China through the eyes of Chinglish

Thank God for Chinglish. Chinglish is keeping me in cappuccinos. I still have a leftover job from China, one that I love because I can take it with me. And love, too, because it still connects me with the place I left, and often makes me chuckle.

I haven't had much time to write here the last few days because I am in the process of proofreading a 100,000 word book that is being put out about the 2007 Special Olympic Games held in Shanghai. The other day, I came across this segment, which was about an amazing girl in China who has devoted her life to helping the disabled. She is majoring in Special Education. When I came across this paragraph, however, I couldn't help it, it really made me burst into five minutes of laughter... it's very cute:

"Having studied special education for six years, Chen feels that China's general attitudes towards the intellectually-challenged have changed enormously. In fact, some of her classmates had no idea about special education when they chose the major, assuming that special education was related to special services and that they would become spies after graduation. In China, the change of concept is the most important thing."

Besides being quite funny and quaint that these students thought that 'special education' meant something to do with the exciting world of international spy-dom, which is very telling in itself, the passage also gives insight to how the education system works in China. In the West, we often take for granted the freedom to choose what career we wish to pursue. However, in China, your score on one single solitary final exam in high school basically determines the rest of your life (career-wise and financially, I mean). Where your mark ranks in standing dictates which university you will go to, you don't get much say. From what that university happens to have as far as course content, you can try to find something you want to study, but there still are no guarantees you can get into it. Sometimes you are just told. Beyond that, if you are not from a certain area, you cannot even be considered for certain schools.

You can imagine the pressure this puts kids under to prepare for that one test. Basically it can determine your career path and corresponding economic position and related quality of life (or lack thereof) for the rest of your life.

Just think of all those potentially brilliant would-be spies out there that will never get the chance to reach their potential.

More Chinglish quotes to come in the near future...