School-oo!

As you might have already noticed, it's now September. The month which I reckon all students dread. School, school, school. We're back to school. No fun.

I've been as Asian student till this very moment of my life and have been educated in Asia till now. I can tell you that it is extremely stressful to be a student in Asia. Especially when the thinking here is that : Good grades or die.

I am not trying to moan or something but I'd just like to tell you how different school is here than it is in the West. Firstly, we (Hong Kong students) have to wear school uniforms. Uniform is definitely not a new thing in the United Kingdom, but it is to a lot of other people in the rest of the world. School uniform isn't a problem on its own, but when schools take it too seriously, it is.

Here, at least in Hong Kong, most schools are very, extremely strict with how a student of their school should look like. Therefore, you might think we all look like robots. We all have our hair tied up, trimmed the same way ; we (almost all) wear glasses ; we wear dresses / skirts / trousers the same length... Yes. At school, there are teachers, inspectors and prefects to check if you're in the right format or not. If you don't obey long enough, you might even get suspended from school for a while!

That's it with uniforms, let's move on to schools and lessons. There are technically three types of schools here, catagorised by their languages as the medium of teaching : 1) English Secondary; 2) Chinese Secondary and 3) International School. It is quite clear that 1) uses English for all subjects except Chinese-related subjects and surprisingly, 2) is the total opposite. Lastly, 3) is usually for posh kids or students from overseas. They use solely English and usually have other languages for students to study.

As for lessons, a lot of traditional schools in Hong Kong require a lot of memorising. Memorising, I must agree, is compulsory when learning the basics of a certain subject. It is not so ideal though, when you're digging down a subject or reaching a higher level of understanding. Here is the case, in Hong Kong, no-one really cares if you understand or not, just as long as you memorise your notes well and get good grades.

This is what I do not like about education in Asia, because a lot of people think grades = your whole life. No-one cares about your interests, hobbies... All they care is : results. I think it is totally wrong and disgusting when people only focus on your results and judge you basing on your exam results. I totally disagree that a person is only made up of results. There are many more aspects of a person that makes one a person.

I think it is sickening to live in a society (or say, continent) which judges people solely basing on their results. Moaning over, time to get back to school and probably sob.

I wish you an enjoyable school year, even though it is not very much enjoyable for me!