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The students aren’t being treated for ADHD. They’re abusing the drug to study and take exams. That’s the point.
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The students aren’t being treated for ADHD. They’re abusing the drug to study and take exams. That’s the point.
I don’t doubt that at all. I have a coworker from China and she can’t believe how American students behave in the classroom. She also added that Chinese students know how to learn besides how to behave.
It’s the fact that education is important they will do things to keep up that appearance. I do know that on one international reading exam, the scores submitted by China were limited to a few modern, urban, more affluent areas like Shanghai. And the children of immigrants were told to stay home.
I’m not sure why you deleted this but my point was that certain elements like effort play a large part in how one scores in an IQ test. It could be an indicator of how one does in life. I’m not sure where I was generalizing. I gave real life examples while showing that 8 out of of the top 10 countries with the highest IQs have almost the same histories when it comes to emphasis on education. While it is a casual extrapolation of the data to make a point since I can’t really be bothered to go deep into this topic, this extrapolation is based on facts, not opinions. I didn’t set the rules. The number of Japanese people, for example, who literally worked themselves to death was substantial enough to make international headlines quite a while back.
Obviously IQ tests have their place like the ability to identify people on extreme ends of the bell curve. Those on the lower end would require extra assistance and those on the higher end would be potential geniuses we would want to nurture further because of their potential utility. But I don’t see the point of looking at the test results of the majority that fall in the normal range because of the multitude of confounding factors. Stating that all these people actually took the test to their best of the abilities would be a generalization in itself.
You mean children of people from the rural areas whom are considered “immigrants” because of the hukou system? I’m not surprised. They have pretty different cultures and much less income to spend on their kids’ educations. Ask your co-worker if she’s talking about wai di ren.
I deleted it because I’ve realized that after I post too much on some topics I feel strongly about, I feel like I’m berating and antagonizing nice people who I don’t think deserve that, including you and Emily @EmilyQ , even though we disagree on matters. After awhile it becomes a matter of pride and I feel bad afterwards.
I don’t feel like I’m being berated nor antagonized. It’s an exchange of ideas. I give my opinions; You give yours’s. As long as we’re being intellectually honest I don’t see a problem even with more intense debate.
And I did warn you many times about Catholic guilt.
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Nor do I.
I wouldn’t call it commonplace but I’ve heard and read a lot about students here using Ritalin or Adderral as AED’s (academic enhancement drugs)
@dt79
On the other hand, l feel like you are coming on here to bully lesser Americans with this supposed Chinese intelligence you are championing. To which l have to respond - If you so smart (Chinese in general), how come you not rich?
Hehe just kidding with you.
Serious question though.
You often write "… if I could be bothered to…".
I am curious if you truly are apathetic or it is a translation phrase that is probably more correctly stated as “I’m not interested in…” or “I don’t care enough to…”
That said, your English skills are virtually native fluent, and l am going with schooled in English, as opposed to merely picking it up as an additional language.
I think the proper way to ask is, “Why you no rich?”
Haha the better question would be “why the fuck did China embrace communism in the first place if we were so smart?”. Looking at the origin, the Russians are clearly smarter than all of us.
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I’m apathetic. These things don’t really affect me much in my daily life to be bothered but they’re interesting so I look them up briefly. It’s pretty easy to smell bullshit in some stuff I bring up because of my own profession and IME, when this happens, the rest will fall apart under scrutiny.
Thanks! I had to be schooled in English from secondary level and above because I wanted to sit for the GCE 0 and A Levels. I never spoke much English outside of classes until university. Ironically, MANDARIN was the hardest fucking subject even though most of us communicated using a variety of Chinese dialects with a little bit of Mandarin lol. Literature classes were downright hilarious.
Nowadays I communicate mostly in English in my business because English because I have staff of different races here and I’m dealing with remote developers in other Western countries. But I speak a lot of Chinese with clients since lots of them are either Chinese educated or from China. Outside I speak a mix of the local English vernacular along with Chinese dialects and another language depending on who I’m speaking to. None of you will understand what I’m writing if I wrote in my local English vernacular.
Half the time I think in Chinese and mentally translate it into English when I write stuff. Notice how many times I normally edit my posts lol? It’s why I consider English to be a 2nd language. My Mandarin still sucks since I mostly only speak it to my wife and I don’t travel to China much anymore. She’s not been able to pick up my dialect.
Catholic guilt is a combination of ethnic background, like Irish or Italian (given the power of the Church in people’s lives, at least in the past) and being born into the religion. Catholic guilt isn’t as present among Americans who have lost touch with their ancestral roots. I don’t think French Catholics suffer from it. There might be an element of poverty or oppression necessary. When you grow up around old women dressed in black and in a culture with a cultish view of saints, then you might get Catholic guilt.
Yeah, I read about this too but they weren’t doing it in high school and lower. And their dealers aren’t their TEACHERS LMAO!!! Hypothetically, I’ve done my own share of substance abuse during university lol. Nobody gives a crap at that level.
China has started a crackdown on private tuition centers lately and it’s really not fucking pretty from what I’m hearing from friends who invested in some of them. Obviously MOST of it is politically motivated but there are some solid rationales for doing this. (Which doesn’t mean I support it. I’m just stating what’s it like there)

China has banned for-profit private tutoring firms in core education. FIEs in this sector have to stop engaging in such activities and change business scope.
Est. reading time: 12 minutes
The kids tend to get higher grades because they can afford private tuition. The better tutors are usually the more expensive ones and there’s a slight talent drain in public schools. Capitalism ftw lol.
And in every country with a Chinese majority where there’s high competition for jobs, kids are put through rigorous shit even when it comes to extra-curricular activities. Even governments who use the press as mouthpieces have indirectly told parents time and again to turn that shit down or their kids will grow up to be dysfunctional adults. If it isn’t extra tuition, it’s piano and singing lessons. Middle class people want their kids to have something to fall back on if they can’t make it academically. Rich people want the bragging rights IME.
Word on the street also claims some private tuition agencies have access to certain information like examination questions before the actual exams. IME dealing with other areas of the civil service, I’d say the probability of this being true is around 90%. It’s not some conspiracy theory that I’d normally disregard in other countries.
All this would lead to massive inequality when it comes to poorer students since paper qualifications are extremely important for their careers.
I don’t know the origin of this term. All I know is that the term exists and my priests never failed to guilt trip us during every single catechism class. The dudes were from Wales and Belgium. There’s probably a good amount of carry over from it’s origins that manifests itself in some form or other in the US since even I got it in Asia.
You need to be raised Catholic, at least. I was an altar boy and that really leaves an imprint.
Yeah, so was I.
Yeah, I read about this too but they weren’t doing it in high school and lower. And their dealers aren’t their TEACHERS LMAO!!! Hypothetically, I’ve done my own share of substance abuse during university lol. Nobody gives a crap at that level.
China has started a crackdown on private tuition centers lately and it’s really not fucking pretty from what I’m hearing from friends who invested in some of them.
Oh yeah that’s really fucked up then! I was talking about students in advanced degree programs, not high school kids.
I’ve done my own share of substance abuse during university lol
JAIL!

OK, I’m glad you don’t feel that way. However there does come a point in which arguing about something is pointless if evidence is either ignored or considered useless because someone doesn’t see the evidence personally (“No one I know is like that,” “Not all X are like that”), or that the person sticks to a side or narrative because it seems nicer or fairer than the alternative.
I do not think evidence is being ignored. I think the way the evidence is being interpreted is in question. In the exchange just between you and me for example, I do not think the rationales I provided for the worldwide intelligence stats amongst the top 10 countries aren’t at least worth taking into account when looking at the evidence. However, if, for example, we had an >90% consensus amongst statisticians or whomever is the authority on this matter that states my opinion is wrong, I’d go with them because they’re obviously more qualified than me. If we’re looking at a near 50/50 split, I’m just gonna go with my own interpretation of it.