Interesting couple of subjects there Woods / Andre. The age-old dichotomy between training and "real" education, in whatever context, in whatever hemisphere.
And, the East v West mythology. At the national (institutional) level the east is in danger of being more western than the west. Regards Ian On Sat, Oct 11, 2008 at 9:49 PM, Woods Woods <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Andre, > Thanks for the response. I see. I was watching a documentary > type program on this Chinese musician that lives in China. I didn't watch but > about 15 minutes of it, but what caught my eye was he was talking about > how uncreative the youth are in China. He would go to different regions > in China and go to different schools and meet different youth in > places and they were uncreative. He talked about these students of music > that could play amazing music but it was all instructional based music. > They couldn't make any music on their own. They had to memorize the notes > of a song that already existed. He said that's what he mainly found around > China. > Obviously there is creativity, for this guy was creative and other people come > out of China that are creative, but the main theme in China is > institutionalization. That's why I love the woods. So wild, so creative, so > much more > reliance on yourself instead of an institution. > > woods > > > ----- Original Message ---- > From: Andre Broersen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: [email protected] > Sent: Saturday, October 11, 2008 9:45:48 AM > Subject: [MD] Re; chinese language patterns > > Woods, > > you expressed an interest. I have lost the thread. > > I am going to disappoint you anyway...maybe. I do not want to persue this > Chinese language thing any longer. Your questions stimulated me into > persuing the issue further and the more I found out the more it confirmed my > frustrations sometimes of working here i.e with my students and colleagues. > They have the greatest difficulty with abstract thought ( this is what I > found confirmed in articles I found on the web). > But it remains complicated...I mean Chinese people are not really stupid > but..... . > I'll give you an example: When I ask my students to "imagine" something they > look at me blank...when I ask them to summarise a text of ,say 500 words I > get a summary in 1000 words!! > I am not convinced that this is only due to their difficulties learning > another language. > Their language and their thinking ( not necessarily related) is very > 'concrete'. They have wonderful poetic expressions to describe things and > situations but the "reality" is different. In Pirsig's terms it is part of > the hypnosis. > Their education system has not changed over the last 2000 years ( still > based on Confucian principles and content!) and is only slowly changing. > Put this in an ideology which emphasises social harmony at all costs ( Hu > Jintao, the current chairman, is scared to death of the prospect of China > following Russia i.e. falling to bits...hence their reassertion in Tibet) > thereby suppressing any individual expression of opinion, initiative, > creativity, etc, etc, i.e. anything to do with even a remote response to > Dynamic Quality. It is really a human tragedy on a grand scale which has > been taking place here since gawd knows when. > But it is frightening. Why? Because they are hugely patriottic ( at least on > a par with the U.S) and very proud and....they'll blindly do anything they > are told to do. > So there you go Woods. Hope this puts things in some sort of perspective for > you. As for me...I'll enjoy my remaining time here and then return to my > books, music and other static expressions of DQ. I miss them so much. > > Kind regards Andre > Moq_Discuss mailing list > Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. > http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org > Archives: > http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ > http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/ > > > > > Moq_Discuss mailing list > Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. > http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org > Archives: > http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ > http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/ > Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
