought that Chibi consisted only of that part of it that I had already seen, but it actually continues on to a busier and more residential section, which is quite separate from that part next to the Museum/Park
Chibi is 20+ kms east of where I lived in Hong Hu, and I could ride my bicycle, take a taxi or catch a bus to the Barge Crossing. Of course one must then wait for the barge, and that can take some time. On the other side of the river it is just a case of walking a short distance to the museum and lookouts.
You will arrive at Taipa House Museum Area with so much to see. If you want to go into the Museum you must pay. But there is also much to see outside. This is a museum beside the A-Ma Temple on Macao Island. This sits on the waterfront and you can see Zhuhai in China across the harbour.
Beijing
(Note: Chiara Braccagni's articles are in both English and Italian)
A una di queste chiamate, ci fermiamo a fianco a una coppia di giovani. Non solo i due incauti avevano diversi sacchetti, ma portavano con sé anche una torta. Dopo varie discussioni con la bigliettaia perché la torta nel pulmino proprio non ci stava, provano ad aprire il finestrino e a passarla alla ragazza seduta di fronte a Justine. Visto che non riuscivano a spostare il vetro, sporgendomi, faccio alla bigliettaia: "Lo faccia passare da qui" (okkei, va bene, ho detto solo "da qui", il resto della frase era sottinteso!). Io, anima ingenua, credevo che una volta saliti i due giovani avrebbero trovato il modo di riprendersi la torta. E invece no! Mi sono fatta una decina di chilometri di strada sterrata con una torta gelato sulle ginocchia! E giusto per renderla ancora più precaria, era una torta a due piani con complesse decorazioni, tra cui un drago giallo con occhi e baffi di cioccolata. Avevo il terrore di spetasciarla. A questo punto, però, ridevamo da non riuscire più a respirare.
Mt. Tai is located in the center of Shandong Province, lying across the cities of Tai'an, Jinan and Zibo. Its main peak, Jade Emperor Summit, which is within Tai'an City, is about 1532.7 meters (5,029 feet) high. The mountain was once called Mt. Daishan, Mt. Daizong or Mt. Taiyue and was renamed Mt. Taishan in the Spring and Autumn Period (770BC-476BC). It epitomizes splendid Chinese culture and was listed in the World Natural and Cultural Heritage List of UNESCO in 1987
Many people say that my cursive Chinese writing is just terrible scribble. Now I know that they are just jealous because I have mastered a unique form of calligraphy. Du Fu Selected Poems Translated by Rewi Alley Foreign Languages Press 2001
On the Matilda Trail by Captain Sandy Stewart. Today we are going to head north to Mt Isa, but before we go we have a few things to do. First of all we have to go to the FLYING DOCTOR HQ and thank them for the tip of when the plane was coming in. On our way back to town we went past the Vortex guns built by Steiger Vortex as a rain making exercise in 1902, it failed. We are now crossing over Lagoon Creek heading for Longreach. Cruising west 80 kms to Ilfracombe we stop to have a beer at the Wellshot Hotel and guess what! THE PUB'S GOT NO BEER.
Spanish Lighthouse at Corregidor Island had a signpost letting us know how far from home we were - The Centerpiece at the War Memorial for American Soldiers in Manilla - Corregidor Island Battery looking toward Batan - Military tanks at the Philippine Military Academy
When excavating workers discovered the original Royal road and archaeological viewing platforms have been set up from both above and beside the original road. No charge! You can go down the ramp and clearly see the road and the accompanying signs/ The Chaotian Gate - During the Zhizheng Reign of Yuan Dynasty it was renamed to Gongbei Tower. It was destroyed in the 10th year (1474) of Chenghua Reign Ming Dynasty and rebuilt in the next year. The building was destroyed again in early Qing Dynasty and rebuilt in the 25th year (1686) of the Kangxi Reign Qing Dynasty. It is known as Drum Tower.
We spent quite a bit of time in Leifeng Pagoda before leaving to take a cab back to our hotel. On the way out we read all the signs about the Pagoda's history and the Story of Lady White Snake. We also stopped so that Mingxing could duck into a little temple beside the Pagoda. I took the opportunity to sit on a fence and have a cigarette. While doing so I notice 2 young couples at the entrance and one of the boys looked at me, smiled, said something to his girlfriend who then produced a camera and then made a beeline for me so he could have his photo taken with a 'real live foreigner'. We foreigners probably have our photos taken more often than movie stars.
Definition: King's Calendar Chronological Research
The Premise: Between the 5th and 3rd centuries BCE (but continuing down to at least 104 BCE), Sectarian redactors transcribed the legitimate 'solar year' chronological records of Israel and Judah, into an artificial form, with listed years as each comprised of 12 months of 4 weeks of 7 days, or 336 days per year, thus creating a 13th artificial year where 12 solar years existed.
When the Synchronous Chronological Data provided in the Books of Kings and Chronicles for the Divided Kingdom Period are measured in years of 336 days, the synchronisms actually align. [Refer to Appendix 5. to see how it synchronises the Divided Kingdom Period]
About the KingsCalendar Publisher
R.P.BenDedek is the owner and Editor of KingsCalendar.com which was originally set up to publicize his research results into the Chronology of Ancient Israel. Those results were published under the title: 'The King's Calendar: The Secret of Qumran'.
Whilst there have been many attempts to solve the chronological riddle of the Bible's synchronisms of reigns of the kings of Israel and Judah and their synchronism with other Ancient Near Eastern Nations, no other research is based on a simple mathematical formula which could, if it is incorrect, be disproved easily. To date, no one has been able to dismiss the mathematical results of this research.
Free to air Academic articles set forth Apologetics for and results of his discovery of an "artificial chronological scheme" running through the Bible, Josephus, the Damascus Documents of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Seder Olam Rabbah.
During the current economic downturn, this book has been drastically reduced in price but will eventually rise as the economy improves.
Check the Chapter Precis Page to see details of each chapter and to gain access to the Four Free to Air Chapters
R.P. BenDedek writes social commentaries and photographic 'Stories from China' both at KingsCalendar, and as a contributing columnist at Magic City Morning Star News in Maine USA.
(He has been teaching Conversational English in China since 2003 and currently (2013) is teaching in Suzhou City Jiangsu Province.)
No matter what someone might like to assert or claim, there is absolutely no evidence currently in existence, nor likely to be forthcoming, that can demonstrate that the chronology offered by the 'King's Calendar' is impossible, untenable or contrary to the 'evidence'. It has equal merit with any currently suggested construction of Israelite History, with one excelling exception. It can demonstrate itself mathematically. There is only one possible justification for rejecting the 'King's Calendar' Chronology, and that would be to demonstrate that its computer generated mathematical foundation is erroneous in that its determination at some point of history can be proven to be incorrect
Newsletter No.5 Ancient Egypt. The Hyksos, 18th Dynasty, Rameses II By R.P. BenDedek
Few people appreciate the numerous difficulties involved in determining an 'accurate' history of Egypt, and that history is still under challenge with regard to the currently accepted placements of Egyptian Dynasties. For instance, Merenptah's 'Israel Stele', if it is to be believed, records a victory over the 'nation' of Israel, centuries before Israel was a 'nation'. Rohl and James et. al. have been working on providing a more reliable chronology, with James et.al. suggesting that Merenptah's dynasty ought to be shifted to the Eleventh century BCE
Newsletter No.4 Academic Disagreements : Opinions and Assumptions By R.P. BenDedek
The 'King's Calendar', which deals with CHRONOLOGY (not history) is the only proposition which synchronizes all the Biblical chronological references, and for this period of history, it did something which no one else has ever attempted. Instead of insisting that the chronological data was wrong, it maintained that the Name/Identification of certain Jewish kings was wrong. Of the four kings of Judah that reigned during this period, THREE were known to have reigned under names OTHER THAN their real names
