R
Ryeland
Mecca V.I.P.
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- Oct 1, 2006
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Lifterdead posted some very interesting points about the cultural differences in our society compared with those holding eastern values.
During my time studying engineering at a very multinational university I got to observe a great deal of Chinese academic behavior. I was at a point the president of the Engineering Society on campus. There were a large number of academic hearings that I had to attend wherein Chinese students were accused of attempted bribery and cheating. It was sad in some respects to see this happen, but also enlightening. As lifterdead touched upon, many of those students could not speak english on any level that would be considered passable. There were many cases of plagiarism in written reports due to that fact. Many of these students had horrendously high GPA's, near perfect. However when pushed to write a technical report, or a supplementary exam with close supervision they could not repeat their stellar performances.
We are often told that people in eastern countries are far out-pacing western students in terms of academic excellence and overall quantity of information learned. I often wonder about the validity of these statements given the performance of eastern students I have seen. My statement here is anecdotal, I don't pretend its a statistical study. At my school, I saw a great deal of cheating among the eastern students. I also saw a great disparity in the quality of their textbook work and their project work. When placed in a real world design situation, most of the eastern students I worked with failed to be creative enough to solve the problem. They could handle the math, but connecting the math and science to a real project seemed to pose a greater difficulty than for western students.
Now as for this conversation specifically, China is still a ways off of becoming a world power. They have all the pieces, but I believe they have demonstrated a lack creative design to solve modern issues needed to be considered a world power. Most of what you would consider the identifying characteristics of modern society are not Chinese in origin. Wireless communication was mostly developed in north america and europe. The personal computer is a north american invention. The internet again is north american in origin. The automobile, while its invention is a dispute, is popularization and sub-sequent manufacturing boom is north american in origin. Pharmaceutical advances have been perpetrated mostly by western countries. The western world is far more receptive to addressing climate and environment issues than china is.
Certainly China is not at the same stage of development as the western world. But the fact is, Western civilization has been a more defining factor around the world for a great many years, and China has not showed a great deal of new invention lately to be considered a leading power anytime soon.
During my time studying engineering at a very multinational university I got to observe a great deal of Chinese academic behavior. I was at a point the president of the Engineering Society on campus. There were a large number of academic hearings that I had to attend wherein Chinese students were accused of attempted bribery and cheating. It was sad in some respects to see this happen, but also enlightening. As lifterdead touched upon, many of those students could not speak english on any level that would be considered passable. There were many cases of plagiarism in written reports due to that fact. Many of these students had horrendously high GPA's, near perfect. However when pushed to write a technical report, or a supplementary exam with close supervision they could not repeat their stellar performances.
We are often told that people in eastern countries are far out-pacing western students in terms of academic excellence and overall quantity of information learned. I often wonder about the validity of these statements given the performance of eastern students I have seen. My statement here is anecdotal, I don't pretend its a statistical study. At my school, I saw a great deal of cheating among the eastern students. I also saw a great disparity in the quality of their textbook work and their project work. When placed in a real world design situation, most of the eastern students I worked with failed to be creative enough to solve the problem. They could handle the math, but connecting the math and science to a real project seemed to pose a greater difficulty than for western students.
Now as for this conversation specifically, China is still a ways off of becoming a world power. They have all the pieces, but I believe they have demonstrated a lack creative design to solve modern issues needed to be considered a world power. Most of what you would consider the identifying characteristics of modern society are not Chinese in origin. Wireless communication was mostly developed in north america and europe. The personal computer is a north american invention. The internet again is north american in origin. The automobile, while its invention is a dispute, is popularization and sub-sequent manufacturing boom is north american in origin. Pharmaceutical advances have been perpetrated mostly by western countries. The western world is far more receptive to addressing climate and environment issues than china is.
Certainly China is not at the same stage of development as the western world. But the fact is, Western civilization has been a more defining factor around the world for a great many years, and China has not showed a great deal of new invention lately to be considered a leading power anytime soon.
