User Comments - bodawei

Posted on: Piano Class

哆 - 一个鹿，一个女的鹿

来 - 一滴的金的阳光

咪 -这是我的名字

发 - 很远的地方

嗦 - 一个针拉着线

啦 - 音符跟着嗦

希 - 饮料跟将和面包

哆 - 还原向哆

Posted on: The Mysterious Student Record

Thanks for explaining your method - I gather it is multiple choice or True/False. I can see that in a big class it is possible - but I question whether the inclination to cheat is greater in China than the West. [I'm not in Changye's team on this one.] Naturally i have heard the stories - stories abound. I remain sceptical about the stories. I have checked my test results for cheating and suspicious results are negligible. I have no doubt Australian students behave the same way and the numbers would be similar. I find this an incredibly honest society compared with my home country - why would people be 'out of character' when it comes to exams. One answer may be the unusual pressure placed on students compared to the West - granted. This doesn't make the society less honest than the West. On the honesty spectrum I would think that China fares no worse than the West.

My own experience may not be typical:

- my university is ranked one in the province and work with many talented students - most of them would not want to risk promising careers by cheating

- I've never taught first years so I can't comment on that; the ones I teach should know all the tricks :)

- I do generally have classes around 25 and I can space them out for exams; in fact I take extra precautions by shifting them around. I don't let friends sit together and I try to sit boys next to girls. They are only allowed pens in the room - no bags, paper, materials, phones, dictionaries etc.

A final thing - if 'cheating is rife' and I eliminate cheating with my rules, why do they choose my courses? They would be mad to do my course if they can easily cheat in other courses.

Just some thoughts.

Posted on: The Mysterious Student Record

Unlikely to work; in the Western world we have checks for confirming identity - let's be real. I have posted my stories before from experience of my spouse who has taught Chinese students in Australia in a variety of institutions including university for the past 7 or 8 years. One student 'tried' have another student to sit an exam for him, but told her that was his intention. Okay, some students are not very bright. :-)

It is true that the English standard of a lot of overseas students is not sufficient for university entry - in that case they are required to do more time in a language school. Chinese institutions are largely to blame; for possibly commercial reasons they set the bar too low. This does not prove rampant cheating, but it is common practice for applications for overseas study to be written by agents, and I know that agents prepare referee reports to be signed by Chinese professors. This is not acceptable practice in the West, but there are double standards here - note that the Western businesses (that is, universities and language schools) are fully aware of these practices when they accept students. Let's not all be high and mighty about this.

Posted on: The Mysterious Student Record

I've never been known to be polite. I don't believe cheating in exams is rampant in my university - but what do you mean by 'cheating'? There are a whole range of possibilities - i would like to know the method of cheating you are talking about.

Posted on: The Mysterious Student Record

Chinese people feel bad when they are caught (shame).

Phil - I didn't understand your 'plan' above (you see how easy it is to pull the wool over my eyes?) You hand out two different tests - what kind of cheating are you catching? Surely not in-exam cheating - you are there to supervise. So they cannot pass answers around the class. How does the cheating work?

No cheating occurs in my exams because I make sure that no one cheats. But maybe there is a way to cheat I have not heard of - please enlighten me?

Posted on: The Mysterious Student Record

'Academic fraud, misconduct and ethical violations are very common in China', says one expert in the original piece, and I am in no position to disagree with this statement (I have no personal experience.)

But this is rather different to saying 'cheating in exams is rife in China'. In my experience there is no more cheating in exams here than in Australia - exam rules and conditions I have observed are similar to those applied in the West. In fact, Chinese teachers impose stricter conditions than foreign teachers in my university - simply because they are provided more resources. I have to supervise exams alone, but Chinese teachers are provided two supervisors for each exam.

There are different standards here for referencing and attributing ideas etc. but this does not necessarily amount to fraud - there are different standards here that are consistent with the Chinese culture. Those that want to study overseas or publish in foreign journals have to abide by the foreign standards. This is widely understood and accepted in China.

Posted on: Hungry Traveler: Shanghai

Good point. I wondered if pig's blood is a generational thing (like maybe lamb's fry in Australia), but then I used to see students in Hangzhou hopping into it with gusto. :)

Posted on: New Dashboard, Scarlett and Teachers!

I have done this myself. I don't want you to encourage you to exploit hard-working teachers but if you said you were thinking of taking classes you would be invited to attend classes to 'try it out'; you could do this for one or two days. If you said you only intend to attend for half a day, full stop, they would think it's strange - say you 'might come back later' to attend classes, it is the polite thing to do.

Posted on: Hungry Traveler: Shanghai

I will leave that question to the Shanghai natives, to come clean.. :)

Posted on: New Dashboard, Scarlett and Teachers!

Barbs -

Chinese language teaching institutions (like all business here?) is extremely flexible regarding time. Even university classes can be made available for as long as you like - but the price is structured so that it is cheaper per hour if you buy classes for a full semester.