Four letter word
But I don't have the guts to say it
Smile til it hurts
Let's not make it complicated
We got a story
But I'm about to change the ending
You're perfect for me
More than just a friend so we can just stop pretending now
Gotta let you know somehow
I'll be your shelter
I'll be your storm
I'll make you shiver
I'll keep you warm
Whatever weather
Baby I'm yours
Be your forever, Be your fling
Baby, I will be your everything
Boys like Girls - Be Your Everything
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Result of the Taiwanese Education System
Sitting on my bike at the front gate of NTU, I was waiting for my friend to grab lunch. Usually at that time, my friends from elementary school and I would meet up at the front gate to grab lunch, and there would be three girls and me. But today, one of the girls wanted to watch a basketball match and another girl had last minute family plans, so she could not come as well. That leaves me with only one girl to grab lunch with. Considering that I'm a relatively awkward person (I said relatively), I was thinking of things to talk about with her to avoid any awkward silences. And then I thought about how she was the only local Taiwanese student out of the four of us. So I thought maybe I should ask her about my favorite topic of discussion; Education in Taiwan
As some of you might already know, the education system in Taiwan is very different from the American system, which is the system I grew up in, fortunately. Elementary school is six years, middle school is three years, and high school is three years. To get to high school or college, students must take a standardized country-wide examination to place into a school. As a result, if there was one word in Chinese to describe the goal of the education system here in Taiwan, it would be 升學, which in English means to get to the next level of education. Not so much in kindergarten and elementary school, but as soon as you get to middle school, teachers and parents will become very concerned with your grades. There will be a lot of quizzes, tests. Students either stay at school to study after class ends, or they will leave school to attend cram school. Why do they do this? Because they want you to do good so that you can get into a good high school. Long story short, as soon as you get into middle school, your (temporary) life goal is to get to the next level of education, until the day you get into college. Parents will tell you, "don't think too much, just focus on school." Teachers will tell you, "don't think too much, just focus on getting the right answer." After you get into high school, you're next goal is to get into college, and there's another three years of "don't think too much, just focus on school."
Now back to my lunch.
After we had the typical "how was your week" or "what did you do this weekend" conversation, I popped up with the question of "What do you think people in other countries think about Taiwan?" Her answer to that question will be discussed in another article that I will put out about Taiwanese National Spirit. Then, somehow our discussion led me to the point where asked her this: "What went through your mind the day you got into college?" She sat there for a couple of seconds, to think about it, and she finally responded: "Nothing, absolutely nothing." She said as soon as the goal of getting to the next level of education was gone, she had no direction; she did not know where to go, what to do, or how to even think about what to do. To someone like me, that was very shocking. A little background knowledge, to get into our university, National Taiwan University, you need to be top 5% of the country to get into NTU. So my friend was smart enough to get into NTU and I would say she is well-informed about the world. But a typical student like her cannot tell you what she wants to do with her life.
This is the result of the Taiwanese Education System. Starting from the day students enter middle school, to the day they get their college entrance exam results, they are forced to focus on study and nothing else. This restricts students to not think about anything other than their test scores, and school material. Furthermore, students schedules and time are all pre-occupied with studying, and they won't have time to discover their passions, their interests, their hobbies, and sometimes, even themselves.
Another case in point is when I first got back to Taiwan last year summer and I attended an elementary school class reunion. As a result of skipping a year in Greece, I was a year ahead of my elementary school classmates, so I was about to enter college, while they were entering their last year of high school, preparing for the college entrance exam, which is the hardest year in high school. While we were eating, my classmates were very curious about what happened with me for the past 5 and a half years I was aboard. I told them some things about Greece and some things about America. And then out of curiosity, I asked them what they wanted to study in college, and almost everyone of them responded with the same sentence, "不知道，把分數考好再說" which means "I really don't know, I'll see when the results come out." Another quick background information, in order to place in a particular major, one has to meet the minimum required test score on the entrance exam to apply for that particular major, therefore if you want to do medicine but your score did not meet the requirement, then there's no way you can get in.
These responses also really appalled me because it just goes to show that Taiwanese students have been in a sense "brainwashed" to the point where their concern is nothing but focusing on test scores. Furthermore, when they're so focused on test scores, they have no time and no interest in caring about their what their passion or interest is.
That is all I will say this time, but next time I will discuss the Taiwanese National Spirit, the importance of passion, and more on Education in Taiwan, specifically how we should change it. Until then, see you next time.
As some of you might already know, the education system in Taiwan is very different from the American system, which is the system I grew up in, fortunately. Elementary school is six years, middle school is three years, and high school is three years. To get to high school or college, students must take a standardized country-wide examination to place into a school. As a result, if there was one word in Chinese to describe the goal of the education system here in Taiwan, it would be 升學, which in English means to get to the next level of education. Not so much in kindergarten and elementary school, but as soon as you get to middle school, teachers and parents will become very concerned with your grades. There will be a lot of quizzes, tests. Students either stay at school to study after class ends, or they will leave school to attend cram school. Why do they do this? Because they want you to do good so that you can get into a good high school. Long story short, as soon as you get into middle school, your (temporary) life goal is to get to the next level of education, until the day you get into college. Parents will tell you, "don't think too much, just focus on school." Teachers will tell you, "don't think too much, just focus on getting the right answer." After you get into high school, you're next goal is to get into college, and there's another three years of "don't think too much, just focus on school."
Now back to my lunch.
After we had the typical "how was your week" or "what did you do this weekend" conversation, I popped up with the question of "What do you think people in other countries think about Taiwan?" Her answer to that question will be discussed in another article that I will put out about Taiwanese National Spirit. Then, somehow our discussion led me to the point where asked her this: "What went through your mind the day you got into college?" She sat there for a couple of seconds, to think about it, and she finally responded: "Nothing, absolutely nothing." She said as soon as the goal of getting to the next level of education was gone, she had no direction; she did not know where to go, what to do, or how to even think about what to do. To someone like me, that was very shocking. A little background knowledge, to get into our university, National Taiwan University, you need to be top 5% of the country to get into NTU. So my friend was smart enough to get into NTU and I would say she is well-informed about the world. But a typical student like her cannot tell you what she wants to do with her life.
This is the result of the Taiwanese Education System. Starting from the day students enter middle school, to the day they get their college entrance exam results, they are forced to focus on study and nothing else. This restricts students to not think about anything other than their test scores, and school material. Furthermore, students schedules and time are all pre-occupied with studying, and they won't have time to discover their passions, their interests, their hobbies, and sometimes, even themselves.
Another case in point is when I first got back to Taiwan last year summer and I attended an elementary school class reunion. As a result of skipping a year in Greece, I was a year ahead of my elementary school classmates, so I was about to enter college, while they were entering their last year of high school, preparing for the college entrance exam, which is the hardest year in high school. While we were eating, my classmates were very curious about what happened with me for the past 5 and a half years I was aboard. I told them some things about Greece and some things about America. And then out of curiosity, I asked them what they wanted to study in college, and almost everyone of them responded with the same sentence, "不知道，把分數考好再說" which means "I really don't know, I'll see when the results come out." Another quick background information, in order to place in a particular major, one has to meet the minimum required test score on the entrance exam to apply for that particular major, therefore if you want to do medicine but your score did not meet the requirement, then there's no way you can get in.
These responses also really appalled me because it just goes to show that Taiwanese students have been in a sense "brainwashed" to the point where their concern is nothing but focusing on test scores. Furthermore, when they're so focused on test scores, they have no time and no interest in caring about their what their passion or interest is.
That is all I will say this time, but next time I will discuss the Taiwanese National Spirit, the importance of passion, and more on Education in Taiwan, specifically how we should change it. Until then, see you next time.
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