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Hong Kong is an un-creative or deferential society?

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  1. #11

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    Quote Originally Posted by Watercooler:
    You know, from the reaction of some students, it's like they are in torture session whenever they are in a group discussion class and have to speak up.
    Same in the workplace. It's the cultural paranoia-level risk aversion which seems to be the issue. People just want to come to the office, work their hours, and go home. Whether they do a good job or not is immaterial, as long as they do what they're told.

  2. #12

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    I know this is a little off topic, but it probably just adds a little bit of background information.

    We have two neighbors with girls just a few months younger than ours. Ours is 23 months and she speaks A LOT (even surprising to us). She is very bright and counts from 1-10 (sometimes she skips one or two numbers intentionally if you count with her). We never tried to teach her anything seriously yet (except brushing the teeth maybe, which she says is 'no need'). All her toys are animals, funny things, Duplo/Lego, choo choo train, etc, what you would imagine a child that age has.

    Our neighbors come over and bring ABC card games and math stuff. I am not kidding. Their girls are probably 18 months and 16 months or something. That's the toys they have. They try to teach their _babies_ counting. No wonder they like playing with our girls' mooh mooh's and books (that have even more mooh mooh's and other animals).

    The father of the younger one told me soon she will start going to pre-school?

    I think that's where it all starts to go wrong. At the baby age.

    Last edited by 100LL; 21-04-2013 at 02:54 PM.

  3. #13

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    Very true.

    Children need to develop prior to learning. A lot of support suggests that we learn through play at a young age. This is especially true for language development. Apparently local language skills are lower today than the in the past. Maybe a direct link with the lack of play???

    Sent from my GT-I8190 using GeoClicks Mobile


  4. #14

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    A couple approached a friend of mine (teacher) to explain that their son wanted to be a doctor and to study at oxford, so they asked if she could recommend anything they could do to help him get accepted there.

    Their son was 3 years old.


  5. #15

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    You don't need to look at children to see why they are in general les creative. Look at your work place and the way people function.

    It's more of a matter of doing less exposes you to less errors. Just doing whatever less you can to stay low profile enough so that eventually they'll promote you for staying in a company long enough.

    This has everything to creativity because it encourages subservience and thinking/acting in a box. Methodical, tried and true methods.

    It all stems from the culture that Chinese in general are not a very rewarding society. Management X vs Y, manage through reward or threat/punishment. Doing 99 things correctly and 1 thing wrong, HK people will remember what you screwed up on. I know about this coming from traditional Chinese parents!

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  6. #16

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    Quote Originally Posted by closedcasket:
    It all comes down to what is emphasized and rewarded...and it seems to me, that in Hong Kong it mostly comes down to the almighty test score.
    This is probably the key along with the need to rote learn characters so some in education see this as a fail safe method.

    There was a professor at a HK Uni that went to an extreme to get good discussion in his class. He

    • Set the scene saying contribution was important for success
    • Appointed seating
    • Allocated a sizable proportion of the grade to class contribution
    • Had the Teaching assistant
    • - count all individual contribution in each class
    • - award more for 'great' contribution
    • Re-arrange seating in each class for avoid contribution hot-spots
    • Got the Teaching Assistant to have a quite word with non-contributors


    He never struggled to get good discussions in class. The environment HE created made the lecture theatre a hot bed of vocalised creative thinking.
    Last edited by East_coast; 21-04-2013 at 04:45 PM.
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  7. #17

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    I know some very creative Hong Kong people.

    I know some guys, for example, who are custom building 'stealth' e-bikes. I know some teachers who are really good at art. Not sure if I could ask them what was different for them!! It would be interesting to find out!


  8. #18

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    Quote Originally Posted by INXS:
    I know some very creative Hong Kong people.

    I know some guys, for example, who are custom building 'stealth' e-bikes. I know some teachers who are really good at art. Not sure if I could ask them what was different for them!! It would be interesting to find out!
    I do not think the level of natural creativity is much lower in Hong Kong but the level deference is much higher and this stifles outward signs of creativity. Lots of people do lots of interesting things just like any city.
    Watercooler likes this.

  9. #19

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    I agree with JJ in that rote learning starts from the written language and is more of a need otherwise you would never learn the characters.

    Having learnt writing (totally unsuccessfully) I can concur that you need to spend years to get to know around 2500 characters which constitutes about 98% of the written characters. 3,500 characters is 99.5%.

    I spend about 6 months writing and learnt about 400 characters. It did my head in and that was Simplified Characters not the Traditional that is used here in HK. At least Japan simplified their characters even more which makes alot of sense.

    East_coast and carang like this.

  10. #20

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    Quote Originally Posted by East_coast:
    I do not think the level of natural creativity is much lower in Hong Kong but the level deference is much higher and this stifles outward signs of creativity. Lots of people do lots of interesting things just like any city.
    I think local students have the same innate potential creativity and innovative thinking as an American, Canadian or just Western students in general. The question is whether the society in general allow their creativity to flourish. To their credit, despite the stifling demand for conformity, there are are some interesting creative types in Hong Kong. But as their creativity is often shunned or ignored by HK society in general, they tend not to garner the same level of attention as those in the West.

    In fairness, rote learning and local schooling isn't totally 100% bad. Since local students score highly in science and math vs their Western peers, local schools are doing something right in that department. The problem is how do you transform and build upon that relatively strong knowledge foundation into something that stand out from the crowd? Something truly innovative?
    Last edited by Watercooler; 21-04-2013 at 06:52 PM.

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