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after a chat on the Chinese Education system, I found that I was lucky enough to get undergraduate education overseas. I strongly feel that it was the right decision and that changed my life completely…
[Let me also take this opportunity to answer my 'status - pondering what I want to do in Beijing?? I guess the answer is to reflect what I have learned in the past few years overseas and internalize the lessons and share them]
Here are some problem we figured out:
1. a very rigid education system – why so? for the undergraduate particularly, the students have to go through a minimum 4 year and maximum 6 year undergraduate program. who in the world has defined that 4 is the right number of years to be in college… there is only 1% chance if you are darn good (grades of course), then you might be able to finish it a little bit faster.. whereas, in other systems, accelerated program is designed for whoever wants to pursue that path… not even to mention about the almost “unstructured” (very flexible) US education… you can almost design what you want to do… interests are very important… it helps figure out one’s passion… to some level, SG has a more flexible system (compared to China) and more rigid system (compared to the US) nevertheless, it (SG) works pretty well so far in the Asia context to produce talented people and empower knowledge to them.
2. there are way too many students in the undergraduate system now… due to dense population of baby boomers, their children (even under one-child policy) comprise of the large portion of the society… all the universities in China have been increasing their intake of students in the past few years… that phenomenon continues even today… even though the number of students keeps growing, staff growth (quantity & quality) cannot catch up with the fast growth pace in student population. thus, one supervisor has to take care of a big group of students (can be 30 and over). The students have to share the undivided attention from their supervisor. Hence, one student can only receive very limited guidance and supervision. Many students felt lost in their golden time to learn.
3. The rewarding system (criteria to be ranked) does not really correspond with the rigid system, which worsen the entire the “eco”-system. Even the so-called better education system overseas are facing the gap between academic education and actual work practices, the inconsistent organization can only create more distance between academia and industry. It is exemplified by the increasing distraction from quality education (enlightenment, empowerment, confidence building etc). Therefore, the following point became more serious.
4. Academic staff are not dedicated as they are expected to. Due to the uneven rewarding system, professors are distracted to compete with each other over the criteria set to increase their values to make a living. I can completely understand where they come from and where they are going… everyone has to make a living… it is extremely difficult in such rigid system where educators are not much appreciated… (societal issues)
5. It seems to me that in such big environment and ambient. Innovation is considered as rebellion sometimes by the rule setters. Thereby, there is no incentive at all for educators to hold their true responsibilities. Innovation is so important in the progress of the society. It is one of the economy booster… The rule setters are very protective over their power and their impact on society.. they are afraid of change and loss of power… their minds are not open… still very closed and self-centered.
I feel lucky on the one hand that I don’t have to go through such corrupt system; I feel frustrated and disappointed on the other hand that why it is so hard to change it. Do we have to wait for some hero (once in hundreds of years) to help and knock at those rule setters’ heads?
It has to change the mindset completely… make it more open and more receptive (at least to listen) only then some adventurer will try out and make changes and impact…
how to deal with the students then? As their peers, I so hope that they can be enlightened how great they can be and how impactful their actions can be; how we can interests them in certain things and make them see the values; how to empower them with knowledge and skills to change; how to build confidence in them to let them dream… dream big…
during one of the meeting, one of the director said ” if there is no dream, there will never be reality.” that’s where you can see the greatness and furture impact…
“I believe… I can fly…”
I was watching the lastest SBS korean drama ” let’s go to the beach”… Even though the story board is as usual… but the context is so different… it seems that what people really liked about the drama is indeed the story board… so predictable and yet unpredictable… ha ha…
while i was watching the drama, which I usually watch online, i started thinking about what I have done in the past few weeks… I have been back to my home country for over 2 weeks. I have been busy with settling down… it seemed that i am taking another private NOC program… where I had to settle a lot of things on my own… maybe my expecation of this journey is so different from what I have done… i was thinking of taking this opportunity to learn as much as I can to equip me with some experiences in big corporation… luckily, I am in such an environment where start-up practices still work… nonetheless, there is the big corporation name up there… certain things have to be done in certain way…
i think i was pretty cloesed in the past few days… i am suffering from multiple standards… i am in Beijing (chinese land) working in a company that was not orginally from china… cultural differences are there… i can adapt the western part more easily than my OWN cultural part… I think I made the right move to experience such cultural shock as early as possible… i see it as ‘life training’ that I have to go through it in my life…
I am not sure if I can say i am lucky… In fact, i am feeling bad about what’s happening back in SV… the company I used to work in the past year is not in any good shape… i am concerned for my friends who work there… hope things can be sorted out easily and smoothly… Good bless!!! my dear bosses and co-workers… we have done great things in the past and even though we might need to suspend the process for a while… it might be a good way to get it around… the market is there and we just need to figure a way to get the message out! we can do it! simple because I BELIEVE…
I heard some good news from S.V. too… my two good friends in S.U. brought some of my new friends around on campus… thanks to their help, we help this new company to grow as fast and as healthy as possible… However, I am not sure if they have visited some of the places that Prof T.K. has brought me around… Hope they had fun… they will be visiting SV again… then, i can ask Z. to bring some gifts for my friends =)
Come to talk about prof Tk… i am not sure how things are going around him… there might be some miscommunication between the two of us… according to H., it might be the wrong association…..who knows… he has not resonded to me at all ever that single incident happened… maybe he has completely changed the way he sees me… I have no control over it… what I can say is that… i did change while i was in the valley… I became better… much better than before… i could sense it… i am a good person with a good heart…. PERIOD… let me borrow one of the old sayings we often borrow. ” live your own life… ignore the noisy stuff”… i don’t have to prove anything to anybody in this world… I have done great things… I don’t have to claim that i was me who did it… other people could definitely do as good as or ever better than what I have done… nonetheless, my principles have never changed… possessing a positive attitude to live life and contribute back to the society… i think the miscommunication will resolve as time goes by… things will sort out eventually… take care and all the best… take care of your health my dear prof… that’s the only thing that you can never re-gain!!! don’t play entrepreneurial games on your health… it can be challenged but not damaged.
So many friends to keep in touch with… I just simply hope everyone is enjoying what they do.. things sometimes do not follow your will… take it easy and take it as a chance to practice and learn… then, it will become much better…i have a lot to work on too!
Lately, the more I exprienced the life full of friends, the more I felt that life is so much more worth living…
I am a person who enjoy spending time with friends. it seems that are 50% of my life… I became independent pretty early in my life… I started living in school hostel in high school for two years. During the last semester in the 2nd year, i started preparing for overseas opportunity… Fortunately, I managed to secure a position and went to Singapore. That totally changed my life-completely… thereafter, whatever I saw, I learned and I experienced were totally UNexpected for the past 18 years in my life… (I left for Singapore a little before 18)
it’s been almost 5 years now… I just came back from the United States, where I think I have gone up to a different stage of my life. steep learning curve and great exposure in Silicon Valley… I changed again! One thing I realized that i have changed the most was my mindset… I became more open…
I am back for a little over two weeks… a lot to adapt… not only the population density… but the somewhat level of lack-of-order… i cannot get onto the bus, cannot get onto the train… cannot get the train ticket to go home… if i were to take it easy… however, I don’t have to follow the unnecessary pushing-forward as it is really pissing people off… I don’t know…
the drivers in Beijing act very smart… their frenquency of lane change is over 10 times/minute… just to get around and ahead of other cars… just now we stuck at the small street to where we stayed… NOBODY wanted to give way to others… there was a STUPID driver ACTED smart and overtook all the cars queuing to pass from the coming traffic: head on with the coming traffic and DID NOT WANT TO REVERSE to give way… GOSH… it was just a Buick car! A good car for sure… that does not GRANT you any superiority or whatsoever… some more the driver was so reluctant to reverse after the passenger (seemingly a high ranked person… maybe just full of CASH…that’s IT!)
Some drivers were too nice to move and kept the cars behind them staying at where they were for over 10 minutes… i could not stand it.. and went down to direct the traffic!!!! things can be solved man! I cannot imagine how this can be changed in half a year… HIGH PRICE does not determine the image of a city…
Singapore is impressive… in order and clean… Japan… people are so polite… it is the first city that went into the high population density after New York… people line up on taking escalators, trains, buses and whatever in public… it is just simple impressive… we have so much to improve… many people overseas can see the huger in knowledge and imporovement… but the basic common sense and manner shall be taught and learned by the public…
just a side note (i found this Super FUNNY)
i was waiting at the subway station after work… it was definitely another rush hour of a day… there were this old couple in their fifties chit-chatting while waiting for the train… due to the heavy traffic( human flow), the train was almost full (time 00, you will know why i time it) and only a handful of people could SQUEEZE in… then the auntie started commenting about the subway system in Beijing. She said ” now it is peak hour… they should send more trains out…” (time 1 min) she continued, ” why it is so slow?? even the bus will come faster than the train nowadays”. the train going to the opposite direction was coming… “look! the other train is already here. where is our train? so slow! they really should increase the freqency of the trains… this is too slow! (time 3 mins) PS system started annoucing… ” the train going to *** direction is approaching the station. for your safety, please stand behind the yellow line…” (time 4 min) the train stoped and similarly to the previous train, it was over 80% full… i was ahead of them in the line… they just pushed people forward and squeezed in… OMG! the auntie kept talking and squeezing so that her husband could come up “Quickly squeeze in… i am squeezing more space for you” (pushing people inward)…. WTF!!! Later one, they kept talking about the train and other stuff which were totally non-sense… when can they GROW UP???
Facts:
1. the average of waiting time during rush-hour for subway is 4-6 minutes… how fast did the auntie want it be? the moment she stepped onto the platform and the train was there waiting for her to SQUEEZE in? NOPE… this is public transportation… not private… if you want, you can opt for taxi… they are there for you 24/7…
2. how to increase the frequency? the train is not cheap… you know… it must be over milions if not bilions of RMB… plus the manpower and other costs involved electricity, maintenance, etc… it is not cheap to run… it seemed to her, things can be done that easily… No, mdm!
3. How could it be slower than bus? the average time I spent on waiting for bus was about 15-30 minutes… if and only if I got lucky and i could manage to get on the bus after 1-2 minutes I got there… if you know the schedule… that’s the best! it is very unpredicable here in Beijing due to the messy traffic! Wake up lah…
4. I don’t know what to say already… never mind… i feel much better now as i have expressed my thoughts…
too much to change… i feel… Come to think about it… with such condition we can progress THAT fast that every country is staring at China… amazed by it… Imagine a society that is more organized… I believe that we can even fly!!! please… let us work together and make it happen!
