Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Bigfeet]

Plight of the Little Emperors
Coddled from infancy and raised to be academic machines, China's only children expect the world. Now they're buckling under the pressure of their parents' deferred dreams.

By: Taylor Clark


When Dawei Liu was growing up in the coastal city of Tai'an during the 1990s, all of his classmates�95 percent of whom were only children�received plenty of doting parental support. One student, however, truly stood out from the rest. Every day, this boy went from class to class with an entourage of one: his mother, who had given up the income of her day job to monitor his studies full-time, sitting beside him constantly in order to ensure perfect attention. "The teacher was OK with it," Liu shrugs. "He might not focus as much on class if his parent wasn't there."

Across China, stories of parents going to incredible lengths to give their only children a competitive edge have become commonplace. Throughout Jing Zhang's youth in Beijing, her parents took her to weekly resum�-boosting painting classes, waiting outside the school building for two hours each time, even in winter. Yanming Lin enjoyed perfect silence in her family's one-room Shanghai apartment throughout her five-plus hours of nightly homework; besides nixing the television, her mother kept perpetual watch over her to make sure she stayed on task. "By high school, my parents knew I could control myself and only do homework," Lin says. "Because I knew the situation."

http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/index.php?term=pto-20080623-000004&print=1

[blaseblasphemener]

[rebel_1812]

[diver]

[Kiarell]

but it's important in the Orient to test students based on abilities of arbitrary memorization than skills. As the vandalized wikipedia page said "at least with multiple choice you can be assured that people in high places got where thye are because they deserved it. Using subjective standards like participation, short answer, and essays open the door to corruption"

It also gives them an objective criteria by which to beat others and maintain the best face.

[Guri Guy]

My students told me that it is very easy to cheat on Toeic listening exams. Just watch for the reaction of other students.

As far as China goes, the more competition the better.