American Education vs. Chinese Education
Each country has its own kind of education, and education always plays an important role in affecting students’ life and study on many aspects. Having received ten years of education in China and two years of education in the U.S. I would like to compare and contrast a few significant aspects of these two different kinds of educations. Knowing that no two education systems are the same, the differences between American education and Chinese education allow countries to take the essence and discard the dross through learning from each other so as to improve their own current education systems.
“Positive” encouragement vs. “Negative” encouragement
American teachers and parents hold different points of view in terms of the way of encouragement from Chinese teachers and parents. In the U.S. teachers and parents are very kind that they often encourage students in a positive way. That is, if I do poorly in a test, they would say, “Hey, don’t be frustrated. You will do well in the next test!” If it is in China, the scenario would be: “Don’t dream to hang out with your friends during weekend until you do well in the next test! This kind of scenario is quite familiar to me. The last time that this situation occurred to me was just less than three years ago when I was a high school freshman in China. Here’s the thing: I got 95 out of 100 in a history exam and was so prepared to be praised and even awarded by my parents as soon as I got
A country’s economic system decides its education system. Since China and Canada have different economic systems, China is developing on a diversified ownership economy, while Canada is running its economy by pure capitalism. It is obvious two different education systems run in those two countries respectively. And from my personal experience and some hearing from my friends, I found five main disadvantages of China’s education comparing with Canada’s education.
In “Adapted from Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother” author Amy Chua argues that, instead of constantly praising a child for the slightest success, parents should only expect perfection from their children and nothing less. She explains that Western parents are not as strict on their children as Chinese parents are. That Western parents don’t believe in stressing educational success and that education should be something fun. In contrast, Chinese parents believe that academic success is very important and to get good at something it takes practice and hard work which may not seem fun at first but in the long run the activity becomes fun once mastered. Chua also believes that Chinese parents can get away with things that Western parents cannot such as calling their child garbage after being misbehaved. Chua states three main differences between Western parents and Chinese parents.
Over a period of year’s education has grown to be very important to many cultures all over the world. At one time in many cultures children were only taught what was necessary to get along and sometimes only children of the wealthy would be taught. China’s government
Chinese parents and American parents differ substantially in their parenting styles, and a noticeable difference can be seen in the success of their children. The children of Chinese parents often excel in various areas, including in their educational, musical, and professional lives. The children of American parents, however, usually have a harder time excelling in those areas. Chinese parents and American parents hold opposing philosophies about how they view their children, opposing
In the book, Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Dragon? : Why China Has the Best (and Worst) Education System in the World, published by John Wiley & Sons on August 14, 2014, the author, Yong Zhao, states that while China gets the highest test scores on the PISA exam, parents in China often send their children to western schools. In short Yong Zhao, a Chinese native who was born in Sichuan, claims that Western countries, Britain and America, should not try and adopt China’s education system for many reasons. I my opinion this book did not seem important to pre-service teachers, but after further thought and reading, I conclude that this book is valuable to not only pre-service teachers, but to anyone that is involved in education because it provides reasons why we should not try to adopt China’s education system.
A few weeks ago, I was walking downtown, when this random came up to me and said “You in school? That’s good, that’s good. Education is important.” From the state of her hair and clothes, and the smell of her breath, I assumed she was homeless. I didn’t really pay much attention to her, because homeless people are so common in downtown Atlanta. I was just hoping that she wasn’t going to ask me for any money! After a while, I started thinking about what the homeless woman had said; “Education is important.” Growing up, I had always been taught that people who lived in the streets had been afforded the same opportunities as I had, but they had simply chosen to ignore them.
“As a international students, I care a lot about the difference of education system between the U.S. and China.”(culture shock) I realized that the educational ideas
Western parents allow their children to to accept that fact that they got a bad grade on some assignment, while Chinese parents make their children correct whatever they did wrong. Chinese parents order their children to get exceptional grades, while Western parents can only ask their children to do well. Chua says, “If a child came home with an A- on test, a Western parent will most likely praise the child, but the Chinese mother will gasp in horror and ask what went wrong”(Chua 307). Chinese parents believe their children are capable of doing anything as long as they work hard at achieving it. Western parents can only help their children do well in school by trying to prepare them, and not pushing too hard. Chinese parents think that their children owe them everything and not the other way around. This is most likely because Chinese parents work very hard at raising capable children, and that they have worked hard to make them productive in life. Therefore, the parents expect much in return. Chua says “my husband Jed actually has
The tale “American Born Chinese” by Gene Luch Wang depicts the story of three characters, Monkey, Jin, and Danny. They all have the problem of fitting into their new environments. Jin Wang has to deal with Asian stereotypes. Danny has to deal with embarrassment of his cousin. Lastly, Monkey has to deal with the fact that there is no position for him in the heavenly ranks. However, over time, these characters have to come together to fit in. Yet the question remains: what exactly about fitting in is the problem? Although Jin Wang takes the form of Danny to reject his Chinese roots, the embarrassment of Chin-Knee shows he cannot hide behind a false American identity, thereby delineating that race is the source of his problem.
Believe it or not, but American and Chinese culture do have something’s in common. They see eye-to-eye on some aspects. Like providing for their children “Parents work together for the well-being of their children” [Example from Article]. It is true that parents do the best they can to work towards a better financial life for their kids. That’s why many Chinese parents come over to the states, so that they can provide a better life, and a better education. They would also go to great lengths for their children no matter what the cause “Parents will risk their life for their children” [Example from Article]. Any parent would risk their life for their children no matter what ethnicity, or cultural aspect! There is no bond like a parent and their child.
Attempting to keep a child's self-esteem high also gets in the way raising them to excellence. Western parents are constantly worrying about how their child’s feelings will be affected by whether they fail or succeed, so they are always telling them they did good no matter how well they actually did. Chinese parents are the exact opposite in this situation, how they will treat their child depends on how well they performed. If their child did poorly they will bluntly tell them that they need to improve because they believe they can. Not only do Chinese parents not worry about their child's self-esteem, but they actually believe that insulting their child will not bring them down, but it will only make them more driven to succeed and receive praise. They think that the child should be constantly wanting to achieve
This is an immense amount of Chinese international student, and the reason is because of the parent’s personal decisions. William Bennet, a CNN reporter, interviewed many rural Chinese parents about the value of America Education and noticed three differences. First, Chinese youth have high standards and high expectations which is norm in China (Bennet). Second, Chinese people believe American Universities are the “Beacons of freedom, individualism and self- improvements” (Bennet). Chinese people also tend to think universities are emblems of the highest achievement (Bennet). Third, Chinese parents are willing to sacrifice almost anything for their child’s education (Bennet). These three differences explain how important education is to the Chinese and showed how these parents are emphasizing that education is the key to a successful life. These three, are all motives of sending their child to America to study, even meaning
Education in the United States is a very crucial part of a person’s life. Going to school opens doors and facilitates the pathway for future individual achievement and economic success. Formal education is a conscious effort by human society to convey the skills and modes of thought considered essential for social functioning.
The major difference between Asian and U.S. notions in regards to work ethic as it relates to education in the early 19th century is the days of vacations the students have from school in Asia. People work in the rice fields everyday for the entire year from morning to dark in order to be successful. This mindset is the same for students when they are getting an education. To get a good education, they must continuously go to school everyday for the entire year from morning to dark. "The school year in the United States is, on average, 180 days long. The South Korean school year is 220 days long. The Japanese school year is 243 days long. One of the questions asked of test takers on a recent math test given to students around the world was
I found the Differences and similarities of both educational systems very interesting. The United States educational system is has three levels however; some school districts may subdivide elementary and secondary students to create separate schools at the middle and junior high level. Once a child turns five they begin kindergarten and stay in elementary until they graduate. From there they attend junior high, grades 5 through 8. All students enter into High School for grades 9-12 and if they are successful, they graduate with a high school diploma and enter the workforce or pursue higher education.