Another Brick in the Wall

Hey!

Today I'm going to tell you guys a little bit about my experience with education in China. After all, it's what I'm consuming most of during my time here.

So first of all, a little bit about my Chinese classes. Avid readers will already know that I have class every day from 8 to 12. There are five different types of classes, namely reading, writing, speaking, listening and general teaching. There is a different textbook for every class and it is expected of the teachers to finish them within the semester. Teaching methods differ from teacher to teacher, but all-encompassing is the desire to stick to the books. There are classes in which we practically do nothing but the exercises given in the book. These are unsurprisingly very boring. It's generally quite rare to be asked about one's own opinion, at most there are two open questions to the class in every lesson. There are redeeming qualities though. For example, our reading teacher makes two students hold a presentation on a topic of their choice every week. Afterwards the class discusses. Our speaking teacher uses a teaching style that is most similar to the teaching methods I'm used to from Europe. He lets us come up with little sketches and makes us talk. That obviously doesn't stop him from spending half an hour minutely going through every single new word that we learn. Well, you win some you lose some. All in all, the classes are not ideal, but I do feel like I'm learning something. In the afternoon we have the possibility of going to additional classes. Right now I'm going to "Appreciation of Ancient Chinese Poems" and "Chinese-English Translation". Both of these classes are very cool and interesting. Also they are a lot more interactive than the language classes. Oh, if any of you are wondering, all my classes are taught in Chinese.

Now on to what I've heard about the university education for normal Bachelor/Master students. I've never been to one of their classes, but here's what's been told to me by other students. First of all, a lot of them have classes on the weekend (yikes). Not even Sunday is safe. Also, they sometimes have classes until 9 in the evening. I'm not sure if you can still learn anything that late at night to be honest. Their courses are a lot like school. There is a textbook which the teacher follows and from what I gather not so much choice on how and what you want to learn. The craziest thing that they have to do in my opinion is take sports classes and run 800m in a certain time every semester. I guess if they're not fast enough they fail their degree? I mean, just what?

The last thing I want to talk about is something that took me a while to notice, but after I did, I started seeing it everywhere. I'm talking about the way that the country is educating its citizens to adhere to certain values. There are 12 "core values"  and the list of them can be seen wherever you go in China. On highways there are huge signs with them, they are shown on the little info-TVs on public transport, small and big posters on pretty much every street remind you of them. The 12 values are as follows: 富强, rich and powerful; 民主, democracy; 文明, civilization (as in civilized conduct); 和谐, harmony; 自由, freedom; 平等 equality; 公正 justice; 法治 adherence to law; 爱国 love of one's country; 敬业 respect one's work/ be dedicated to one's work; 诚信 honesty; 友善 friendliness.
I'm not going to comment too much on this list. The one thing I am going to say is that it's quite impressive how pervasive it is. I see this list every day. There is basically no way to live here without coming into regular contact with it. I guess unless you never leave your house.

One of the signs, on the steps leading up to a temple.

In December I will have the opportunity to go to a 高中 (high school) to see how the children are taught there. I will of course report later. :)

For now, bye-bye and until next time!

Chinese Word of the Day: 写画 paint a picture with ink. It literally means "write a picture". In China, works of calligraphy often contain a picture, a poem/description of the picture and always the seal of the artist. I went to a calligraphy exhibition today which was amazing :)