So I am sitting here munching on some breakfast biscuits. They are basically like graham crackers, but Chinese of course. They’re not bad. I got to thinking while I was taking the elevator up how much I really like the elevator. Last week or the week before, I can’t remember, the darn thing didn’t work. So for about a week I had to chuck it up 18 flights of stairs. Although I live on the 9th floor the floors are double or something. If anything I know that they are higher than regular floors. That was not a good week.
I had a discussion with a student who actually lives in the major city I grew up next to. She has been there for two years going to high school and whatever else exchange students do in America. She grew up in Korea but is doing an exchange program in Michigan. Lucky for her. I asked her a few questions. Let me break it down for you.
America sucks at school. Our math really blows. Why? We don’t study and the fact that our standards in schools are sub par. You have no idea what the kids here do. No idea. The Korean kids I teach learn, Mandarin, Korean, English, get tutored for all of them, then study on weekends, afternoons, it’s just crazy. She was telling me that no one in America studies, and I was like, yup. No one studies in America. We got better things to do like, um, I forget.
Maybe that’s why Asians are going to take over the world. They actually study. There is one thing that American schools have going for it. Free thought. In China and Asian they tend to just teach to memorize the material. You have to learn a few thousand Chinese characters, you memorize, not use. The same with most all of the subjects. In America, the teachers try to get you to think. This could be why Americans are free thinking individuals and Chinese can’t think for themselves. Who knows.
Just some thoughts that I was having. Nothing big. Hell it’s probably not even true. On a side not my brother is back from boot camp and has shot more guns then I have in the last three months. I am totally jealous.