Fag Ash Bill.....

You look like most of the FT's in my school - no teeth, no hair, no brains - haha. Welcome aboard!

Not sure about my chances with these young lasses, snakes belly, well I would be lucky to have one of them at my age, too much ale and pies and well no slim snakes belly there, hahaha

In all seriousness though, odd job man, one owld fella to another, what would be my chances? Wot reckoneth thee (said in best yorkshire accent, and meant from my strawberry jam tart!)

I agree with you in that regard. I am of the opinion that under 18's should not be having sex. It is bad to see men, both Asian and Western in Thailand and other places with girls who are obviously underage. Is it so hard to check an ID card, or maybe these guys just don't care?

Yes but it should be of no concern to FTs. We are in China to teach or pretend to teach. But your desease-ridden students is a good insentive for us to resist the urge to have sex with them. No flies on SB and associates, he went to pink rooms to dip his wick, where they mop the floors and wash hands.

No problem with sex tourism as long as the women involved are over 18 and therefore adults. It is just another honest and legitimate business that contributes billions to Asian economies. In contrast, the Chinese education "business" is not legitimate.

Charles, the next in line to be English monarch, failed his 'O' level maths at his first attempt, and was subsequently tutored privately in "O" level maths, which was needed to help him pass the re-sit. Without it, he wouldn't have been eligible for a place at Oxford/Cambridge, where he went on to study for a BA degree.

I think maths should not be mandatory as an entry requirement for scninterference from know-it-all politicians over the years

I heard that the maths tutor was so disturbed by the Charles experience that he took to the bottle and went to teach English in China as an early forerunner. He could still be there today- the oldest illegal FT in China. Met any old geezers fiddling with calculators, drinking and moaning about Prince Charles?

I studied at university in England and the subject of French, (or any other foreign language), was never even mentioned.

But didn't you enter university as a mature student rather than as a school leaver? I believe university entry requirements for mature students are lower than those for school leavers!

Personally, I think it's a nonsense that universities still insist on a foreign language "O" level/ 'O' grade for students who wiish to major in a subject that is not a foreign language nor one related to linguistics! I also think that school subjects like music, art, drama and technical drawing should be elective rather than compulsory. Blighty could save a lot of money were that the case.

As a high school pupil, my cousin felt very sorry for her French teacher. She told me that most of the class were disintersted in studying a foreign language. They were swinging from the lampshades and the classroom environment was therefore so dreadful that nobody in her class learnt anything, except how to take the piss out of teachers!

I see you have nothing to say about my assertion that the gaokao favors all-rounders. So, Ill assume you agree with me on that one!

Insofar as you bastards affect how the locals view us expats - read loathsome - it is my
business!

I'm not a sex tourist nor ever will be. However, I'm happy to live-and-let-live as long as their behaviour doesn't affect me.

As far as bastards go, it's easy to write brave words on a computer screen, I just wonder how brave you are in real life?

I don' really care what sex the amused poster is. No flies on him or her, that's for sure. I should thinks he's a he but won't lose any shut-eye either way.

Hi Paul
I didn't mean to day that there aren't responsible tourists, like yourself maybe-tip well, treat the ladies well- wear one condom only once. Good luck to you, and no offence meant.

Valid point, up to a point.

French is pretty useless unless you want to live in France, Quebec or Mauritius, but like it or not, the old British Empire is responsible for the number of countries that use English. It's said that Mandarin is the most widely spoken language on the planet, (hardly surprising when you consider the population of China), with Spanish second.

The new rules with respect to authenticating degrees is already having a huge effect in China. Even those people with genuine degrees are refusing to pay the exorbitant fee to get them notarised. This will see the beginning of the end of FT's in China.

The gaokao is already totally unfair (IMHO), insofar as a student cannot re-sit it if they score a mark that is just below pass. However, I think that English is still considered to be far more important in China than French is in the UK. Time will tell I guess?

Why
do you care anyway? The sex tourists will do their thing, you just mind your own
business.

Agree. People are so quick to judge. Sex tourists are not doing you or me any harm. Leave them alone - they have their reasons!

Your rituals are hard to be "misread".

No you misread my post- easily done, I myself accused amusing of saying things he never said because I failed to read his post correctly.

As you your wife and three children like China you should stay. Phew, eh!

What do you think about all these sex tourists making their way to The Phillipines recently? A big embarrassment for genuine academics like Turnoi who will have valid reasons for being there.

No you misread my post- easily done, I myself accused amusing of saying things he never said because I failed to read his post correctly.

As you your wife and three children like China you should stay. Phew, eh!

What do you think about all these sex tourists making their way to The Phillipines recently? A big embarrassment for genuine academics like Turnoi who will have valid reasons for being there.

If you don't know whom to debate with, use your left for one and right for another user name

'Debate it' would be a wise choice, but with whom shall we debate it?

Sounds like Odd Troll Bob H@@d Job

Palliative care in English hospitals means your loved one is left to gather the stench of
death before all life forces are spent. The nursing staff withdraw washing the patient
even when the doctor announces you have a fortnight at the most. The Chinese public
schools and universities with help from FTs produce 100 times the students who can speak
some English than English schools (the schools in England) produce Englishmen/women who
end up speaking French or any other languages. All English schools have always taught
French with considerably less success than Chinese schools teaching English. What about
your American schools, have Amweicans been voulez vouing for years?

"Education, like palliative care, is infrequently of superior quality."

I can only think that you mean

I always mean precisely what I write. The reader's comprehension is his concern.

Verb tense agreement aside, I suspect the resultopts are statistically the same. Abysmal.
Education, like palliative care, is infrequently of superior quality.

I can only think that you mean palliative care is infrequently of superior quality to curative care? That's a bit Irish! haha! And how can 'Abysmal Education be coupled up with palliative care and declared infrequently of superior quality..? But tell me, as you use the word infrequently, you do leave room for Abysmal Education to be sometimes though rarely of superior quality to good education and palliative care to be better than (I suppose you mean) curative care. Can you give us some examples of these exceptions that prove your rules, please?

Speaking of palliative care. Palliative care can be successful in holding back varicose veins but never superior to having them stripped out.

All English schools have always taught
French with considerably less success than Chinese schools teaching English

Maybe that's down to incentive? I had to sit through French lessons for 5 years when I was in high school. I wasn't 'taught' French because I didn't want to learn it - why? what for?

I also had to study Latin at school. Far more useful IMHO.

In the big wide world of today, one could easily argue that English is far more useful than French, and that's the main reason for the success rates you spoke of.

Tell us something we don't already know! Even the Philippines has better universities than China. De La Salle springs to mind, ten times better than any Chinese university! Chinese in general have no goals or values. As for the women, they only care about finding a rich man to marry ( he provides the house and car, she lets him have sex with her once or twice to provide the baby, and that's all! ) A very sad and sick society, they will never become a great power like the USA!

Loyalty is above quality when Chinese apply for jobs, and then connections outweigh
skills/talent. The higher education in the country is just for the face. Many
Chinese, thanks to their educational system, are some of the most narrow-minded people
that I have ever met. Chinese uni students' essays are mostly full of uniformed views,
statements without actual evidence, and often filled with naivety and plagiarism. It is
hard to imagine how such upbringing can improve lives of people in years to come, but it
is easy to guess how this kind of schooling may keep the ones in power empowered for
ages.

'Nail' and 'head' spring to mind! Not just narrow-minded when it comes to naivety, but also many Chinese students are unable to think beyond the 'herd mentality', and have very little of what westerners might call 'common-sense'.

As you say, the system keeps the ones in power empowered.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/31/world/asia/china-college-education-quality.html

Study Finds Chinese Students Excel in Critical Thinking. Until College.

By JAVIER C. HERNÁNDEZ JULY 30, 2016

BEIJING — Chinese primary and secondary schools are often derided as grueling, test-driven institutions that churn out students who can recite basic facts but have little capacity for deep reasoning.

A new study, though, suggests that China is producing students with some of the strongest critical thinking skills in the world.

The unexpected finding could recast the debate over whether Chinese schools are doing a better job than American ones, complementing previous studies showing Chinese students outperforming their global peers in reading, math and science.

But the new study, by researchers at Stanford University, also found that Chinese students lose their advantage in critical thinking in college. That is a sign of trouble inside China’s rapidly expanding university system, which the government is betting on to promote growth as the economy weakens.

The study, to be published next year, found that Chinese freshmen in computer science and engineering programs began college with critical thinking skills about two to three years ahead of their peers in the United States and Russia. Those skills included the ability to identify assumptions, test hypotheses and draw relationships between variables.

Yet Chinese students showed virtually no improvement in critical thinking after two years of college, even as their American and Russian counterparts made significant strides, according to the study.

“It’s astounding that China produces students that much further ahead at the start of college,” said Prashant Loyalka, an author of the study. “But they’re exhausted by the time they reach college, and they’re not incentivized to work hard.”

The findings are preliminary, but the weakness in China’s higher education system is especially striking because Chinese leaders are pressing universities to train a new generation of highly skilled workers and produce innovations in science and technology to serve as an antidote to slowing economic growth.

Continue reading the main story
The government has built hundreds of universities in recent years to meet soaring demand for higher education, which many families consider a pathway into the growing middle class. Enrollment last year reached 26.2 million students, up from 3.4 million in 1998, with much of the increase in three-year polytechnic programs.

But many universities, mired in bureaucracy and lax academic standards, have struggled. Students say the energetic and demanding teaching they are accustomed to in primary and secondary schools all but disappears when they reach college.

“Teachers don’t know how to attract the attention of students,” said Wang Chunwei, 22, an electrical engineering student at Tianjin Chengjian University, not far from Beijing. “Listening to their classes is like listening to someone reading out of a book.”

Others blame a lack of motivation among students. Chinese children spend years preparing for the gaokao, the all-powerful national exam that determines admission to universities in China. For many students, a few points on the test can mean the difference between a good and a bad university, and a life of wealth or poverty.

When students reach college, the pressure vanishes.

“You get a degree whether you study or not, so why bother studying?” said Wang Qi, 24, a graduate student in environmental engineering in Beijing.

The merits of the Chinese education system are a perennial subject of debate, in the United States as much as in China. The Obama administration has held up the stronger performance of Chinese high school students on international exams in math, science and reading as an example of stagnation in the United States.

Critics argue that Chinese teachers place an unhealthy emphasis on test preparation and rote memorization at the expense of critical thinking skills and creativity. They also say international exams overstate the strength of China’s system because they exclude students from poorer regions.

The Stanford study, based in part on exams given to 2,700 students at 11 mainland universities, has its own limitations. It does not account for people who are not enrolled in universities, a large swath of Chinese youth. It looks exclusively at students in computer science and engineering programs. And while it measures critical thinking, it does not offer insight into creativity, a topic often hotly debated in discussing the Chinese education system.

Still, the researchers found stark differences when they compared Chinese students with their overseas counterparts.

In addition to examining critical thinking skills, the study looked at how Chinese students compared in math and physics. While testing for the United States is not yet available, the researchers found that Chinese students arrived at college with skills far superior to their Russian counterparts.

After two years of college, though, the Chinese students showed virtually no improvement while the Russians made substantial progress, though not enough to catch up.

The Stanford researchers suspect the poor quality of teaching at many Chinese universities is one of the most important factors in the results. Chinese universities tend to reward professors for achievements in research, not their teaching abilities. In addition, almost all students graduate within four years, according to official statistics, reducing the incentive to work hard.

“They don’t really flunk anyone,” said Scott Rozelle, an economist who has studied Chinese education for three decades and a co-author of the study. “The contract is, if you got in here, you get out.”

The problems plaguing the higher education system have taken on new urgency as China’s ruling Communist Party tries to navigate a difficult transition from an economy fueled by manufacturing and assembly-line work to one led by growth in fields such as information technology and clean energy.

Eric X. Li, a venture capitalist in Shanghai who helped finance the Stanford study, said the success of Chinese secondary schools in teaching critical thinking could mean more innovation among younger Chinese that would help the economy.

“The common narrative that we hear is that Chinese educational system kills creativity and kills innovation,” he said. “But China is probably one of the most entrepreneurial societies in the world.”

The slowing economy has made it difficult for university graduates to find work, with about one-fifth remaining unemployed immediately after graduation and many settling into low-paying jobs.

Lu Jiawei, 22, who studies engineering management at Beijing Information Science and Technology University, said the gloomy job market was to blame for a lack of motivation among students.

“Some students just give up, because no matter how hard they work, they still will never get their dream jobs,” she said.

The shortcomings of the higher education system have left students struggling to find programs that match their aspirations.

Niu Fuzhi, an aspiring computer scientist at Harbin University of Commerce, had high hopes when she enrolled in 2014. But she was quickly disappointed. Professors focused on teaching high-level theories, she said, and classrooms were chaotic.

“I feel like the past two years were a waste,” said Ms. Niu, 20, who ranks near the top of her class.

But Ms. Niu is hoping to make up for the skills she failed to learn in college — by enrolling in graduate school.

/boom

Don't limit us to the three choices please as I see Debate It the fourth choice here.

So we have 3 choices -

1) Stop bitching about it
2) Accept it
3) Change it

Which one do you favour?