He enrolled in the political science program, not “Chinese studies.”
Motivation? Interest? Curiosity? Desire for knowledge? What’s the motivation for someone wanting to study math or geography for example? Are you seriously saying that only Chinese speakers should study Chinese affairs? How strange.[/quote]
Let me put it this way - Taiwanese student moves to UK. After 20 years he still does not speak English but now wants to major in English History. Would this seem strange to you?[/quote]
Who says the bloke’s a student? He’s been working here for 20 years, not studying Chinese.
If a Taiwanese fellow worked in the UK for 20 years and then found there was the opportunity to study English history at an English university, with classes offered in Chinese, it wouldn’t seem strange to me at all. If he paid his money and attended class, only to find that the classes weren’t taught in Chinese at all, and then got pissed about it, I wouldn’t find that strange, either.
Misread that part, could continue the fictional debate with Sandman though.
Nice attempt to put the blame back on the student again. The university is in the wrong here, clearly. Did you read the article?[/quote]
Dial it back there toasty. I’m not blaming him at all. Its a pretty clear cut case. Administration said the classes were in English and they were not. I can understand how the Professor and Student would both be upset.
My question is about what the motivation is of the student to take theses classes based on his background.[/quote]
Your response to me clearly shows you did not read the article and, thus, have no idea what you’re talking about.
You clearly have a chip on your shoulder and I have no idea why.
Going back to the article, these are the parts that worry and sadden me the most:
True. Even though people at our college were quite sympathetic to our complaints about a racist instructor -who kicked a student out of the class because he did not like people from this person’s country, and the student took offense at his comments- they were also “tied up” by regulations and could not act as we as Westeners expected.
This is the core of the article. Look at the title:
Foreign student caught up in grim reality at local university.
This means “that is the way things are”.
So, in summary, how can we fight against this lack of fair play?
I hope word of this gets to the local students in a good way, a clear story. They are also in the same boat with us. I remember my friends at Shida having problems with sexual harrasment by one of their “untouchable” instructors. Academia environment is really complex and dangerous.
You clearly have a chip on your shoulder and I have no idea why.[/quote]
I think it takes a certain amount of “chips” to suggest the student was in any way wrong in this case, even more to continue posting when you’ve even admitted to not having your facts straight. My default concerning westerners who encounter trouble here-- and trouble that in my experience is more often the fault of local conditions than any shortcoming on the westerner’s-- is to show compassion and understanding, not criticism. But I guess my values and yours differ. Good day.
Wow, my post was not even a paragraph and you couldn’t be bothered to read it ? !
So if they are white we should not be able to comment negatively on them?
compassion, understanding? Sure, just westerners? Yeah, I guess our values are quite different there.
Well, I, for one, think you should be allowed to make all the negative comments you want. You can just add them to the pile:
In other words, it’s basically his own fault, part the first.
[quote]Oh, I agree that if the university is being deceptive if it’s billing itself as “international” and it isn’t able to handle international students.
On the other hand, this guy should have engaged in some caveat emptor.[/quote]
In other words, it’s basically his own fault, part the second.
In other words, it’s basically his own fault, part the third.
[quote]Waitasec. This guy has been in Taiwan for 20 years and still only has the most basic understanding of Chinese?
I understand not everyone wants to learn Chinese and not everyone has time to study it, but crikey… after 20 years you’d think he’d have heard enough to pick quite a bit up…[/quote]
In other words, it’s basically his own fault, part the fourth.
[quote]Yet I would expect every foreigner is exposed to spoken Chinese everyday, unless they wake up, meet their expat friends in a bar, and drink the day away.
You’re right - it’s not the point, as he was told he could do it in English. I just found it a little ridiculous, is all.[/quote]
In other words, it’s basically his own fault, part the fifth.
In other words, it’s basically his own fault, part the sixth.
I don’t see how one more could hurt, just in case there’s someone reading the thread who doesn’t get that some people think it’s Mr. Alred’s fault. And maybe the university should adopt that position. To tie it in to a campus theme, they could just quote the frat guy in the movie Animal House: “You f***ed up. You trusted us.”
[quote=“On The Brink”]So if they are white. . . .
compassion, understanding? Sure, just westerners? Yeah, I guess our values are quite different there.[/quote]
I just realized how dumb and naive I am. I read the whole thread carefully, and read the China Post article, too, and I didn’t notice the racism at first. But now that you mention it, the guy is a westerner, and probably a white one, so any attempt to defend him–or even merely to say that it’s wrong to get someone to make plans around one’s promise, and then to break that promise–is probably based on hegemonic, white-supremacist beliefs, and–which is about as bad–shows a coldness and a lack of compassion and understanding for the plight of the hardworking people in the administration and faculty of the university, who are Taiwanese.
What–you think Alred should have hired a translator? I thought hiring male staff was his butler’s job, and if the translator was female, then she would fall under the authority of the…chambermaid? Oh hell, I’d never make it in the eighteenth century.
Um, how much do translators cost? For instance, if I wanted to hire one to follow me around all day…? Could I afford one with one of those doctoral stipends from the MoE, or are they separately funded (like beer money)?
Of course they COULD be free if one was, you know, willing to make it a bodily-fluids exchange, but that’s a bit like saying he should have banged the professor. (Who from the sound of things could probably have used it, though.)
Sure, it’s unfortunate that Taiwanese institutions systematically deceive people (and themselves?), but sometimes you have to take responsibility for letting others cheat you. I mean, what sort of airtight bubble has he been living in for the past two decades? If I were him, I would just pay the “dummy tax” and move on to something better than a bogus PhD.