The China Conundrum? Chinese Student Reality.

From the New York Times (hat tip Half Sigma).

First of all, why did New York Times choose University of Delaware, a borderline bogus school whose saving grace is a strong Chemical Engineering program.  Oh yeah, chief racist female researcher Linda Gottfredson also teaches there.

Half Sigma learned:

1. Chinese students aren’t very good at learning English.2. Chinese students lie on their college applications, and they will cheat on tests more readily than American students. 3. They stick to themselves and avoid doing stuff with non-Chinese. 4. They study really hard.5. They don’t like to talk in class, and when they do, American students don’t understand them.

6. They pay full price. 

 Wong Chow Mein responds:

1. American students are even worse at learning Chinese and Chinese students are not, as far as I can tell, worse at learning English than any other non-native group.  

2. American students lie on their college applications too.  Chinese students don't even have the luxury of gaming affirmative action.  I am not sure that Chinese students cheat more readily on tests than American students.  I know a lot of Chinese students aren't aware that some their actions constitute cheating in the states.  American students cheat/plagiarize with a clear conscience.  They know exactly what they are up to and know it is not allowed.  

3. Self-segregation is an undeniable fact of human nature.  

4. Yes.  Chinese students study really hard.  Many American students don't study very much at all and instead frolic in recreation centers and drink at fraternity parties.  

5. A cultural difference.  In China, when you talk in class, it means you don't understand, and when you don't understand, it reflects badly on your intelligence.  But in America, professors like kids who speak in class, even if they have no idea what they are talking about or display their ignorance in public.  I don't know what obsession is with "class participation" in the States but I know that I when I participate a lot with original insights then professors love me.  A lot of   American kids just say stupid things in class or ask stupid questions.  They should just shut up.  

 6. They pay full price and American colleges love it because they are non-profit organizations who don't care about money at all.

While Chinese graduate students have been a mainstay of American colleges for quite a while, undergraduate students are a new novelty, and American students have found it more than a bit disconcerting.  Take this hilarious quote from the article:

Last fall, Kent E. St. Pierre was teaching an intermediate accounting class with 35 students, 17 of them from China. Within a couple of weeks, all but three of the non-Chinese students had dropped the course. Why did the American students flee? “They said the class was very quiet,” recalls Dr. St. Pierre, who considers himself a 1960s-style liberal and says he’s all for on-campus diversity. But, he agrees, “It was pretty deadly.”

"They said the class was very quiet" is politically correct code for "I don't like Chinese people".  I am sure if the class was graded on a curve the non-studying American students would be devastated as well due to the superior quantitative genetics and training of the Chinese.   Or it could be that Chinese people smell bad.  I think I smell pretty good myself and don't notice other Chinese people smelling bad, but that could just be bias on my part.  I think Indian people smell really bad but I have the suspicion that this is just a olfactory illusion on my part.

Back to #6.  It's clear from the article that American colleges are cash hungry and Chinese upper-middle class students pay full out-of-state/private tuition in addition to the fact that they pay extra money for ESL prep classes.  But for Delaware, it's not about the money, it's about "diversity".

But Dr. Harker rejects the notion that the university’s recruiting effort in China is mainly about money. “The students from New Jersey pay, too,” he says. “For us it really is about diversity.”

 May I remind you that the University of Delaware strongly supports diversity.  Chinese people will learn that they cannot be racists, only white people can be racists.  But this is something that, Chinese students, growing up in a one-party state, should be accustomed to.  This also reminds me that the article and general sentiment about China-America cross cultural interactions in the US seems to be that America is a country which values freedom of thought and is free from any state-led indoctrination while China is an oppressive state that deceives it citizens.  But those who have taken the red pill can see that the US is not the fairy land of freedom that it claims it is and is not much better than China.  Oh yeah, and we have this unquestionable good called Democracy that gets in the way as well.

More to come.