In my present situation at a senior high school I have about 30 students. Of these about 6 are extraordinarily studious, another 6 are the exact opposite and rarely come to class or do any work if they do, and the remainder are pretty much just your normal pleasant happy-to-do-enough-to-get-by type kids. The ratios involved here are not much different to those that I have encountered in other positions at high schools and universities in China -in other places I have dealt with absurd numbers of students.

I am fairly sure that I have more experience in China than you and so am confident that my sample is more representative of the actual situation. That is not to say I don't respect your opinion and I am not accusing you of lying. The idea that the Chinese students study harder than those of any other nationality stems from those idiosyncratic and highly parochial morality tales that the society here seems so wont to indulge itself in. Quaint indeed these tales might be, but they have no basis in reality.

I might add that any consideration of the amount of time spent at class or at school each day has absolutely no bearing upon the argument as to who is the most studious.

The more studious and even some of the less studious students here study harder than I ever did way back in my youth, but then again so did most of the rest of the class I was in (and my results at that time reflected my lack of effort i might add).

I spent some time in one of our countries' senior high schools earlier this year, and the average level of "studiousness" was higher than anything I have encountered here.

glad to hear you've been getting out and about!