Job Discussion Forums

u24tc · Joined: 14 May 2007 Posts: 125 Location: Dalian, China

Here is the story. At the University 4 students whom I get to choose get the opportunity to go to the USA and study for a term.
My job is to ask them questions and see their responses. So... here we go on some of the questions:

Question 1: 'What do you think of America?'

Student 1: 'I think America is too powerful, we need to get developing countries like England, Brazil, Germany to come and attack America to make it less powerful.'

Question 2: 'What do you think is one of the most important political issues going on around the world at the moment?'

Student 2: 'Taiwan!'

Question 3: 'What are you're opinions on the events of 9/11'

Student 3: 'I think it was a good thing...'

Question 4: 'What do you think of the United Nations?'

Student 4: 'I love China, long live Mao!'

*Please note: these were answered with the utmost sincerity by the students.

SAFE TO SAY... NONE OF THEM GOT CHOSEN.

7969 · Joined: 26 Mar 2003 Posts: 5782 Location: Coastal Guangdong

student #2 wasnt wrong. taiwan IS one of the pressing political problems today. did they have a chance to elaborate on their answers? or were they just one liners?

lostinasia · Joined: 11 Apr 2007 Posts: 466

Why, when a student or someone else has a differing opinion than you, albeit on the fringe of our culture, are they called crazy ?

In all my many years of China I have yet to hear a single student say anything similar to "long live Mao."

Having opinions that were clearly in opposition to your own, why should their ideas be a hindrance to their studying in the U.S. ? Just because you don't like their opinion, that makes them unworthy ?

Katja84 · Joined: 06 May 2007 Posts: 165

Henry_Cowell · Joined: 27 May 2005 Posts: 3352 Location: Berkeley

7969 · Joined: 26 Mar 2003 Posts: 5782 Location: Coastal Guangdong

kev7161 · Joined: 06 Feb 2004 Posts: 5880 Location: Suzhou, China

Actually, I would have determined their level of English as to whether or not they were suitable candidates. If they think 9/11 was a good thing, so be it or Taiwan is THE most pressing issue of the entire world - - okay. All it means is they are responding with their limited world views based on what others around them (including the oppressed China press) have said. The act of going abroad and perhaps opening their eyes to the real world out there could be a good thing. Again, we were only given a snatch of their answers I'd imagine - - if their English skills qualified them, that's all there need be.

Lorean · Joined: 21 Dec 2006 Posts: 476 Location: Beijing

I smell a troll.

While Chinese students are poorly educated in some areas (sex, infections, dental hygiene), they taught economical status of countries very well. No Chinese would call England and Germany developing countries.

tw · Joined: 04 Jun 2005 Posts: 3898

Chinese students are not crazy. They are just ignorant, brainwashed, and have no desire nor reason to learn more about the rest of the world than what they learn from state-approved sources like CCTV or CCP member-published books. To many, it's more important to have a level 60 character in Diablo II, being able to kill somebody with one headshot in Counter Strike, or knowing where to find the trendiest clothes in town. There are exceptions. But they are hard to find.

GeminiTiger · Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2007 2:30 am Post subject:

johnchina · Joined: 24 Apr 2006 Posts: 816

The student's answer to question 2 is, according to the CCP, incorrect, since Taiwan is an internal issue and not one for the rest of the world. Then again, many Chinese people think China IS the world, so ...

u24tc has clearly not been in China for very long, since it is a well-known fact that, in such situations, the students prepare their answers and the job of the teacher is to ask questions which fit with those answers. The fact that u24tc did not succeed in this marks him/her out as a newbie, incompetent and/or culturally insensitive. Tut, tut!!!

u24tc - Next time, spend a few minutes chatting with the candidates before the interview. Find out what they have memorised and base your interview questions on that. Congratulations! You are now a friend of China and Chinese people and have an excellent understanding of Chinese culture!

This is now the official view taken in IELTS (an English test run by the British Council in China and taken by foreign students (or immigrants) who wish to study (work) in English-speaking countries). Candidates answers are scored without regard to what the actual question was. Hence we IELTS examiners get some answers that make the ones posted by the OP seem perfectly logical.

kungfucowboy83 · Joined: 25 Jan 2006 Posts: 479

haha reminds me of when i asked the class if you were leader of china for a day what would you do. there were 15 students. 1 said attack taiwan, 1 said attack japan, and 1 said attack japan and taiwan.

they asked me what i would do, i said probably give myself a lot of public money and then find someone who could do a good job to take my place i specifically told them that i wouldn't hand it over to the three students who wanted to start world war 3.

arioch36 · Joined: 21 Jan 2003 Posts: 3589

u24tc · Joined: 14 May 2007 Posts: 125 Location: Dalian, China

If they said the 9/11 answer in the USA... they would probably have been shot by now.

KevinT123 · Joined: 18 Mar 2007 Posts: 23

It depends on how you measure "craziness". I find the constant obsession with outdated Western songs like "Yesterday Once More" or "Country Road" a little bewildering. As I do with some of the questions I am asked by Chinese students like "Are there many people in England that can speak English?" or "Why do you always teach us things that we don't know?". Maybe the most crazy is, when I teach kindergarten children in my spare time and put on a Santa Claus outfit that was made for me in China. Parents often believe I am REALLY Father Christmas because I come from a foreign country.