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Studying at middle school (secondary school) in China
Diane
Diane grew up in north-eastern China, and went to middle school there, up to Year 11. Class-sizes were up to 70 students, and the competition was intense. She found the pressure very wearing, and her parents decided to send her to Australia to do her Year 12 studies and qualify for university entry. At the time of this interview she was in her final undergraduate year at Monash.
In her interview she commented on the teaching methods she encountered, and on the use of the school library.
My school's library is very small. I think it's not for students. The normal work is too busy – every student have no time to go to the library. Just we have the – zìxiū – self-study.
Susy
Susy came to Monash after completing an undergraduate degree at another Australian university. She is from southern China, where she scraped through middle school before being sent to Australia to join her brother, who was already studying here. Her parents hoped this would bring about a change of attitude, which apparently it did.
Susy commented on Chinese views of a 'good student' and a 'good teacher'.
To be honest with you, I have no idea about the real student in China, because I didn't spend much time on study. I liked to see movie, I liked to have fun, I liked to have party.
Like, a traditional good student in China, they don't do anything, just concentrate on study so their parents will be happy. And they don't need to do housework, anything can be done by their parents, as long as they study well. This is my understanding. Work all daytime and work all night time, very late.
They have a very good academic – teaching background; they have good teaching technique; at the same time they know the knowledge very well that they talk about; and also, at the same time they not just take good care of the good students, they also need to have some motivation with the low-grade students.
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But the teacher never never sit down, you know, at your desk to teach you to do something. When the teacher give the student a question and if there's no response from students, teacher will ignore it and then give answer.... Here, it's quite different. The teacher will encourage you and give you more time to think about it.