UNREACHABLE AND UNTEACHABLE STUDENTS
Every Chinese college and university has them, from top tier down to the bottom 4th tier.Usually every class has at least one and the unlucky teacher may be saddled with several. Occasionally, an entire class may be beyond reach.
No matter what the pedagogy, the methodology, the materials; there are some students who have decided that higher education is only an endurance requirement. In America there is an educational philosophy that no child shall be left behind. China has a slightly different bent – no college student shall fail to receive a diploma so long as the tuition has been paid.
Nationally, 5% of Chinese university students are unreachable and unteachable. At Zongshan University 1.6% of the post-graduate non-English majors are unreachable and unteachable.
Chinese students know full well that they will not be failed even if they never attend classes. They are allowed to retake a final exam, with a different teacher each time, until a teacher is found who will pass them. Failing grades issued by foreign teachers are administratively changes rather regularly. The Chinese educational system deprives the teacher of a major external motivational tool and the students take advantage of this situation.
These students are not too hard to identify. They sit in the back row and try to blend into the back wall. Some sit up front, arms crossed with a scowl on their face that says a D-8 bulldozer isn’t going to move them.
Some give themselves away by telling the foreign teacher “you do not understand China” or “you do not understand Chinese students” or “you do not teach like a Chinese teacher.”
Others will declare their open contempt for English due to some misguided nationalistic pride. Some will state that they do not need English now or in the future. A Shanghai University student declared that his father was a very high Shanghai Government party official and that his father would always take care of his future, both politically and financially. This boy was well connected and his future was assured. Within months his father was caught up in the political purge and power shift that saw all of Shanghai’s political leaders replaced. His father was imprisoned and made to forfeit all of his money and property. The boy was weeks away from graduation and would receive a useless degree.
A young man in Guangzhou insisted that he would never need English because his father was Chairman of the Board and majority Shareholder of a major Chinese company. This boy wasted his educational opportunity in reliance on his father’s position and wealth. Within two months of the boy’s graduation his father was imprisoned for economic crimes and sentenced to death and forfeiture of all money and property.
It is sad indeed to watch any misguided student pursue a path of self-destruction. But no matter what you say or do, they are determined to serve their time at university without earning an education because they know an education (Diploma) will be handed to them as long as their tuition is paid. Educated idiots!
As we have often heard, Youngster who is from impoverished family shoulders responsibility earlier, I didn’t change this point of view until my college life. One of my classmate whose father is a realtor moved me, she said that she won’t ask for money from her father because the money was not received by hard-working.
We come to this world to struggle to survive. Most of us try to earn more money to live better, others who possess enough money should try to live more meaningful, not by consuming, instead, by upgrading their ideological consciousness.
One may be poor but never ceases to be ambitious, one is rich and powerful should pay more attention to this.
Man is nothing else but what he makes of himself. As an adult, one has the right to choose the life he wants, as long as he could be responsible for the consequences.
EDITOR’S NOTE: YOUR WAYS HAVE NOT WORKED FOR ALL THESE YEARS. ARE YOU UNREACHABLE AND UNTEACHABLE?
I did not feel happy after answering the call one night.I said hello in Chinese an the next day some of my classmates said the same experience ,then we knew the call was from Mr Martin .i think it is quite reasonable to learn and practice English well in our daily life ,but we have our methods to manage it .beginning a call with an English hello can not mean so much,we have our choice to practice English ,and usually doing something you have to is not a good feeling and feel compelled .further more, entering the college or university for a diploma is not a pervasive phenomena.in fact for most undergraduates they just want to be maturate and enrich themselves ,maybe this is more suitable for most graduates who prefer to pursue further study just for a diploma.
Maybe our education has some problem, but I think the most factor is attitude of student. Talking about job hunting, many people have the same idea, if I have a Diploma of a famous university, I will find a good job. But I don’t think so,the thing what company most careful,is your capability,not your university.So, if you could not find a good job, you shouldn’t complain your university, but yourself.Learning is likely, if you couldn’t learn well,the first you should complain is your attitude of learning.
What you have said is really thought-provoking,there are a lot of problems in chinese education. However,you have not found the real problem ,you cannot recognize the crux of the problem before you sdudy the whole situation carefully,so there are still some arguments of yours that i cannot agree with now.
Students are supposed to have their own opinions about what is useful to themselves. If some of them think English is unimportant to themselves, i think you should just let it go.what you need to do is to teach those who would like to learn English.
Maybe she just a student as your article tells—a unreachable and unteachable student.I think she has misconstrued your words and purposes.English is really important in nowadays.But why most of us could not study English well,just as we don’t have atmosphere around us. All the things the professor requires is to help us improve English,though there is something we feel difficult.So I think the person who write the e-mail should be wise.Bringing a lawsuit is a bad choice—not good for him or her.Maybe there is something other could do.Try to have a talk with eachother.Try to understand the new style the professor used in teaching English.It is good for us not harmful!
It seems to be some misunderstangs between the student and our prefessor. I suppose that more communication should be needed.
EDITOR’S NOTE: 1.6% OF MY STUDENTS, NOT ALL OF SYSU.
I don’t know how the professor get the fact that 1.6% post-graduates in SYSU are unreachable. I cannot deny it because I have done no research. But I have studied in SYSU for five years, I understand the students here. As you know, SYSU is a famous university even in China. It will not allow students who are unteachable to attend. That is to say , SYSU is aiming to cultivate elites but rubbishes. The students here in my eyes, are very diligent, aggressive , studious and making very effort to study more, especially the post-graduates. If they are unreachable, how can they get the chance to enter this outstanding university? Certainly, I cannot deny that there are some post-graduates do not like study English and show the attitude of different. However, everyone should have rights to choose what they want and what they need. You cannot judge them according their efforts of studying English. You can imagine , they will contribute so much to the society one day though they are English idiots. I love English so much and I keep making every effort to study it well. But that’s my choice that cannot force others to accept it. Western countries always emphasis freedom and respect human rights .They themselves will be responsible to their lives but us. Why not try to be more tolerant?
This article shows us a common phenomenon that there are some students who go to college just hunting for diplomas which some colleges would surely give to them since the tuition have been paid even though the students never pay attention to the real education. Also two real stories tell us: self-independence is the ultimate way. There are an interesting situation in Chinese examination room, that some one taking exams for exams, some one taking exams for diplomas, and only the left taking exams for proving their personal abilities. The true pedagogues hating the iron which is unable to be steel feel worried, and we educatees should be worried too. When you go to receive education, what do you really want and finally get? Is it a piece of paper which may help you to find a good job or the ability enable you master your future work and life well. Think about it.
The educational phenomenon is not just an exception in present society, while a mass of things like that happened. Just think clearly and don’t get lost.
In China, the original meaning of “university education” has been changed now. The colleage students were treated as “excellent” before, while colleage students are more and more now. There are various typies of university, high quality and low quality. So the quality of students are different, but the phenomenon professor mentioned above exists in every university. They don’t realize the reality of society. If one wants to live happily in life, he must have his own ability to survive. While there is a phenomenon of craze to vie with each other in university, they do not care about grade, future, parents’ hope, what they want to do is to enjoy happy life in university. As the saying goes “Rich three generations,poor three generations”, we should not depend on other’s ability only. The purpose of pursuing higher education is to enhance our ability which is the basic requirement for happy life. So we had better realize that earlier, do more meaningful things in the most wonderful period!
A plain case here, if you may know, in China if further education is desired, we’ve got to squeeze in like crazy and flow out just effortlessly, whereas the occurrence in the US and others alike might just be the opposite. Headaches of the author on whether Chinese college students are really unteachable might stem from this huge gap of super concern.
To me teach-and-learn is a seemingly a twofold matter and neither of the twain shall be separated from the other. Assessment of teaching and degree of aptness are always desired together, aren’t they? Some (maybe a considerable proportion as I observed) fellows go extremes, I mean, either are they super talents like encyclopedia that may well surpass the teacher’s realm of knowledge (a better case in courses other than English one) , or just bees not fond of gathering pollen, lazy and directionless type. Probably, the latter is to be blamed, I’m not sure.
Therefore, it’s just unreasonable to judge students and teachers by class involvement as the only criteria. With this prerequisite ahead, if a student sits in the back row and blends into the wall doesn’t necessarily boil down to his idleness of acquisition or shiftless in progress. On the other side of the spectrum, why couldn’t it be the implementation of pedagogy that went wrong? About this UNTEACHABLE, I believe, just artfully kicked out of a TEACHER’s dictionary. No idiot would admit he’s unteachable.
Now that we choose to be educated, to be wiser, to be well-prepared for careers, just stick to it and make a difference. Formal education bred us here, and we needn’t to be that street-smart as HOLDEN, the Catcher of the Rye, and shouldn’t “pursue a path of self-destruction” with the slightest expectation of dependence on parents.
Yes, the English language learning is very important, as students we should try to learn English well. Chinese students in the existence of such a phenomenon, even college students, graduate students, some of them are unreachable. We say that all this is China’s education system problems. This is of course a problem, the education system is not a day or two we can solve. But as a student, we should be responsible for our own life, we should try to learn something of interest, we should strive to be that we want to become the people who we are want to be, rather than wasting our prime time. I admire that the young people in the United States could go to university, they can also learn what they want to learn. The fact is that China have large population, it is unable to meet each young people to go to college aspirations. This is also the educational system reform causes.
English is very important，nobody can deny it, every student will have their opinions about the action of Mr. Martin. Follow or not is decided to ourselves, so professor’s purpose is good for us, it is ours choice to accept it. So may be if we can communicate with professor much more than before, we will understand each other better.
No press, no progress. This Chinglish sentence shows the inertia of human beings, which also be the true to English learning. You can get a diploma as long as you pay for the tuition, and maybe this exists in many universities of China. In my opinion, it’s a relief of inertia after almost twelve years over-pressed study from primary to middle school education. In each stage, some of us were sentenced to be unreachable and unreachable, and failed to go to university. Entering university means liberation to many of us, whose curiosity of knowledge and truth have almost gone with the wind, and the habit of learning in press makes us get less progress in a place of no press in legend. If you want get a progress in university but not only a diploma, please dump that bad and sad learning habit formed in the disgusting examination-oriented education system.
EDITOR’S NOTE: THIS APPEARS TO BE A MACHINE TRANSLATION AND A BAD ONE AT THAT.
It is some sort of shameful but we have to confess to the fact the text has delivered. To retrospect the days of as being a graduate, I did skip classes often, for fearless to get the diploma. Because everyone of us knows that there is an approach to pass the exams. We never need to worry it. Even we failed the exams, the diploma can still be obtained by the back door. Due to this kind of thoughts, students never learn by heart, as to myself, I also didn’t learn much during my university time. So I do think that the policy for graduation and the pedagology needs to change in a certain way. The university needs to be a place where foster real talented person for the society.
After reading the article,i was interested in the two funny examples at last three passages.In fact, a youth who has a rich father will be easy to get a good job and gain more social resource without any pains,which is a common phenomenon in China.Instead of blaming them,people usually admire them and navy their life.
Now,i want to say that not every one will have that “short cut” during their life.Sometimes,once a person has the thoughts to rely on others, he or she will be easy to give up fighting for their life and to lose the ambitious to achieve career.It is pity and a shame.And life is equal,everybody have only once time to enjoy this gift,never expecting “return ticket”.So,we must take seriously about our life.Don’t waste time to waiting and give up our rights to choose our life style.
If we have the true attitude towards life,we will to be the owner of life and work hard for our future.
It is not so true that all the students can obtain their diplomas if the tuitions have been paid. In other words, the fact is that we Chinese university presidents have realized the problems and have taken some measures to address such problems. You know, Dongbei University and some other ones expelled more than 100 students from the school a few years ago. I heard that new from the local papers and it did shocked not only me but also all my schoolmates and teachers. What is more, it had sparked much debate. Some people may say it is such harsh punishments for those students, and maybe we should give them some chances, if they still behavior bad then expel them. On the other hand, others would like to say, those students made mistakes that cannot be rectified, so expelling them from school is sensible. In addition, it is a warning for other students and definitely would help them to study hard. Consequently, schooling will have a promising result if such measures do work. As far as I concerned, I would agree with the latter one. The reason for this is that college students are young adults, so as adults they should be self-control, knowing what they should do and what they cannot even have a try, never, ever. Despite that, we still have such a long way to make our university perfect; fortunately, we have already realized how serious the problem is and started to try to adopt it.
In China we always hear a saying: if you get into the college, then you can enjoy your life. Maybe it’s true and we just do so. But many students waste their time during the four year, escaping from the class, indulging themselves in the PC games, or sleeping as long as they want. Then we graduate, we may ask ourselves, what did we do during the college life? The answer is “Nothing”. When we were forty or fifty years old or maybe just after we go to work, we must regret what we were doing during the college life. And I also think English as a universal language which is important for us to know well about it. So if we meet a teacher who wants to help us to learn it, we should show our respect and gratitude to him instead of criticizing him.
In my opinion, students who do not learn hard will get what they should get, like cannot get good jobs, cannot find their value of life. Maybe at a recent time they can live depending on their fathers, fathers cannot take care of them all over their life. In someday, they will regret what they did in their youth. Our government makes rules of education, but some of executors do not carry out strictly. I Think we should strengthen the power of supervision, in this way, our educational system can really work.
Actually,there are some students of this kind in the university of China,even in the best ones.But I believe the number of these students just account for a small percentage compared to most of the students.I have studied in two famous university in the south of China for about five years,however,I don’t find one like this kind of “unteachable” or “unreachable” among my classmates.I just heard of them in other branches,still very few.In some worse university,this phenomenon will be more common.So I believe we are not born to think we may succeed even without pay.Indeed,we are teached.A father may say to his guys,”Don’t worry about your jobs,I will take care for you.”I deeply hold that it is family education that ruin those students,not the school.How to solve that?I don’t know where to start.
There are both excellent and not so good students in a class, that’s true. My grandmother is a teacher and she tells me that she likes the excellent and hard-working students more, to be frank.
We are supposed to study English well without excuse. English is an important instrument to communicate with people all over the world.
We have to admit that the Chinese educational system is non-incentive. Once you have been admitted to a university, you will be able to graduate basically. If you fail in an examination unfortunately, don’t be afraid, you will have three chances. Firstly, you can retake an examination when the next semester begins. Secondly, if you fail in the retaking examination, you can restudy the course and take the final examination. At last, if you fail in all the previous examination, you can take the last examination before graduation.
After reading the artical and comments, I am thinking about the issue of the different culture. Perphaps they are not simply just offending or misunderstanding. When I was in the USA last summer, I experienced the differences cause by the culture ,but after all I tried to think in a American way and understood more about the people there.We all know we try to make our English better for better comunication with people all around the world. But we also notice that some meaning lost when it be translated. So we tried other ways for communicating in order not to be misunderstood. We still trying hard.Besides we should also learn the culture carefully when we learning the language.I do believe there are some unteachable or unreachable students around us, they do live in their incomprehensible way of life.We may consider they are just wasting time but doing nothing. But I also believe such person will wake up someday, probably tomorrow,probably after 10 years,or even when he facing the death.Every person has his own way to be grown up and all these make up the society. I am thinking the task to short the period for a unreachable student to reflect on himself is for our younger generation.It could be the problem of the time if we want to do it.And we could find all these situation not just happened in one country for the differences between the countries are less and less.
Everyone is live for himself,and should also be responsible to his life.We may make mistakes because we are young,but we won’t until we become more mature.
I just feel a pity for those misguided Chinese students. It is themself but not anyone else who lead to their tragedy. Actually, those guys’ arrogance also reflects a disappointing reality of our education. Unlike parents in America, parents in China do not attach so much importance to the cultivation of childen’s independent personality. Childen in China are used to their parents’ shelter. They are blindly optimistic that their parents can guarantee them a bright future. That’s the main excuse of some students who do not do well at school. They quit classes frequently, indulge themselves in meaningless things and cheat in the final examination. They are the real spoiled generation. For those people, we cannot help asking “what is the future direction of our education, our country?”. I think, the most urgent thing the society should do is to help those students correct their belief and help them establish a right concept of their college education and their future development. You see, we Chinese people’s IQ is high but we are still mentallhy backward. If we want to prevail in the new era, we should have a reform on our people’s mind. All the efforts begins in our education.
There is an famous Chinese quote saying that you can find any kind of birds if the forest is getting big. While the range of high-rank education in China is expanding at a high rate, there must generate some problems such the quality of the education. If not, why do so many students fail to find their jobs? Of course, there are many reasons to explain the phenomenon, but the quality of the education counts most. On my personal level, students who come to the college just for the diploma are sometime common especially in the 3th rank and lower rank colleges.
Actually some of my classmates are like these guys, but when they came into the society from the ivory tower. They told me that they feel so guilty about what they have done in the past four years.
In my mind, an outstanding college differs from the normal one is the atmosphere of the study. To cultivates the well atmosphere need the contribution of the teachers and students both. To some extent, the contribution of the teacher counts most, because in China teacher is playing an important role during the process of teaching. If the teacher keeps being strict, the student will study hard.
But as we know, the teachers are always busy, so this is the turn for the contribution of students. Maybe you have found this is really important with your own experiences. If the atmosphere of a dorm is good, the roommates will all perform well in the study or work. But if the atmosphere is not good, you can image what they are doing in their everyday life.
I do not want to give a comment to Rui Wang,maybe he/she have found his/her peoblem.What the professor wants to do is to help us,do not forget about this important point if you really have something you can not understand.
There is no doubt that the education system of china is not a perfect one for the Chinese students currently. So many years past, there is no other choices for the Chinese children. I just think we can not blame for the children. But we are adults now, it is time for us to take the responsibility to ourselves, to change our comprehension of education.
I agree with what they said,the boys who didn’t study but rely on their
father are very stupid.I always think that we can make a great success only throuth our hard work.Although our background is very important,but if we just depend on it not make a study,we won’t get anything at the end.Only the knowledge and the ability are the things that we can own forever.So we all should make an effort to raise our resources,no matter what our family is.
This is a good essay that give us an alarm to learn more to make ourselves more competitive.So thanks for offering it to us.
From the first class we have known that Professor Martin was a strict teacher. And today, we got that much more clearly. Some of us have been asked to leave his classroom because of the unfinished homework. Well, I have no idea about the others’ feelings, but for me, I think I should be responsible for the omission of finishing my homework. Though I have been kicked out, I still want to try my best to follow Professor’s directions. I forgot to say “hello” in English either, but I DON’T feel angry, instead, I felt sorry. Because we all answered the Professor to do it, then I ate my words. I’d like to sturdy English more conscientious, so just try again with earnest.
The phenomenon the article mentioned above does exist in china. In some university, you can get your diploma only if you pay the tuition on time. But, I really don’t think this is the main reason why under-gradates in china are “unteachable”. The true reason is that the system of education of china is not sturdy. It is too hard for a high school student enter a university. Once they come in, they find themselves free in the campus. They can do anything the want, because their parents can not restrict them any more.
I just said in “some” university that the phenomenon exists, in fact, the students in lots of prestigious university are not unteachable.
Maybe I am lucky because my classmates are not unreachable and unteachable students. All of us are diligent and responsible for ourselves. Many classmates always make their efforts to learn useful knowledge, not only English but also kinds of techniques. For example, we had to finish many papers for the final exam last semester, most of us often learnt and wrote overtime till deep night. However, there exists the phenomenon that some students study just for a bachelor’s or master’s diploma indeed. Actually the phenomenon are more serious in normal universities . It’s difficult to analyze the issue, maybe the educational system , maybe complicate growth environment form their values and attitudes towards study. One point I want to explain, students sit in the back row are not always unreachable and unteachable students. You know many Chinese are quiet and shy, but they are hard-working students. At last I want to say thank you professor, I am moved you care about every Chinese students ,not only for our English study ,but also for our growth and future.
I think English is improtant to us. Maybe someone have the different ideas. However, we should have a rational heart especially facing the different comments. This reminds me that, when I was a kid, I didn’t understand why my dad always forced me geting up at 6:00 to doing moring execrises. I didn’t know how improtant the health is. So, my opinion is, no matter how useless you think English is, it also needs to be treated seriously. Cause it’s really useful and improtant.
Indeed, in China’s universities, there is the existence of such a phenomenon : Some college students study just for the diploma, they abandoned the University of valuable time, and nothing after graduation. But there are a lot of people to university in order to better enhance their quality of all aspects, to learn more knowledge. I think that every university student should have an intention to learn, to become an expert in some fields, making a useful talented person.
The world is unfair. Some people are born to be with “Golden key”. They take everything for granted because parents make full preparations for their future. As a result, to work hard is impossible for them. However, looks are deceiving. Richness seldom passes down to three generations. If their parents fall down one day, they will become useless.
In my opinion, receiving a comprehensive education is vital to everyone’s development. If a student has the determination to learn something, no matter what his family conditions are, he will try his best to achieve the goal without hesitation. So it all depends on how and what students think of themselves. Different people have different values towards life.
As to the telephone call, I thought Mr Martin would talk to us when we accept the call. But I just received “OK!Thank you!Good bye” from the TA. Rome is not built in one day. Learning English is a long process which requires continuous endeavor.
When it comes to the “Hello” issue, I think the purpose or the aim of Martin is good. His responsibility is to improve students’ English. He is strict but helpful in many ways. But I don’t think it is an effective way. I will follow your intructions not because I like to but because I was taught to obey the rules since I was young, thanks to Chinese education system.
When it comes to the article above, I don’t think there are unteachable students. One of the most respectful professors in my undergraduate university once said, “There are no stupid students who raise stupid questions. There are only stupid teachers who are not able to answer questions”. The student who is a failure in your eyes doesn’t have to be a failure all the time.
I suggest Martin to do your own job. Be stict or even harsh if you like. Someone will enjoy your favor, and at the same time, someone may have resentment. You can’t expect all the students to like you.
I think that every university has some unreachable or untechable students. This is an inevitable thing. But the number of the students like the Shanghai boy and the young Guangzhou man referred in the articles is a small very minority. Because they come from a privileged background. For most students from ordinary family, if they can’t acquire knowledge and ability they should have thought college study, they will be placed in difficult circumstances after graduation. Of course, not all students come from a privileged background have these silly ideas.
There are many faults in Chinese education system now. As the article has mentioned, the college diploma is too easy to receive. And many narrow and extreme view should be change, like the nationalist students’ opinion on English study is noted by the article. English study has been getting more and more important, but not reverse. Every sensible person should realize that.
Everyone has his or her own life.Not only these people live in open dump,we also see a man of wealth spend his money on luxurious things.Different chioces have been taken by different ones,maybe we can see unreachable students in different ways.It means that we can treat them kindly.Anyhow,our society has its’ rules so that punishments and prizes will come into their lives at last.
Firstly,The persons above are pathetic.Not to mention the importance of english.They have no idea about responsibility and autonomy.
Secondly,in my opinion,The whole Chinese educational system is wrong, including college and highschool.What is the most importance of the education.Good job,high paid,getting into the goverment and so on.These are not the correct answer.The basic skill of living is just a part of the education.
Thirdly,i believe beyond any doubt that the power of english is huge.I could not say a man without english would live worse,but english would absolutely benefit your future!
Mr. Wolff, I don’t agree with your view that no college student shall fail to receive a diploma so long as the tuition has been paid. As far as I know, some students ever make up exams. I am even acquainted with a senior student who delayed his master’s degree thesis defence because of failing in some courses. Chinese schools do not humor students ignoring regulations and standers.
I admit there are some students do not read books and write professional papers enough. But this phenomenon doesn’t indicate they are irresponsible for their future. They just want improve themselves on other aspects, such as the ability of communication and accumulating work experiences. Actually, as a post-graduate, I often feel stressful for my future and want to do better in everything without others’ demand.
Seeing the message from rui wang to you , I am so shocked. He did not realize that all you have done is for us,even more,he blamed you for your actions. Frankly, I think we are a little lazy to learn English ,do not have enough enthusiasm. So we need teacher’s supervision. And you play this role.
We thank you for your efforts of raising the level of our English, and we will cherish this opportunity to try our best to improve our English. Because we know the importance of English.
I’m so sorry for the experiences that the two students Mr. Wolf mentioned in the article had have. Who are gonna be blamed? Their family, the inadequate education in china, and the most of all, themselves have to take the responsibility. They have paid for their mistake, and I hope they will learn something positive to face their life. In some extent, they are unteachable in class but life will handle everything. I feel lucky that they are not the typical Chinese students. Most of us are trying very hard to improve our English, to learn our professional knowledge, to civilize ourselves to be a responsible, independent person and working our way to reach our dream.
I admitted that every class I had in the past 19 years had unreachable and unteachable students Pro. Martin described in the article above. Some of them are so smart that most of our classmates never reached, but they paid more attention to other things rather learning courses. In my opinion, every person has the right to choose their way of living, we can’t say they are losers if they feel happy themselves. There are varied lifestyles in nowadays society, the meaning of life doesn’t lie with any others’ judge, it just base on happiness from your own heart.
The low percentage of unreachable postgraduate in university looks like a good thing superficially. but it also may reflect another meaning that our teaching quality of Chinese university was not so high enough. The low request to student do harm to both of the society and individual. As the article mentioned that no college student shall fail to receive a diploma so long as the tuition has been paid. It’s just this conception that lead to this universal phenomenon that most of the children born in the wealthy family especially their father or mother is high official of government do not care about gaining more knowledge at all in university because they know that even if they have no high score ,they still have a bright future that their family create for him. But don’t forget that it’s impossible that the child can’t live on your family all his life. If he don’t strive to make further progress , sit idle and eat, sooner or later his family’s whole fortune will be used up. He ultimately has nothing at all .so though our Chinese education system is so incomplete and imperfect , we must be strict with ourselves in study, we must learn how to manage ourselves well.
Profess,from your words,I have felt your sad emotion.It seems that nothing can be done to do with our country`s bad educational conditions.owe to many factors,our educational trasformation still stay where it was maybe even worse ,which dissapointed lots of citizens.there is a undenyng fact that diploma is just a passport in many interviews .because of giant populative pressure,china now can not find a better way to select the talents.but after reading what you reflected in this passage,I just want to honestly say that all of these students are not like the way you described.most of them are shooting for stars.I am convinced that a small number of those bad students can realise their drawbacks and endangerous place if the whole society gives them good lessons.
In some degree,I agree that a part of Chinese students just waste their time in universities.Some of them even play compute games all the day and night.When I was a college student,I doubted what these students were thinking about.However,there were still some students,though they disliked study,they had their own plans about their future.After all,not everyone wanted to be a bookworm.On one hand,they would learn the necessary knowledge to make sure they could pass the exams.On the other hand,they would spend most of their time pursuing their dreams instead of study.
What’s more,I have to admit that everyone has the laziness of human nuture.Take me for example,I could not remember how many decisions i have made to improve my oral english,but I just cann’t carry out my ideas all the time.Maybe people like me do need some imperative measures to take responsibility for the voice of our heats.
Change your attitude toward learning！
We are never too old to learn. This is my educational philosophy.
Every student holds their own attitude toward education and learning in China nowadays. Some are working very hard for a bright future and they think that education is the only way to change their socioeconomic situation as a path toward success. Some other guys such as mentioned in the article are just Educated idiots. The purpose they go to university is to kill the time and what they need is a piece of paper, the so called diploma. Their parents will get everything ready for them, jobs, houses, cars, even marriage. How ridiculous it is! But this is the common phenomenon in our nation, and should be paid special attention to. This is a serious social problem which will not emerge in the next 20 years.
It is time to reform the education system and to heal our society.
I agree with you that there are this kind of students in china. I think the reason of this phenomenon partly lies in the education system in china. As I know, university in the western countries are easy to get in but difficult to get out. You have to work hard to pass the examinations to get enough scores. While situation about universities in china are opposite. They are difficult to get in, you have to work very hard to pass the college entrance exam and get into an university, especially when you want to go to a good university. But when you get into it, the supervise towards students is not enough. You have a lot of spare time and most of the students will waste their time on some meaningless things. This is one of the reasons for this kind of phenomenon. Another reason is that in china you can get into university if you can afford a large sum of money. This is illegal but it does exist in china. Students getting into universities by this way are likely to become the “educational idiots” as you said in the article.
Oh, now I finish my reading this passage and I feel very sad about this phenomenon in China. Someone maybe say “Money can make everything become easy!”. In their minds, money is the most important thing. If they have a lot of money, they will become very arrogant. They often consider money can deal with everything. However,when they lose their money and power, they can’t do anything successful.Some students think they have paid money for higher education and they must get diplomas without working hard. In my opinion, the society and their parents give them these good opportunities to get more education. They must know that lots of people in countryside maybe have no chance to receive higher education. I think,they must cherish these chances to learn more knowledge in universities.
I think there may be some other reasons for this situation. One important reason is that they are not interested in what teachers teach them, students in school have little opportunity to go outside to learn from the society. So they don’t know whether they knowledge is useful after their graduation, I think our society should offer more work opportunity to current students.
In my opinion, this is a very common phenomenon in China, and so many students who’s parents are very rich or are government offices don’t like learning, because they think that their parents will plan for their future. They don’t worry about their studies as they can receive the diploma at last. However, this wicked idea kill themselves, we can learn from the last paragraph that in the end his father got sentence to death so all his wealth gone. This thing really give me a lesson that we must take everything seriously, not only English study but everything. Especially when we get a job, we should pay attention to our job and keep study everyday.
Firstly, I want to talk about the message from “rui wang”. It is so Irrational and absurd that I can’t understand this thought. If we can’t make English melt into our life, how could we learn English better? Therefore, I agree with Martin that we must eat, sleep , drink ,even dream in English.
Next, during my college time, I also meet the same person who didn’t study well and surfed the internet all the day , because they know it is impossible that can’t receive a diploma at last. This is a thorough failure to Chinese educational system. As we know ,In the school selection between China and western countries, score is in China and quality is in western countries. As a result, the “score” may act through one’s whole course of pursuing his study. However, in America for example, high score only accounts for one third of the weight when talents are being selected. When Chinese students have entered into the university, some of them begin to relax, and don’t study at all, especially English. Further more, China doesn’t build the system of “be survival of the fittest”, “university” should not be a place where waste the time.
At last , English is not only a skill that can help you find a perfect job, but also is a huge wealth for us. Since we can own ideal environment for learning English this semester, why not take advantage of it instead of criticizing ?