not sure about how i feel about the article, a little stereotypical but somewhat right. i haven't had the problem of choosing universities so i don't really know at this point
Too Asian? - An Article on Universities - Page 6
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shawster
Canada2485 Posts
not sure about how i feel about the article, a little stereotypical but somewhat right. i haven't had the problem of choosing universities so i don't really know at this point | ||
sooch
Canada299 Posts
On November 11 2010 13:27 Monoxide wrote: Thats not how that would play out though. If I was president of a club that just played sc, I wouldn't call it SC club; I'd call it "brainwave" or something. I would host meetings where member would gather and discuss new advances in technology or enjoy a relaxing environment with individuals that share a similar interest. Something along those lines. Certainly wouldn't call it sc lan club. That's the point, you have to "play the game". | ||
Reaper9
United States1724 Posts
@ the guy below me Yes, introducing variety without playing the race or ethnicity card would be great, it is/and will, take a while but I do hope they start doing it more widespread now. Yea, the drinking culture is indeed too widespread in America. They have all the rights to poison their body, but it's just not healthy, and stupid stuff happens a lot because of drinking. | ||
Zzoram
Canada7115 Posts
I think drinking and partying and sports have become way too prominant a part of the university experience. Making asian kids do more of those things so white kids can keep doing too much of those things doesn't seem like a good idea. | ||
StorkHwaiting
United States3465 Posts
On November 11 2010 13:50 Zzoram wrote: Asians aside, I think it is a good article to raise discussion about university admissions and what administrators want to shape the campus culture into. I think it's a bit twisted that administrators want to "shape" campus culture. I can understand stopping the use of drugs and cultivating a culture of scholarship and discourse, but I think all this emphasis on athletics, school spirit, and greek society is kind of bullshit. It's basically saying, we condone casual sex and inebriation and want to make that a strong part of our university. Oh well, mainstream American culture at its finest... -I know the article is about Canada, but this happens in America too. And the college culture here is pretty god awful in terms of socialization. It's almost exclusively drinking and frat/sorority parties. Or it's little wannabe parties that want to be like the frat/sors. Or it's really geeked out. Or you go party with the real animals, aka the dropouts who all work as waiters/waitresses/bartenders/cocktail/club dancers. They are the ones that really party, aka threesomes snorting coke off each other's asses. Yeah, this is why I stay home and ladder on SC2. | ||
Straylight
Canada706 Posts
On November 11 2010 13:47 shawster wrote: i really think it's a broad stereotype that the author uses. not all asians are study everyday all day, i'm asian canadian and tbh i act just like a white guy. there are 2 kinds of asians, the kind that has been in the us/canada for a while, speaks perfect english, and the other kind whose parents beat them/etc to make sure they get good grades. not sure about how i feel about the article, a little stereotypical but somewhat right. i haven't had the problem of choosing universities so i don't really know at this point It's kinda amusing that you open with a comment on stereotypes then follow up with "I act just like a white guy" | ||
Zzoram
Canada7115 Posts
On November 11 2010 13:52 StorkHwaiting wrote: I think it's a bit twisted that administrators want to "shape" campus culture. I can understand stopping the use of drugs and cultivating a culture of scholarship and discourse, but I think all this emphasis on athletics, school spirit, and greek society is kind of bullshit. It's basically saying, we condone casual sex and inebriation and want to make that a strong part of our university. Oh well, mainstream American culture at its finest... Yes, it's a huge cultural problem when students are picking universities for the party scene instead of academic quality like the girl and her brother in the beginning of the article. The brother even admitted he wanted to coast through university and party, and asians are supposed to be more like that? | ||
dasanivan
United States532 Posts
On November 11 2010 13:44 alan25 wrote: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/30/world/asia/30china.html stabbings of kids k i'll explain myself instead of coming off as a prick. yeah, there were several instances of stabbings of kids in china. but you present it as if that has anything to do with discipline as it relates to asian parents and children motivated by the 'rod.' the post to which you'd responded, which describes an incongruency between certain eastern and western cultures has very little to do with what you're describing when you say "china is in a horrible state, there's a growing rate of child abduction and organ stealing." then you say more stuff about china's hivemind (or something). the fact is most of what you say has nothing to do with the quote to which you responded. edited wording | ||
Zzoram
Canada7115 Posts
On November 11 2010 13:54 dasanivan wrote: k i'll explain myself instead of coming off as a prick. there were several instances of stabbings of kids in china. but you say "highest crime rates of adults stabbing preschoolers" as if that has anything to do with discipline as it relates to asian parents and children motivated by the 'rod.' the post to which you'd responded, which describes an incongruency between certain eastern and western cultures has very little to do with what you're describing when you say "china is in a horrible state, there's a growing rate of child abduction and organ stealing." then you say more stuff about china's hivemind (or something). the fact is most of what you say has nothing to do with the quote to which you responded. The reason you hear about stabbings in China is because people don't have guns. In the US it would be shootings | ||
Kolan
Afghanistan1 Post
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Chill
Calgary25951 Posts
On November 11 2010 12:05 chenchen wrote: Social life and drinking and clubbing are mutually exclusive. If you honestly believe that the only way to have fun in college and to drink and indulge in orgies then you're wrong. I'm sure kids at Waterloo and UofT have fun in other ways. I'm sure they do to; That wasn't the point of my post. | ||
Zzoram
Canada7115 Posts
On November 11 2010 13:57 Kolan wrote: There is no excuse for domestic violence. I agree. Now let's stop the thread derail. | ||
silentreality
Korea (South)222 Posts
What I found was that I had somehow segregated myself from the Korean community at large and was labelled as a "banana".. I went joined the Korean army .. came back and tried my best to enjoy the best of both worlds... and I found that it wasn't too hard. I still went to clubs and bars.. but I also enjoyed going to 노래방 with my Korean friends and drinking overpriced soju as well. I actually introduced some of my more outgoing Korean friends to my white american friends and we had a great time.. so ......um Err I guess what I want to say is.. I don't care if you're white, asian or whatever. People of different ethnicities are going to tend to stick together.. that's a fact. But if you want integration you have to apply yourself.. sitting back and hoping others do it for you is never going to work. PS. I miss college life | ||
TossFloss
Canada606 Posts
I think this article both hits and misses. It's true that Asian students TEND to be higher achievers, that could be both the result of selective immigration picking educated parents and cultural values as stated in the article. I just think the stereotype that Asian students "aren't social" is really code for "don't do what we do". As they pointed out, Asian students TEND to dislike the drinking clubbing scene and favour playing table top games and likely video games at social events. How is this being anti-social? Since when is drinking and clubbing a requirement to be considered social, and since when was drinking and clubbing an essential part of the university culture that's being "lost" because of "too many Asians"? A few years ago I taught at a school in China. Just like teachers everywhere I had a few amazing students, many great/okay students and a handful of awful ones. One day I was asked to proctor a grade 11 mathematics exam of about 40 students. With only a few minutes into the test I counted five awful students with their head on the desk sleeping. | ||
XinRan
United States530 Posts
On November 11 2010 13:52 StorkHwaiting wrote: I think it's a bit twisted that administrators want to "shape" campus culture. I can understand stopping the use of drugs and cultivating a culture of scholarship and discourse, but I think all this emphasis on athletics, school spirit, and greek society is kind of bullshit. It's basically saying, we condone casual sex and inebriation and want to make that a strong part of our university. Oh well, mainstream American culture at its finest... I don't understand how the "emphasis on athletics, school spirit, and greek society" is "bascially saying, we condone casual sex and inebriation and want to make that a strong part of our university." And in what way is the administrators' desire to shape campus culture twisted? Isn't campus culture a significant enough part of an institution to pay attention to? | ||
n.DieJokes
United States3443 Posts
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midgettoes
Australia180 Posts
On November 11 2010 13:34 XinRan wrote: Well if 50% of the student body plays hockey, adding more hockey players wouldn't benefit the institution. I'm not saying that some activities are in some way intrinsically superior to others. I just think there should be a diversity of activities so that students have more opportunities to participate in new activities and their respective social spaces, and college admission committees should admit students to promote diversity of activities. You do bring up an interesting case of the favoritism shown to sports though. I think admission committees favor sports because they provide a shared value for the student body. When your school's hockey team faces off against another school's team, many people in your school is going to rally together and root for your school's team. A sports game is a pure spectacle where universities compete for superiority. If your school wins, it brings a sense of pride about the school. I know not everyone cares about sports games, however, so my use of the second person implied a generality that I didn't intend. Not everyone feels a sense of community when watching sports games, but in American culture, which I am assuming is similar to Canadian culture, most people do feel that sense of community. Because most people feel that sense of community, admission committees make an effort to build strong sports teams. It all depends on the culture though. I'm sure the hypothetical Teamliquid University would make an effort to build strong Starcraft and Starcraft II teams. Personally I feel neutral about admission committees favoring sports over other activities. I'm not the type to go crazy at home (American) football games, but school sports does give me something to talk about with my fellow students and the student-athletes I know are cool people. In the end, everything comes down to personal preference. If you don't like athletics and go wild at Starcraft clubs and piano concerts, then choose the school that favors those activities. I found this article kinda interesting, but nothing unexpected. I just thought I would point out quickly why (I believe) sport is favoured over, for example, piano: Let me start by quickly pointing out a friend of mine applied to study Medicine in Sydney but was rejected because of her interview - I'm unsure how acceptance is decided outside of Sydney, but here we have 3 things you need. 1) Good marks. 2) A good score on the "GAMSAT" or "UMAT" test - tests designed to show general aptitude and a basic understanding of biology/chemistry/physics. and 3) A good interview. Now in her interview my friend did not convince the interviewer she had good "people skills" which is deemed very important in the line of work she wanted to pursue. The interviewer told her - paraphrased slightly since this is a second re-telling (ie she told me, I'm telling you) - that she couldn't expect to help her patients or their families, and she would have no way of sympathising with them when delivering news about serious conditions/illness. The interviewer placed this value so highly that she was rejected because of this. Do you know what he recommended she should do to improve this skill? Play team sports. Now I think this outlines a lot of the reason sport is preferred over piano. I am not going to say the interviewer was right or wrong, nor whether I think that sport would improve my friends interview. I am just trying to suggest that this is what some people, in admission positions, see in regards to the sport vs piano debate. I played a lot of team sports as I grew up (at least 2 per season), and also played musical instuments - piano and flute. I did find it true that the music was a lot more individual than sport, as you may expect. And sport probably did help me socially a lot more than my music did. That said, I can't say how social I would be if I had just done music because... Well, I didn't do that Anyway, slightly longer post than I was planning but those are the reasons from my experience people prefer sport vs music. Hope that might provide interesting discussion if nothing else | ||
ExceeD_DreaM
Canada500 Posts
I must agree with what the article says. It is a problem that different ethnicities don't mingle together well at all. I am a Korean Canadian in UofT engineering and I see chinese with chinese, koreans with koreans, browns with browns, whites with whites and etc. As a former absolute banana (white washed), I turned a total fob after attending univ. But you know, i think the reasons are becuz you get more aid and help from your type of people and club, they make you feel more home, and of course, generally share similar interests. Also it is more appealing, as I would never hang out with brown people, not to be racist, but they just don't go along with what I am. I don't know what kind of 'strategy' will mingle everyone. Every ethnic group has different interests. Different languages and cultures. Koreans drink a LOT, just different style compared to whites. We don't go keggers, or house parties, but in a big group at a bar, or smaller groups at a bar. We drink different stuff, and drinking culture is different too. We prolly won't enjoy beer pong and whatnot, but more korean drinknig games. And mingling whites or other race into this, they will definitely not have fun.. I've drank with 2nd gen koreans before and they would mingle better with whites and whatnot, but they were too white as well. I personally don't see how this can work out, people are just different | ||
StorkHwaiting
United States3465 Posts
On November 11 2010 13:59 n.DieJokes wrote: Damn, this article stereotypes so hard. Just because I wasn't born with intense Asian parents doesn't mean I party and drink/smoke or drink/smoke/party in place of hard studying. On a side note, I don't really get what it means to act white, isn't being white just the absence of culture, its not like theres a white heritage club of counsel of white engineers or smt; we're just white, we don't wrap are selves in some kind of nationalistic identity Get outside of a white country sometime and you'll notice how white you really are. What you take for granted, many people in the world would consider bizarre and exotic. As an American-born Chinese I run into some similar cultural issues, and I was even born in a Chinese household. There's definitely a ton of unique aspects to being white. It's not an absence of culture -_-. The concept of good, evil, Christianity, feminism, racism, the social contract, freedom, inalienable rights etc these are all very Western notions. | ||
Zzoram
Canada7115 Posts
On November 11 2010 13:58 TossFloss wrote: A few years ago I taught at a school in China. Just like teachers everywhere I had a few amazing students, many great/okay students and a handful of awful ones. One day I was asked to proctor a grade 11 mathematics exam of about 40 students. With only a few minutes into the test I counted five awful students with their head on the desk sleeping. Yes, in China. The asian students in North America are statistically better students on average, but that's because immigration usually selects for better quality people. We prefer not to let in the dregs of other countries. | ||
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