第1159期:Student Life in China(Part 2)

Todd: Rufei, you said that your education system is very strict and you study like 15 hours a day.Rufei: Yes.Todd: Okay so, if you were in charge would you keep the system the same way?Rufei: It depends on the person. I think there should be a place that's as strict as my high school. You can choose to send your children to go there or if the students themselves, they want to go to that school, they can go. I think that's really, really motivative to student's to study hard because everybody do the same and they are trying their best to be the best.Todd: Wow. Yeah we have a phrase in English like, "A rising tide lifts all boats", and I think it's kind of the same. So if it's really rigorous for most people, it's gonna pull everybody up.Rufei: Yes.Todd: Okay. There's nothing you would change? Like if you were in charge would you give maybe a little more vacation time? Would you start the day later? Would you make classes smaller?Rufei: If I can choose I will definitely don't choose my school because that was horrible for me because I need a lot of sleep than normal people, but I cannot have that much time to sleep. So I always sleep on the class, and when somebody found out that I am sleeping on the class they will decrease the score of my class.Todd: Oh, that's serious.Rufei: Yes, very serious. Yeah, your teacher would punish you to write a paper like, "I am sorry I decreased the score of our class, I shouldn't sleep on the class", and I have to write it for like an hour to write that stuff.Todd: That is very harsh.Rufei: Yeah.Todd: I think though a lot of people, when they hear stories like that they actually are a little bit envious, especially parents or teachers. Because in the rest of the world it's not that, students don't try that hard.Rufei: Yeah.Todd: So that's kind of special, actually.Rufei: Yeah, I think that's the special point of China.Todd: Wow. So, what time did you have to get up every day to get to school at 6:45?Rufei: I have to get up at 6:00.Todd: Oh, well that was not too bad. That's pretty fast, you wake up at 6:00, you get to school by 6:45.Rufei: Yeah, I can wear my clothes pretty fast and directly get on my father's car and eat on my father's car and put my socks on, on my father's car.Todd: Wow! Talk about streamlined, very mobile. That's great. What about the tests? It's really controversial in the US about standardized tests. Rather than just learning, the students often have to prepare for tests. In your country is there also a big movement just to have a lot of testing?Rufei: We have a test each month, and we only do paper tests. The questions can be really difficult, yeah always very, very difficult. In my case, I'm in the middle ...Todd: Middle of the pack, as we say.Rufei: Yeah, the middle of the pack. For mathematics, we have totally 150 scores and probably I can get 60 to 70.Todd: Wow, that's a big range. Do some students get 100%?Rufei: No.Todd: No?Rufei: If you get more than 120, you are really brilliant. So the question's always really, really difficult.Todd: Can the teacher get 150?Rufei: I'm not sure.