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Old 04-18-2015, 06:53 AM
 
676 posts, read 984,895 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Greysholic View Post
Those that read English are not aware of the existence of this site.

they could be
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Old 04-18-2015, 09:20 PM
 
Location: Metro Phoenix
11,048 posts, read 16,794,568 times
Reputation: 12944
Quote:
Originally Posted by Greysholic View Post
It's not. We have an American expat in China here and he is always around.
Yup, that's me And no, it's not banned. About half to two-thirds what I type on here is thumb-tapped on my China Mobile (state-owned company) phone while I'm on the Metro or in a taxi.

I can also access CNN and English Wikipedia mostly-freely. I can access the Wikipedia page to read about the Tiananmen Square massacre. News censorship is wonky; I'll be able to read an unflattering article on Chinese corruption, and then I'll click on an article about ISIS or poverty in Africa and it'll be blocked. They are less concerned with English-language pages because the average Chinese person can't read them. They could access the Wikipedia page on a sensitive event, cut-and-paste the text into Baidu translate, and get a mind-boggling, gibberish translation that told them that in 1989, the kittens fell face shame. The heart eyes lie senseless in the coquettishness of the peoples.

This isn't to say that the censorship doesn't suck, it's just saying that it's not as all-encompassing as many people assume it is. China is not North Korea; it's not Stalinist Russia.

Quote:
Lol, no.

These Will Be*the World's 20 Largest Economies in 2030 - Bloomberg Business

More like in the 2030s, which is more than 15 years from now, and that's assuming the world wouldn't suffer any crisis(be it political or economic, or both) within the next 15 years....and we all know that's impossible.
^ that's what the big problem is with these projections. 15, 30 years is a long-ass time in political/economic circles. 15 years ago, the US was coming out of eight years of prosperity and a generally-good standing with the rest of the world with a budget surplus. No one predicted 9/11 and the ensuing War on Terror, economic slide and clash, loss of standing on the global stage, etc. Twenty years ago, the Neocon rise and its slide into the Tea Party would have seemed shocking, and the idea that China would be modernizing its big cities, cars would replace bicycles, and it would become the biggest market in the world for Rolls and Bentley - to say nothing of Buick - would have seemed absurd.

Especially when you are talking about nations who are dealing with corruption, a clash of antiquated societal attitudes on filial piety and the role of women in a modern world, gender imbalances, growing public discontent for future economic prospects, rising labor costs that are an affront to the manufacturing and labor base that was the backbone of their growth, etc... yes, a lot of things can happen in that time. It's really impossible to say.

And of course, the same goes for the US. I've said it before and I'll say it again: China actually edges the US on governance in some ways, which I know sounds crazy to a lot of people... but, the US' political system goes in four-year cycles, with most politicians aiming to accomplish their goals within that cycle while also maintaining and growing their political careers. After their four year term is over, they may be replaced with someone who dismantles what they have worked for, and so the process ofgetting things done can get horribly mired and backlogged over the course of multiple term changes. China's closed, one-party, appointment-based system is of course a bane to personal freedom, liberty, and expression, but as far as the government goes, it gets things done as it take steps to execute policy and practice over the course of decades. The rise that it's experienced over the last few decades would have been impossible had it adopted an American-style republic.
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Old 04-18-2015, 09:41 PM
 
Location: Metro Phoenix
11,048 posts, read 16,794,568 times
Reputation: 12944
Also, as far as the original discussion goes, as a teacher in China, I don't trust these statistics at all, and even if they were that high, students in China are much less well-rounded than their Western counterparts when it comes to knowledge. I teach in the wealthiest part of China's #3 city in the highest-scoring public primary school plus at a private learning center, and the kids here can be as brilliant or as hapless as they are anywhere else in the world.

Two days ago, my task was to teach fifth graders the names of the continents and countries. Out of 45 kids, five knew of Brazil (in Chinese), and the class was evenly split as to whether the US or China was the largest country in landmass in the world - not one of them had any idea that Russia was the biggest country in the world, thinking that it was a fairly small European nation (many of them thinking that England was bigger), and were shocked to find out that it shares a border with China.

When they did learn that Russia and Canada are bigger than China in landmass: "But those countries are only a hundred years old, China is 5,000!!"

I've already mentioned before that most of my kids had no idea that there were other civilizations 5,000 years ago (Egypt). I teach art as well, and when I tell the kids to draw what comes to mind when they think of "springtime," they sit and wait for me to tell them what to draw.

This isn't to say that Chinese kids are devoid of knowledge, that they are uninquisitive, that they lack creativity - not hardly. Most of my kids are smart, fun, funny, awesome little people and I love teaching them... it kind of thrills me when I get to be the one to expand their knowledge of the world. I'm the most popular teacher in my schools by far due in part to the fact that I indulge my kids in these things, and their parents are happy to see the results. Yes: most Chinese kids can rattle off math equations at a level that embarrasses me But as an outsider who is now in, I can see the strengths and weaknesses of their education system.
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Old 04-18-2015, 10:14 PM
 
Location: Taipei
8,856 posts, read 8,378,868 times
Reputation: 7394
Quote:
Originally Posted by 415_s2k View Post
They are less concerned with English-language pages because the average Chinese person can't read them.
Yeah that's what I meant by saying they don't even read English. If they did this site would be filled with millions of Botticellis and Pennyones, and probably many different forms of blind PRC nationalism.
J/k.


Quote:
^ that's what the big problem is with these projections. 15, 30 years is a long-ass time in political/economic circles. 15 years ago, the US was coming out of eight years of prosperity and a generally-good standing with the rest of the world with a budget surplus. No one predicted 9/11 and the ensuing War on Terror, economic slide and clash, loss of standing on the global stage, etc. Twenty years ago, the Neocon rise and its slide into the Tea Party would have seemed shocking, and the idea that China would be modernizing its big cities, cars would replace bicycles, and it would become the biggest market in the world for Rolls and Bentley - to say nothing of Buick - would have seemed absurd.

Especially when you are talking about nations who are dealing with corruption, a clash of antiquated societal attitudes on filial piety and the role of women in a modern world, gender imbalances, growing public discontent for future economic prospects, rising labor costs that are an affront to the manufacturing and labor base that was the backbone of their growth, etc... yes, a lot of things can happen in that time. It's really impossible to say.
Exactly.
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Old 04-18-2015, 11:53 PM
 
Location: Taipei
8,856 posts, read 8,378,868 times
Reputation: 7394
PISA tests are a load of crap.
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Old 04-19-2015, 08:50 AM
 
10,839 posts, read 14,663,004 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Greysholic View Post
^So you really think that India's economy size is larger than Japan's and Taiwan really is in the trillion dollar club?
if you don't believe in PPP, don't you think nominal GDP is just as flawed?

For example, during the past 6 months, Canadian dollar slumped by about 20%, so does that mean Canadian economy is 20% smaller, and everyone is 20% poorer?

In 2005, China raised the value of the RMB by 3% overnight, does that mean the Chinese economy is all of a sudden 3% more? This is how stupid nominal GDP is. For most of the Chinese, the appreciation makes no difference. It still cost the same amount of money to buy grocery or a television.

The problem with nominal GDP is that it relies purely on the measurement of one currency - the USD, and exchange rate fluctuates greatly. Yes as most international transactions are conducted in the USD, it will be more expensive to buy if your currency depreciates, but a country's economy or GDP is the defined by the total product produced in the country, not how many products it can buy or sell internationally, is it? For example, when India produces an apple, it cost 5 cents, when America produces a similar apple, it is 30 cents. By nominal GDP, the same apples adds 30 cents to the American GDP but only 5 cents to the Indian GDP, does that make sense to you? And this is exactly how nominal GDP is calculated.

Neither PPP nor nominal GDP is perfect, but it is stupid to say "PPP is meaningless and all that matters is nominal GDP". That only shows how little you know about macroeconomics.

Why is it so hard to think India's economy is larger than Japan's, for Christ's sake? Japan is definitely much richer, but India has 10 times the population. It is completely not unimaginable.
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Old 04-19-2015, 09:24 AM
 
Location: Taipei
8,856 posts, read 8,378,868 times
Reputation: 7394
Quote:
Originally Posted by botticelli View Post
if you don't believe in PPP, don't you think nominal GDP is just as flawed?
I think if you're to compare the size of multiple economies, nominal is better; if you're to compare per capita income of multiple economies, purchasing power parity is better.

And I said 'better', not 'flawless' or 'perfect'. Both measurements are quite lame.

As for Japan and India...Japan just has a larger economy, it's just a fact, and it is not about my alleged 'excessive admiration over Japan', which I think you will eventually get to.
Japan, Germany, France, and the UK all have a larger economy than India does, and India's economic influence is nowhere near the other four despite having like 4 times the population of those four combined, because it's just a really poor country, which you seem to look down upon judging from some of your posts in the Asia forum, like mocked on the poverty and rape problems of India and blamed it on 'democracy'.
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Old 04-25-2015, 04:35 PM
 
6 posts, read 5,436 times
Reputation: 18
Quote:
Two days ago, my task was to teach fifth graders the names of the continents and countries. Out of 45 kids, five knew of Brazil (in Chinese), and the class was evenly split as to whether the US or China was the largest country in landmass in the world - not one of them had any idea that Russia was the biggest country in the world, thinking that it was a fairly small European nation (many of them thinking that England was bigger), and were shocked to find out that it shares a border with China.
It has nothing with IQ.
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Old 04-25-2015, 07:16 PM
 
9,240 posts, read 9,709,413 times
Reputation: 3315
Quote:
Originally Posted by 415_s2k View Post
Also, as far as the original discussion goes, as a teacher in China, I don't trust these statistics at all, and even if they were that high, students in China are much less well-rounded than their Western counterparts when it comes to knowledge. I teach in the wealthiest part of China's #3 city in the highest-scoring public primary school plus at a private learning center, and the kids here can be as brilliant or as hapless as they are anywhere else in the world.

Two days ago, my task was to teach fifth graders the names of the continents and countries. Out of 45 kids, five knew of Brazil (in Chinese), and the class was evenly split as to whether the US or China was the largest country in landmass in the world - not one of them had any idea that Russia was the biggest country in the world, thinking that it was a fairly small European nation (many of them thinking that England was bigger), and were shocked to find out that it shares a border with China.

When they did learn that Russia and Canada are bigger than China in landmass: "But those countries are only a hundred years old, China is 5,000!!"

I've already mentioned before that most of my kids had no idea that there were other civilizations 5,000 years ago (Egypt). I teach art as well, and when I tell the kids to draw what comes to mind when they think of "springtime," they sit and wait for me to tell them what to draw.

This isn't to say that Chinese kids are devoid of knowledge, that they are uninquisitive, that they lack creativity - not hardly. Most of my kids are smart, fun, funny, awesome little people and I love teaching them... it kind of thrills me when I get to be the one to expand their knowledge of the world. I'm the most popular teacher in my schools by far due in part to the fact that I indulge my kids in these things, and their parents are happy to see the results. Yes: most Chinese kids can rattle off math equations at a level that embarrasses me But as an outsider who is now in, I can see the strengths and weaknesses of their education system.
Maybe they just didn't understand you.
Honestly I don't believe Chinese children don't know about Brazil. Soccer is a popular sport in China anyway. And it's simply impossible that so many boys don't know Brazil. Unless all of them are from some remote mountain villages.
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Old 04-26-2015, 05:14 AM
 
Location: Metro Phoenix
11,048 posts, read 16,794,568 times
Reputation: 12944
Quote:
Originally Posted by U.no.Mi View Post
It has nothing with IQ.
Of course it doesn't, and my point wasn't that the kids are stupid or anything. But, Chinese kids lack seriously in knowledge of the rest of the world compared to kids from the US, EU, AU, CAN, etc. Anyone who has taught in China knows exactly what I'm talking about.
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