It is well known that in East Asian countries such as Japan and Korea, the pressure to succeed in exams is very heavy. Many students commit suicide after receiving unimpressive results in these exams. Therefore, there has been much talk of reforming the system to place less emphasis on exams, which would be more akin to nations like Finland or Sweden, which emphasize holistic learning, and letting each student learn at his or her own pace.
But can this actually be done just by reforming the educational system? I have my doubts.
Although it is true that the general culture in Asia does push students towards striving for high results in examinations, there is an underlying reason for this, which is that attaining high results do make a large difference to a student's financial future. Take Korea for an example; it is not easy to start one's own business, and manual labor is not paid that well, so the prevailing path to success is to do well in the high school graduation exam to get into a good university, from which one can enter a renowned company e.g. Samsung and climb the corporate ladder.
In fact, the Eastern culture of focusing on examination results probably stems from the government exams in old China, getting a passing grade in them was a necessity to starting a career in the bureaucracy, which was the primary path to wealth and respect, especially for many poor families. In those days, students who passed would even get a flag erected in their village to commemorate their achievement. With the huge material returns promised upon passing exams, it's really not surprising that its importance was very high.
Coming back to the northern European countries, why is it that they take exam results relatively lightly? I think one key reason is that their societies are much more egalitarian than Asian ones, so even a high school dropout can enjoy a decent living working at manual labor or a service job, since their minimum wage is very high. According to what a friend from that area told me, an engineer there would earn less than twice as much as a waiter, so the returns on academic excellence are, comparatively speaking, much less over there. Since that is the case, students there can focus on following their interest, rather than their economic interest.
Put simply, schooling really serves two aims: one is to educate the populace and the second is to differentiate the academically outstanding from the less outstanding. A strong focus on exams serves the second aim more. In order to reduce society's focus on exams, it is not enough to reform the educational system itself. The economic advantage of being academically outstanding must be reduced, which would entail a higher minimum wage and a stronger social welfare net. Focusing only on "exam culture" is treating symptoms without looking at the cause.
Tuesday, March 3, 2015
A common misconception about Christianity and the Catholic church
A common misconception that I think many of us here in Asia hold is that Christianity and Catholicism are two separate religions. This is really a bit similar to saying that birds and chickens are two separate things.
In truth, Christianity covers all religious sects which believe in Jesus Christ, of which the two most major are Catholicism and Protestantism. What many of us think of as "Christianity" is really Protestantism. The blame may partially lie with the prevailing Chinese translation of the two, rendering Catholicism into 天主教: "The religion of the Lord of Heaven" and Protestantism into 基督教: "The religion of Christ". Viewed in this light, the misunderstanding is quite understandable.
Originally, the Catholic Church was the only major stream of Christianity. About 500 years ago, a fellow named Martin Luther raised some complaints about how the Church was handling things, as it had some corrupt elements. This led to some areas of Europe breaking away from the mainstream Church and forming their own churches, due to this movement starting with Martin Luther's protest it was called Protestantism. This has led to a lot of killing back and forth between the two divisions, but now everything is largely okay, so you can go to your friend's Catholic church without worrying about anything other than having to wake up extremely extremely early.
Most of the non-Catholic churches we are familiar with today reside under this banner. There are also branches which broke off for other reasons, the Eastern Orthodox church broke away after some sort of argument which I am unfamiliar with and too lazy to look up, so we will discuss that another day. The Anglican Church of England broke away because the then king of England could not get permission from the Pope to divorce his wife so he started his own church which would of course permit him to do so. Then we have some interesting groups like the Mormons and the Moonies, which would require their own article to do them justice.
Anyway that is the gist of it; if you wish to learn more about either religion please consult your friendly neighborhood pastor or priest. I myself don't go to church very often so sorry can't help there...
In truth, Christianity covers all religious sects which believe in Jesus Christ, of which the two most major are Catholicism and Protestantism. What many of us think of as "Christianity" is really Protestantism. The blame may partially lie with the prevailing Chinese translation of the two, rendering Catholicism into 天主教: "The religion of the Lord of Heaven" and Protestantism into 基督教: "The religion of Christ". Viewed in this light, the misunderstanding is quite understandable.
Originally, the Catholic Church was the only major stream of Christianity. About 500 years ago, a fellow named Martin Luther raised some complaints about how the Church was handling things, as it had some corrupt elements. This led to some areas of Europe breaking away from the mainstream Church and forming their own churches, due to this movement starting with Martin Luther's protest it was called Protestantism. This has led to a lot of killing back and forth between the two divisions, but now everything is largely okay, so you can go to your friend's Catholic church without worrying about anything other than having to wake up extremely extremely early.
Most of the non-Catholic churches we are familiar with today reside under this banner. There are also branches which broke off for other reasons, the Eastern Orthodox church broke away after some sort of argument which I am unfamiliar with and too lazy to look up, so we will discuss that another day. The Anglican Church of England broke away because the then king of England could not get permission from the Pope to divorce his wife so he started his own church which would of course permit him to do so. Then we have some interesting groups like the Mormons and the Moonies, which would require their own article to do them justice.
Anyway that is the gist of it; if you wish to learn more about either religion please consult your friendly neighborhood pastor or priest. I myself don't go to church very often so sorry can't help there...
Wednesday, December 17, 2014
Bad Hotels
I know as well as anyone else the adage "you get what you pay for", so I really don't expect chocolate on my pillow when I stay in a budget hotel, unlike that time when I was in Nikko Saigon when I strolled into my palatial room to discover a delicious piece of white chocolate nested comfortably on each pillow of the two beds in my room... but here I digress. Anyway so yes, we pay for what we get.
Recently I have been assigned to some dreadful place distant from civilization; a small town near Melaka, so this gave me vast firsthand experience with second and third rate hotels. Yet about these hotels there is one aspect that irks me like no other - NO WIFI.
When I was traveling in the United States, even the crummiest motel had wifi in their rooms, and it was pretty fast too - fast enough for me to stream Youtube. Even some not too high grade hotels in Melaka had it too in the rooms, which really makes my stay much more comfortable, as I can then clear some emails and surf the net a bit after my dinner and bath, then go to sleep in the secure knowledge that my night was both somewhat productive and not too boring.
But currently I am in the reasonably renowned A Famosa resort and there is just no wifi in the rooms, only in the lobby. What makes things worse is that there is no table of a suitable height with a plug nearby except for an unused reception table facing the entrance, which I am now sitting at. Although this is tolerable in terms of comfort, it is really lacking in terms of dignity. What if other guests were to think I was some sort of poorly dressed receptionist?
Even worse, the net has now conked out. So I had lugged my laptop and cable out in vain. Now I am typing this using my phone hotspot with great disdain for this travesty of a hotel, and feeling a great deal of nostalgia for Hilton Tokyo.
Recently I have been assigned to some dreadful place distant from civilization; a small town near Melaka, so this gave me vast firsthand experience with second and third rate hotels. Yet about these hotels there is one aspect that irks me like no other - NO WIFI.
When I was traveling in the United States, even the crummiest motel had wifi in their rooms, and it was pretty fast too - fast enough for me to stream Youtube. Even some not too high grade hotels in Melaka had it too in the rooms, which really makes my stay much more comfortable, as I can then clear some emails and surf the net a bit after my dinner and bath, then go to sleep in the secure knowledge that my night was both somewhat productive and not too boring.
But currently I am in the reasonably renowned A Famosa resort and there is just no wifi in the rooms, only in the lobby. What makes things worse is that there is no table of a suitable height with a plug nearby except for an unused reception table facing the entrance, which I am now sitting at. Although this is tolerable in terms of comfort, it is really lacking in terms of dignity. What if other guests were to think I was some sort of poorly dressed receptionist?
Even worse, the net has now conked out. So I had lugged my laptop and cable out in vain. Now I am typing this using my phone hotspot with great disdain for this travesty of a hotel, and feeling a great deal of nostalgia for Hilton Tokyo.
Wednesday, July 23, 2014
Sympathy
Planes are falling like flies lately. MH370 was lost to the watery deep, MH17 met a fiery end and today another Taiwanese plane was crushed by stormy weather. The whole world is a bit more sullen today.
The question is, why do we feel such sympathy when planes go down? After all tens of thousands of people die every day in the poor countries, from starvation and disease and war. These corpses dwarf those that perish in the skies by far.
I suppose the reason is that we simply cannot identify with them - these people are just fundamentally different from our middle-class existence, unlike air travelers who could be you or me or a family member. The more someone is like us, the more we sympathize with them. That is why terrorist attacks shock us so much, as people who were a moment ago enjoying their comfortable urban existence are suddenly injured or dead, to their great surprise. People who die in war zones, well it is a tragedy, but that is somehow only to be expected, right?
A ton of people doing research on AIDS died on MH17. I could not help but think that if someone who suffered from AIDS was on board too, many would feel far more sympathy for his death than if it had been from the disease, because "AIDS wouldn't happen to me, only to druggies/gays". That's just human nature.
The question is, why do we feel such sympathy when planes go down? After all tens of thousands of people die every day in the poor countries, from starvation and disease and war. These corpses dwarf those that perish in the skies by far.
I suppose the reason is that we simply cannot identify with them - these people are just fundamentally different from our middle-class existence, unlike air travelers who could be you or me or a family member. The more someone is like us, the more we sympathize with them. That is why terrorist attacks shock us so much, as people who were a moment ago enjoying their comfortable urban existence are suddenly injured or dead, to their great surprise. People who die in war zones, well it is a tragedy, but that is somehow only to be expected, right?
A ton of people doing research on AIDS died on MH17. I could not help but think that if someone who suffered from AIDS was on board too, many would feel far more sympathy for his death than if it had been from the disease, because "AIDS wouldn't happen to me, only to druggies/gays". That's just human nature.
Saturday, July 5, 2014
The next stage in the evolution of handphones
The interesting thing about the progress of handphones is the growth curve in size. A long long time back the standard handphone was this rather enormous thing, rectangular and thick, made of solid black plastic with huge buttons and a prominent antenna on the top. This slowly shrank down to the still solid but smaller Nokia 3310, the venerable dreadnought of the phone world, with toughness comparable to Wolverine's claws. It then got even smaller, before swinging up the opposite way and becoming rather large - if you've seen one of those Samsung Galaxy whatevers you will know they can really double as a table tennis racket. So what is the next stage in handphone evolution?
Some have bet that it will trend back down in size, giving us the Samsung Gear, a wearable smartwatch. Others have chosen to continue increasing it in size, as we can see from the inexorable growing iPhones. I, on the other hand, believe that the next paradigm leap in phones should be the ability to impose its power on the surroundings. Imagine a phone capable of projection:
You could use it to watch Godzilla, unhampered by the size of the screen. Another use for it would be to send a signal to the skies in a crowded area to summon your friends to gather:
I firmly believe that this would add vastly to user experience, thus cementing the next step of progress for humanity's usage of small electronic devices.
Some have bet that it will trend back down in size, giving us the Samsung Gear, a wearable smartwatch. Others have chosen to continue increasing it in size, as we can see from the inexorable growing iPhones. I, on the other hand, believe that the next paradigm leap in phones should be the ability to impose its power on the surroundings. Imagine a phone capable of projection:
On the difficulties of falling asleep
All my life I have been plagued by an inability to fall asleep when I should be doing so, coupled with a great ability to fall asleep when I should not be doing so. This has caused me numerous vexations over the years. Why when I was once in a small and stuffy room attending a long and boring meeting I nearly fell asleep while standing, which would have caused me to fall on my manager and disrupt the whole proceedings. Luckily I only leaned forward 10 degrees or so before I corrected my fall, but it was a rather close shave indeed. No matter, if I had really fallen I would just pretend that I had fainted, then everyone would take pity on me and rush me to hospital.
But this deficiency can still be corrected by willpower; the truly frustrating one is the former. When I want to sleep at night, and do feel very tired, often I am just unable to enter a state of blissful sleep. Now after careful recollection, I remember that during college I could always sleep well, largely due to the fact that I never had anything important that I had to wake up for.
The funny thing is that when I don't HAVE to wake up at a fixed time, I can sleep easily due to a complete lack of stress. The trouble arises when I know I have to wake up for something such as work - then it becomes rather difficult to fall asleep as I keep thinking "oh I have to sleep" which produces a rather contradictory effect. This is very annoying.
When I was flying overseas for a business trip, on the way out I had to fly overnight, so I kept trying to sleep so that I would be rested for work in the morning. Needless to say this effort was unproductive and I had a very sleepy day. On the other hand when I fly back through Saturday afternoon I could fall asleep without trying hard, as I did not HAVE to sleep. Such is life.
I once read that dolphins can operate the two hemispheres of their brains independently, so that when one side is sleeping the other can control the body. Oh for such a skill I would be willing to pay dearly, as most of the time I can get along with half a brain anyway. Especially in meetings.
But this deficiency can still be corrected by willpower; the truly frustrating one is the former. When I want to sleep at night, and do feel very tired, often I am just unable to enter a state of blissful sleep. Now after careful recollection, I remember that during college I could always sleep well, largely due to the fact that I never had anything important that I had to wake up for.
The funny thing is that when I don't HAVE to wake up at a fixed time, I can sleep easily due to a complete lack of stress. The trouble arises when I know I have to wake up for something such as work - then it becomes rather difficult to fall asleep as I keep thinking "oh I have to sleep" which produces a rather contradictory effect. This is very annoying.
When I was flying overseas for a business trip, on the way out I had to fly overnight, so I kept trying to sleep so that I would be rested for work in the morning. Needless to say this effort was unproductive and I had a very sleepy day. On the other hand when I fly back through Saturday afternoon I could fall asleep without trying hard, as I did not HAVE to sleep. Such is life.
I once read that dolphins can operate the two hemispheres of their brains independently, so that when one side is sleeping the other can control the body. Oh for such a skill I would be willing to pay dearly, as most of the time I can get along with half a brain anyway. Especially in meetings.
Friday, February 28, 2014
Cities I've been to - Adelaide
In the past when I talked to friends who had lived in Australia, an oft-heard comment was that "it's rather quiet at night".
When I went to Adelaide, this realization hit me very strongly. As I had arrived on their national day, everything was very very quiet. Not only were all stores closed, with doors shut resolutely, there was nobody on the streets at all, and very very few cars. It was rather eerie in fact, something like aliens had just sucked everybody away.
My family and I were staying at my dad's friend's house. When I walked out at dusk, the great beauty of the scenery hit me - rolling hills leading down to a deep blue sea, which spread out to eternity. At night all the stars came out, and you could count them. No pollution in the night sky.
My dad's friend had a nice house too. It was large, not opulent, but comfortable. A lovely garden surrounded it. He seemed to live a pretty relaxing life. Scale that house, garden and life up, and that's Adelaide.
Of course it is also really boring, which is why I will not live in a place like that till I retire and have nothing better to do than play Starcraft 5 all day or something like that.
When I went to Adelaide, this realization hit me very strongly. As I had arrived on their national day, everything was very very quiet. Not only were all stores closed, with doors shut resolutely, there was nobody on the streets at all, and very very few cars. It was rather eerie in fact, something like aliens had just sucked everybody away.
My family and I were staying at my dad's friend's house. When I walked out at dusk, the great beauty of the scenery hit me - rolling hills leading down to a deep blue sea, which spread out to eternity. At night all the stars came out, and you could count them. No pollution in the night sky.
My dad's friend had a nice house too. It was large, not opulent, but comfortable. A lovely garden surrounded it. He seemed to live a pretty relaxing life. Scale that house, garden and life up, and that's Adelaide.
Of course it is also really boring, which is why I will not live in a place like that till I retire and have nothing better to do than play Starcraft 5 all day or something like that.
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