【一】如果中国学生相比美国学生学得更多，为何美国依旧在几乎各个方面都要领先于中国 [美国媒体]

If Chinesestudents read or study more than American students, why is it that Americastill leads the Chinese in almost all aspects of life - technology,entrepreneurs, etc.?

如果中国学生相比美国学生学得更多，为何美国依旧在几乎各个方面都要领先于中国，无论是生活质量、科技、还是创业精神等？





Sun Wei, PhDstudent in Economics, hiker
UpdatedAug 2, 2015
It is unfair that Thomas Yao ascribedthis paradox partly to education. I see the Chinese education system quitehealthy and capable of producing high-quality students. The fact that many ofthe top talents do excellent work in places like Cupertino, Palo Alto, NewYork, London, San Francisco, Boston, as he mentioned, confirms the fact theeducation is not at fault, but rather China is having difficulty retaining thosetop talents it produced. There are multiple reasons for this. 
First of all, one needs better infrastructurefor entrepreneurship. Whether it is better government policy or complementaryservice like VC, it takes time to develop. It is very much a chicken-and-eggproblem, without a vibrant entrepreneurial community, it does not make sense forgovernment to change policy and VC to take place. Tarun at Harvard point to the"instituitonal void" in developing countries as an obstacle todevelopment, and I think this void is especially actute for high-techindustries, which needs a much more complicated support system. 
Second, technological diffusion is slow. Thetechnological diffusion is never perfect, and artificially slowed by industrialpolicies of the developed nations. To get to the frontier of the technology,many students have to go abroad to obtain those skills. But once abroad, oneestablishes the whole network that makes work and life much easier abroad, andmakes going back harder. But among those who do go back, there is considerablesuccess. 
Third, as a student in US, I have to say themain reason that stops me from going back is the level of pollution. Even in USI would not consider heavily polluted cities as a place for work. My sense fromtalking to many students here is that this is indeed a big factor. Of course,this is purely anecdotal, and I entertain the possibility a formal analysiswould prove me wrong. 
I would now like to come back to the educationpart. I strongly disagree with the claim that US education (before college) isin any sense superior. I have some direct and indirect experience with thesystem and I have to say I am very disappointed. Thomas Yao mentioned thatChinese student study to take exams, and that might be true. But that is evenmore true in US. In countless maths classes, students merely follow the simpleprocedure, remember the formula and pass the exam. In China, to pass the exams,one at least have to think very hard to apply the tools he has learnt, andshows some genuine learning. There are problems with the Chinese educationsystem, but to ascribe this paradox to the education system is quite unfair.

Sun Wei  经济学博士，徒步旅行者
Thomas Yao把这个似是而非的论点部分归因于教育是不公正的。我所见到的中国教育制度相当的健康、并且有能力产生高质量的学生。事实上，很多（中国）顶尖人才在苹果总部、洛杉矶、纽约、伦敦、旧金山、波士顿工作得非常好。
正如ThomasYao所提到了，教育本身并没有毛病，反而是中国很难留住这些自己产生的顶尖人才。原因是多样的。
首先，国家需要有支撑创业精神的土壤。无论是政策倾斜还是支援补充，这都需要时间。这非常像是现有鸡还是现有蛋的问题，没有充满活力的创业环境，谈zf各项政策支撑毫无意义。哈佛大学的塔伦就基于发展中国家的发展障碍提出了“制度性空间”，而且我觉得这样的空间非常有利于高等教育体系，当然高等教育体系需要的支持还很多很多。
第二，技术扩散是缓慢的。它人为的受到发达国家工业政策的阻碍，远非完美。要学到前言技术，许多学生就不得不留学以获得这些技能。一旦出了国，这个国家所建立起来的网络，使得工作生活比国内要更容易，而要回国就难了。当然那些回国的人，也是相当成功的。
第三，作为在美国的学生，我得说阻止我回国的原因在于污染水平。即使是在美国我也不会考虑在那些重度污染的城市工作。我跟很多同学都聊过天，给我的感觉是这确实是一个很大的（阻止回国的）因素。当然了，这纯粹是茶余饭后的消遣，我乐意看到用正式分析来证明我是错的。
让我们回到教育的问题上来。我完全不同意，所谓的美国教育（大学之前）有任何的优越性。我对此有或直接或间接的经验，不得不说我非常失望。
Thomas Yao提到，中国学生学习如何考试，这也许是对的。但总归要比美国要好。在不计其数的数学课中，学生们不过是跟随一些简易的流程，记住公式并通过考试。
在中国，通过考试，学生至少艰难应用医学过的知识之中，体现一些天才般的学习能力。这是中国教育制度的一些问题，但将中国现在不如美国归因于教育制度是不公正的。

Julie Huang,I am fob.
AnsweredJul 29, 2015
There are so many factors involved. 
So to understand this generation you kind ofhave to look at the development of the previous generation aka their parents.In the 50s-70s, Communism was the message. You were taught to co-exist ratherthan stand out and to build your skills into a great purpose vs. thinkcritically about what makes sense to you. There are so many things wrong withthat today, BUT back then it made sense and was really what China needed to getout of post-dynasty feudalism. That was the huge step forward for the 50-70sgeneration. Then you have the kids who are born in the 80s-early 90s, who areon the front of a new kind of social transformation along with globalization.Every generation in China is living in a totally different social atmospherefrom the previous. So in a sense, they're up to their own to figure out wherethey fit, especially development wise, in the world. 
So how does that affect the Chinese studentstoday? Their parents have passed down the importance of Gaokao and getting agood career through good grades and academic performance. Why? Because Gaokaowas first implemented on mom and dad to give them career opportunities. Whathappened was you study good, you get into university, and when you graduate theuniversity is actually responsible for getting you a job. The job they"assign" you will be yours most likely forever, and your job positionwill greatly determine where you live and standard of living for your kids. Idon't mean financially, it's more of a social status thing. Say you get assignedto a job at the city planning council (high rank department), they'll give youa house and a bunch of benefits for your family. There's so much stability youcan basically sit on your ass all day and everything will be taken care of. Nowthe previous generation (grandma and grandpa) didn't have that luxury, theyworked hard mostly as farmers or servants to landlords/rich people. 
So the idea of success for the previousgeneration is: stability, tenure, and mediocrity; being the little guy for"da people". 
They pass that onto the next generation, whichmeans these Chinese kids are brought up in an environment that doesn't promoteindividuality but rather finding identity as a community. In addition, academicperformance was soooooooooo important for the previous ideology that allparents can think about is how to get their kids to get 100 in math class. Theydon't really care much for extracurricular activities because it takes awayfrom the time you have to learn some more math. Schools play a great role in thatas well, they tell you that if you don't study you're going to become an epicfailure in life. 
Yes, I was one of those kids. The most oftenthing my high school homeroom teacher told me was that I was never going tocollege and have no future whatsoever. Derp. 
So Chinese kids graduate with the sense thatbecause they've done so well in school and sacrificed their childhood tohomework and exam prep, they are now "successful". Major majormisconception. They step into the real world where critical thinking anddecision making is so important but they had no experience in these becauseevery decision was made for them so that they can spend their time withhomework. You see where the problem is?
There's no doubt this kind of education systemhas produced very smart people, when I walk into Google it's like a Chineseheritage reunion. But, how many Chinese managers/executives do you see? There'sa big difference in leading and being really good at following. Leadinginvolves a considerable amount of critical thinking, risk taking and being outof your comfort zone all day. That's something the Chinese education system andformer social value doesn't facilitate. Even though Chinese students maygraduate with 100 in every subject, you ask them "what is something thatneeds to be improved in the world today that you have a passion for", manytimes they'll draw a blank or give some real generic answer like "everyoneneeds to see that Chinese people are great". 
So while they are super smart, they don't necessarilymake great entrepreneurs. 
BUT, things are changing fast. Schools areincorporating holistic educational things. This generation has received a lotof westernized education by studying abroad, social media and just a generalinterest in global development. So with the next generation, (the kids who arestill in school, K-12) there will be a lot of drastic changes. Generallypolicies are implemented pretty fast in China because of the CCP, it's a verytop-down approach they don't have to get approval from whoever. So you see whenthe government publically endorsed entrepreneurship a couple years ago, allthese schools got their own funds/incubators immediately. Of course that's notthe only reason they promoted entrepreneurship, there's way too many qualifiedgraduates there aren't enough jobs to go around, but that's another can ofworms.
Julie Huang

这件事涉及到太多因素。
要理解这一代人，某种程度上你需要回头看一看前一代人的发展。换句话说，就是他们的父母。
在上世纪50-70年代，GC主义就是信仰。你被教导共存而非独立为了理想学一门技艺、并批判性的思考自己到底是谁。
在今天这是非常错误的，但回头来看，因正因这样做，才使得中国能走出后封建时代。这在当时的50-70年代看来是巨大的飞跃。
之后你养育了80-90后的一代人，他们是生活在全新的、向全球化过渡的社会之中的一代人。每一代中国人，相比前一代都生活在完全不同的社会氛围之中。
所以从某种意义上说，他们以符合自己的方式在生活，尤其是如何在这个世界，明智的发展。
所以这对今天的中国学生造成了怎样的影响呢？他们的父母把高考、通过好成绩获得好工作的重要性传给的他们的下一代。
为什么会这样？因为高考是父母那一辈人第一次可以改变命运的机会。当你学习好，你就可以进大学，而大学毕业就是你能得到工作的原因。
而“分配”的工作永远都会是你最喜欢的，你的职位很大程度上决定了你的生活以及你的孩子们的生活水平。我不是指财政上的，我更多的指的是社会地位。
意思就是，你在城市计划委员会中分配得一份工作（高级别部门），他们会给你一套房子以及给你家庭一大堆好处。
这基本上就是一个铁饭碗，而且什么事情都给你照顾到了。现在前一代所不曾奢侈的生活、并以农民身份为地主们服务的祖父母们（你父母这一代都得到了）。
所以对于前一代人来说，成功就意味着：稳定、铁饭碗、平庸；为“大人”做小人。
他们把这些传给了下一代人，这意味着这些孩子们都生活在一个不鼓励个人身份、而是寻找集体认同的环境之中。再者，学习成绩在之前的意识形态之中太过重要了，使得所有父母都在想如何让自己的孩子在数学班中获得100分。
他们真的不在乎课外活动，因为这会浪费掉学习数学的时间。学校塑造榜样也是如此，他们告诉你，如果你不学习你会一事无成。
是，我就是这其中的一个孩子。我高中的家庭老师最经常告诫我的就是，如果不上了大学，就没有未来。
所以说，中国孩子们的毕业，某种程度上就意味着，他们做得非常的好，他们把自己的童年都奉献给了家庭作业和考试准备，他们现在是“成功的”。
最最重要的错误观念就在于，他们步入社会后，发现批判性思维和（自己）拿主意居然如此的重要，而他们在这些事情上没有半点经验，因为每一个决定不是自己的做的，这样才能有足够时间做家庭作业。你发现问题了吗？
毫无疑问，这样的教育制度培养了非常聪明的人出来，当我走进谷歌的时候，就像是中国传统的再次聚会（译注：意指中国人多）。
但，这里又能看到多少中国的经理/高管呢？做管理领导跟如何做好跟班是有巨大差别的。领导管理涉及到相当多的批判性思维、冒险行为和整天都不处于自己的“舒适区”之中。这些都是中国的教育制度和之前的社会价值所不曾触及过的东西。
就算中国学生以各科满分100分毕业，你问他们“这个世界上有什么你特别感兴趣的并急于提高的东西？”，大多数时候，他们脑中一片空白或者，给一些通用答案如“每个人都需要看到中国人很棒”之类的。
所以，尽管他们超级聪明，但他们未必具备优秀的创业精神。
但是，事情正在快速变化。学校正在整个整体教育内容。这一代人正在通过学习海外、社会媒体及对全球发展更加广泛的兴趣的方式，来接收大量西式教育。
所以对于下一代人而言（幼儿园至中学阶段），他们将会遭遇巨大的变化。在中国，普遍政策将得以快速施展开来，这是一种自顶向下的实施方法，使得他们不需要得到任何其他人的同意。
正因如此，你才能看到，zf在公开支持创业精神也就几年时间，所有这些学校立即设立了他们自己的培育中心。
当然了，促进创业精神的原因还在于，太多合格的毕业生找不到足够的相应的工作，但这是另一个棘手的问题了。

Siddharth Pathak,Hindi Chini bhai bhai, 中印兄弟
Updated Aug 5, 2015
It isn't every time that I find myself in completedisagreement with someone like Joe Lonsdale,but on this count I do. 
So the question states, 
IfChinese students read or study more than American students, why is it thatAmerica still leads the Chinese in almost all aspects of life - technology,entrepreneurs, etc?
Who said America completely dominates Chinaover every single aspect? It certainly doesn't. In many aspects such aspayments, government services, green energy, China has a serious leg up overother countries. In technologies like high speed rail, and medical sciencesChina is pretty much unrivaled in the entire world. While American politiciansget themselves knee deep into really unproductive debates, China huddled earlyin 2000s and by 2014 built over 16,000 km of high speed rail tracks, higherthan every single rail network in countries combined. Similarly, Chineseresearchers are leading the world in conducting ground-breaking research ingenetics. And the Party is supporting this effort by injecting close to $200billion in research every single year. 
Innovation in technology comes from acollusion of a huge amount of resources. It doesn't matter if it's a governmentleading the charge or some larger-than-life entrepreneur. Despite Mr Lonsdale'smisgivings of governments, there just isn't any single existing entity on theplanet that can match the resources commanded by a government. The dramaticincrease in Chinese' qualities of life is a very obvious example of this. 
And even when it comes to entrepreneurship,the Chinese have started eclipsing America. Last year for the first time sincestarting up became sexy in the 1990s, Silicon Valley was beaten by Beijing'sZhongguancun Park on two counts. One was the combined revenue earned bycompanies based in the park, and another was the number of startups started.There is a very big asymmetry in how the global media coverage is for startups.Companies in Silicon Valley receive disproportionately larger coverage throughoutthe world, while the rapid evolution in companies and entrepreneurshipelsewhere particular in Asia, and Africa, are on the backburner. This creates avery misinformed opinion that America dominates the rest of the world in techand startups. It used to be true, but it isn't anymore. For instance, manywould think that the new hot phenomenon about "sharing economy" wasliterally started by startups in the Valley. This is actually not true. WhileUber might have been one of the first companies that popularized the concept inthe mainstream mind, it certainly didn't kickstart the sharingeconomy stuff. People were already sharing a lot of services virtually eitherover phones, or through the Internet. Kenyans have had a full fledged bankingsystem on their black and white phones since 2007. 
If the last decade was about China developingits economy to become the 2nd largest, this decade will be it becoming theglobal leader in technology. And not just China, even those countries likeIndia and Indonesia are going to be the leaders for technology. 

SiddharthPathak  中印兄弟
我发现我并不总是持完全不同的观点，但面对Joe Lonsdale，这次是的。
这个问题是：
“如果中国学生相比美国学生学得更多，为何美国依旧在几乎各个方面都要领先于中国，无论是生活质量、科技、还是创业精神等？”
美国在所有层面相比于中国都居于主导地位，谁说的？当然不是了。
在很多方面，如：支付手段、zf服务、绿色能源，中国都已经领先其他国家了。
在科学技术方面，有高铁、中医药技术，中国都无可匹敌。
在美国政客们都深陷于非产品性辩论之中的时候，中国早在2000就开始、并在2014年就建造了1万6000公里的高铁里程，比所有国家的铁路里程加在一起都还要长。类似的还有，中国研究者们在开展了独创性的基因研究引领世界。而且政党通过每年提供2000亿美元的研究资金来支持这项努力。
技术创新是大量资源堆出来的。这跟zf是否一马当前、或者所谓的创新精神没什么关系。
尽管Linsdale先生对zf存在疑虑，但世界本就不存在能胜任研究任务的zf。
中国境内生活质量的巨大提升就是一个非常明显的例子。
即便是谈到企业家精神，中国人也开始让美国黯然失色了。自上世纪90年代开始展露魅力至今，北京的中关村就已经在2方面击败了美国的硅谷。
一个是园区内公司总税收，另一个是创业数量。
美国硅谷的公司在世界范围内的不成比例的影响力，使得其他地区尤其是亚洲和非洲的公司和创业处于快速发展之中，但依旧处于次要地位。所以才会有美国在科技和创业上居于主导地位这种错误的观念。
这在过去是对的，但现在不了。
例如，现在很火的“共享经济”，许多人会译文是硅谷诞生的想法。这是错 。尽管Uber可能是第一个在主流之中普及这个概念的公司，但毫无疑问它不是第一个驱动共享经济的人。
事实上，无论是电话还是因特网，人们之前就已经共享了大量的服务了。早在2007年，肯尼亚的黑白电话上就已经有完整的银行体系了。
如果说头十年是中国发展成为世界第二大经济体的十年，那么接下来的十年就是中国在技术领域成为全球领导者的十年。并且不只是中国，甚至包括印度、印度尼西亚在内，都会成为技术领域的领跑者。

PeterJohnston, Infinite Monkies (bald) head honcho
AnsweredMar 9, 2015
Easy answer here - you set the test about things whichmatter to you, so obviously you're going to do well on it.
You're probably reading this on a computermost of which was made in China. But you're told that all the clever work wasdone in your own country and the Chinese just did the manufacturing (portrayedas the easy bit).
And you're stupid enough to believe that.
China was the source of our civilisation."The silk road" was the route to bring goods from civilised China touncivilised Europe. Cities like Venice and Istanbul/Constantinople became majorpowers as a result and rich people all over Europe wore Chinese silks, usedChinese spices and narcotics, printed materials (the Chinese had printing inthe 9th century - it wasn't invented by Gutenberg)  and highly prized thethings brought across Asia from the civilised countries of China, Indonesia andIndia.
Then Europeans copied another of theirinventions - the crab claw sail (we call it the fore and aft sail) whichallowed us to sail against the wind and set out on Viking-style raids to robthese people of their goods. We call it the Age of Discovery - I'm sure theyare less polite. The Dutch and English fought for mastery over China and theEnglish succeeded through hooking them on opium and supplying their addictionthrough India.
A by-product of this Age of Discovery was thediscovery of the Americas and the Spanish, French and British raped andpillaged their way across this continent too. You and I are the progeny ofthese horrendous people.
While America gained its independence in 1777,however, the Chinese didn't really get theirs until a century later. Forexample from Wikipedia: "China experienced Western imperialism followingthe First Opium War (1839–42)and the Second Opium War(1856–60)with Britain and France. China was forced to sign unequal treaties, paycompensation, allow extraterritoriality for foreign nationals, and cede Hong Kong tothe British[63] underthe 1842 Treaty of Nanking."Having fought off British rule, they closed themselves away for a century frompillaging Westerners.
Meanwhile the Scots created the IndustrialAge. In Glasgow, Adam Smith set out the tenets of entrepreneurialism -effectively a business version of the Viking raids. And James Watt reinventedthe steam engine (another Chinese invention), enabling every subsequenttechnology. This reset Western values - we prize entrepreneurs and we prize technologyover human values such as sharing, family connections and community.
So of course, if we set the questions anddecide what makes a good answer, we'll do better on the test. But the Chineseare more civilised, have better design skills and work much better togetherthan we do. And 40% of the world's graduates come from India and China. 
Things are changing fast. I suggest you askthe question again in a couple of decades. By then they will have made up thatcentury and the world will have righted itself. Hopefully their better valueswill also prevail.
Peter Johnston

简单的答案就是：你既然把它视为问题，那么你就自己去搞定。
你用来阅读这些答案的电脑可能就来自于中国。但你被告知所有聪明的工作都已经在你的国家做完了，而中国不过是制造商（它被描绘成轻易就能完成的事物）。
而你，居然蠢到相信这是真的。
中国是我们文明的源泉（ the source of ourcivilisation）。“丝绸之路”就是文明的中国把货物带往蛮夷的欧洲之路。而威尼斯、伊斯坦布尔/君士坦丁堡成了主要的权力之地，整个欧洲富有的人都穿中国丝绸、用中国香料和麻醉品（narcotics），打印材料（中国于公元9世纪就发明了印刷术 — 而不是德国古藤堡），并且欧洲人为这些穿越亚洲的、来自文明的中国、印度尼西亚和印度的事物感到非常骄傲。
在欧洲人复制了其他国家的发明之后，小帆船起航了，这些维京海盗入侵并抢劫了其他人的货物。我们称之为探索时代，我确信他们毫无礼貌可言。荷兰人和英国人争夺对中国的控制，英国人成功地将中国与鸦片联系在一起，并通过印度使他们染上毒瘾。
探索时代，美洲大发现的副产品是：西班牙人、法国人、不列颠人以他们自己的方式强奸并掠夺了这个大陆。你、我都是这群令人恐惧的人的后裔。
虽然美国在1777年获得了独立，但中国却没有，直到一个世纪以后。
维基百科上：
“中国经历了西方帝国主义带来的第一次鸦片战争（1839-1842）以及与法国和英国的第二次鸦片战争（1856-60）。中国被迫签订不平等协议，支付赔款、允许外国人治外法权，以及于1842年割让香港给英国。”为对抗英国的统治、远离西方的掠夺，他们封闭了自己一个世纪。
期间，英国人开启了工业时代。在格拉斯哥（译注：英国某一城市），亚当·斯密陈述了企业家的原理：维京海盗的商业版本。
而詹姆斯瓦特彻底改造了蒸汽机（另一个是中国发明的），使得后来的技术成为可能。这重塑了西方价值观：我们为创业者/企业家感到骄傲我们为技术感到骄傲，而非人类价值如分享、家庭联系和社区。
所以当然了，如果我们造成了这个问题但决定给出一个好的答案，那么我们会交上满意的答卷。
但中国人更加的文明、也拥有更好的设计才能，团队工作也比我们做得好。
而且，印度和中国贡献了世界40%的毕业生。
事物正在快速变化。我建议你在数十年后再来提同样的问题。
到那个时候，他们将改变这个世纪，而这个世界也会回到正确的轨道。
希望他们能盛行更好的价值观。

EducationalConsultant, poet, linguist, traveler
Iteach many Chinese students here in the U.S. to prepare for American collegeexams and I assist students in college admissions. From an educationalstandpoint, I have a perspective on Chinese students in America that is quiteilluminating, and while it does not speak to the Chinese in China, it doesrepresent many of the "best" students that China has --and the bestresourced students--who travel abroad to study.
Iwould ask people NOT to consider the students themselves but the PARENTS of thestudents as the problem.
PARENTS are what hold Chinese studentsback.  Most Chinese students I have encountered are extremely respectful,hard working, polite and earnest.  Some of the ultra wealthy suffer fromarrogance, privilege and assumptions about social advancement that flattertheir immature vanities,  but 9/10 times, the problem lies with the false expectations of theparents.  Every parent knows two colleges, Harvard and MIT.Some know Stanford and the other ivies like Princeton. Nothing else is relevantto them. With all of the math wisdom in China, these parents apparently cannotfigure out that a typical Ivy school only enrolls 1500 new kids per year, andthat the likelihood that their precious child will be academically superior toa native born English speaker is virtually nil.  With only a few thousandspots open total for all foreign students  at these elite colleges, theseparents ALL expect that their kids can get into Harvard... So, they hire thetop American tutors only to fire them once their kids don't score in the top1%.  Whom do they hire instead? Chinese tutors who do not understand theAmerican system -- and certainly do not know English as well as natives withadvanced degrees -- but whom the parentsimplicitly trust because they are Chinese and can communicate withthem.  This is the real problem: a total lack of reality for parents ofChinese students in America, a TOTAL lack of good information, and implicittrust in "Chinese only" tutors. I think a lot of these Chinese tutorstake the parents for a ride and the parents really don't know whom totrust.  Still, a lot of the problem is parental self-deception and willfulignorance.
Chinese parents need to first understand thatyou cannot learn English in five years and then go to Harvard unless you are agenius.  They also need to understand that what makes the US educationsystem so strong--and this now speaks to the larger question posed here--is thevariety, flexibility and vitality of the hundreds of small liberal artscolleges that complement the large research universities.  We have so manytremendous opportunities to learn here in the USA, and yet only the reallyshrewd Chinese students know about them. The Chinese system is top down. TheAmerican University system was built from a bottom up model that took shapeover time in a capitalist system with large private alumni donations, legacytraditions, and "school spirit" concepts that advance Alumnigiving.  We are very attached to our schools here--perhaps in the somewhatinfantile way that we are attached to sports teams--but that "love"and "identification" drives the system, from the leading schools tothe mid-tier, and supports it financially and culturally.
ProblemNumber TWO: The Chinese generally are obsessed with quantification.That does not only extend to their superb math education at home, but to afalse idea that we can rank everything numerically, and only  the #1ranked items matter.  Therefore, Harvard and MIT are all thatmatter.  There is no subtlety, no clarity that different colleges havedifferent strengths and many smaller colleges prepare you better for med schoolor law school.  Most Chinese think of American colleges as vanityprojects, much in the way that American elites want to put the "vanitysticker" on the back of the Range Rover to show off that "we"got into such and such college.  Chinese students abroad need to educatetheir own parents about the American system, and THE PARENTS NEED TO SHUT UP AND LISTEN. Our system is soradically different from that of China, that any attempt to impose a Chineseview of education on what we do here is thoroughly misguided if not logicallyperverse.
ProblemNumber THREE: There is a "herd" mentality in China thatis quite insular. Everybody follows what the "in" group is doing, andany alternative is blasphemy.  I will give you an example. I have yet toconvince a Chinese family to take the ACT instead of the SAT for collegeadmissions, even though it is as widely accepted and may be easier for acertain student to master (and most Americans find it easier). IN China all theparents know is the SAT, and anything else cannot possibly be right--"this ACT thing" is surelya trick to mislead them from a reaching successful path. "We know betterand we will not be fooled." Again, there is no outside the box thinking.So, what impacts China broadly-- an educational system that focuses on math andmemorization creates a rigid, mathematical mind set about what "must"be true, limits creativity or even basic trust.  Even when faced withfacts, Chinese parents will default to the herd choice and follow what thesuccessful people did, even if their kids will not benefit from what worked forothers. If it worked for the winners, it must be right for me, or so theythink.  There is no concept that your kid may be different or have analternate path. Learning disabilities don't exist and hard work can conquer allproblems.  I have to respect the belief that hard work will get you whereyou want to go, but not everyone can go to an Ivy league school.  There istoo much cognitive dissonance between the empirical reality of numbers and theperceived capability of any individual in society.  I guess that is, inits essence, the difference in the American system--there are many paths tosuccess and the Chinese parents tend to see only one formula for success ineducation.  Of course, this is not true for EVERY parent, but it'sunbelievably prent.
ProblemFOUR: What matters in real life is not calculus. Most of my friendswho are Engineers don't even use calculus. It is a waste of time for mostpeople.  Even in the USA, we now obsess about higher math just for thesake of college admissions, when it is irrelevant to more than 95% of theworld.  WHAT DOES MATTER,then?  COMMUNICATION SKILLS.  Spend that time masteringEnglish or another language.  Learn public speaking, debate, persuasivewriting and analytic thinking and fluid reasoning.  Learn about theworld.  That is what gets people ahead in business, in the boardroom, inpersonal relationships--in life, love, business, family and leads to selfactualization..... Calculus gets you a job in a cubicle workingfor someone else who knows how to communicate.
So, inshort, change your priorities, China. Change your mentality. Chinese parents ofpassionate and earnest students are leading their kids down the wrong path,certainly here in the USA, and probably also in China as well.  Parents ofChinese students abroad are probably no more cosmopolitan in their views thatthose who create the same stagnation at home.

教育顾问、会多门语言、旅行者
在美国，我教授过大量为准备美国大学考试的中国学生，也参加过学生们的大学录取。从一个教育观点来看，在中国学生这事儿上我有独特的角度：他们在中国不跟中国人说汉语、他们相当程度代表了中国拥有的“最好”的学生、他们财力雄厚有能力留学。
我会要求人们不要关注学生们本身，而是关注学生们的父母们，他们才是症结所在。
父母是这些中国学生回国的原因。
我所遇到的绝大多数中国学生都非常令人尊重、努力工作、知礼、热心。
另一些非常富有的人则表现无知、特权意识，并且幻想社会的进步能满足他们不成熟的虚荣心。
所有父母都知道2所大学，哈佛和麻省理工。一些人还知道斯坦福和其他一些常春藤大学如，普林斯顿。其他的事他们漠不关心。基于中国的数学智慧，这些父母显然无法理解，为何一所典型的常春藤学校每年只招收1500名新学生，并且他们宝贝孩子在学术上比当地人更优秀的可能性几乎为零。
这些精英大学都为外国学生开放了数千个名额，然而这些父母却只期待他们的孩子进哈佛。。。
然后，他们雇佣美国顶尖导师，一旦他们的孩子没有考出头几名的分数就会解雇他们。取而代之又雇佣谁呢？中国的导师不了解美国的制度，而且对英语的掌握也没有获得高等学位的本地人好。但这些父母们潜在相信他们，因为他们是中国人而且可以跟他们交流沟通。
这就是真正的问题所在：那些中国学生的父母们根本就不切实际、也根本就缺乏信息、并潜在只相信“唯一的中国导师”。
我觉得很多中国导师只是带父母们去兜兜风，而父母们确实不知道该相信谁。
再说一遍，大量问题都是父母自我欺骗和有意的无知造成的。
中国的父母们首先需要知道，你无法在5年内学会英语，然后前往哈佛，除非你是天才。他们也需要知道，是什么使得美国的教育体系如此的强大，这又抛出了另一个更大的问题：多样的、弹性又充满活力的数百个小型文理学院，是对大型研究型大学的补充。
我们有大量的机会在美国学习，然而只有精明的中国学生才知道这些。中国的制度是自上而下的。而美国大学的制度，则是全天在资本主义制度下由大量私人校友通过捐赠、遗产传统以及“学校精神”所塑造的，自下而上的制度。
在这儿我们隶属于我们的学校，打个幼稚的比方就是，我们隶属于一个体育团队。是“热爱”和“身份认同”驱动着这个体系，推动这些学校前进，在财政上和文化上提供支撑。
第二个问题是：
中国人普遍痴迷于统计数字。但把一切都用排名的方式看待并且第一名才是重要的，这是不对的。正因如此，哈佛和麻省理工才能入他们的眼。毫无疑问的是，不同的学院有不同的能力，很多更小的学校作为医学院或法律学院更适合你。
绝大多数中国人都视美国的大学为虚荣心的来源，很多人开着路虎揽胜来展示“我们”进了这样的大学，看到了吗。
中国的留学生需要给他们的父母上一课，普及美国的制度，而这些父母要做的就是闭嘴然后老实听着。
我们的体系跟中国的完全不同，任何试图将中式的教育观点强加给我们的要么是种堕落、要么就是彻头彻尾的误导。

（未完待续）