8 o'clock starts

[Bob Dylan Thomas]

well, Roddy, it took a long time, but with Polly's timely interjection, we finally seem to be moving on from an endless cycle of insults and approaching something worthwhile.

it also has nothing to do with laziness if the classes are a boring waste of time (you learn more catching a taxi!)...

i found the lessons when I was studying in China to be extremely useful - yet for some reason, Western students seem inclined to moanmoan moan moan and MOAN about anything they possibly can, without realising what a difficult position some of the colleges are in. (i admit this only applies to my own experiences at Tianjin Normal University). The Hanyu xi there bent over backwards to try and accomodate the endless complaints by the 16-strong contingent of loud-mouthed Leeds students, most of whom were trying to blame their crappy Chinese on the university, when it was completely obvious that the reason lay in their own laziness and consistent skiving off lessons. For example, one of the students' biggest requests was to have special classes just for them conducted in English (when they'd already studied well over a year of Chinese!)!. Of course it's extremely diffcult being thrown into a 100% chinese learning environment, but if you force yourself to go to enough lessons, push yourself through it.

Even a 4 hour session where you come away convinced you've understood nothing at all is probably of some benefit - and it's all wortrh it when, a few months later, you walk away from a four hour session with that warm feeling where you know you've understood over 70% of it. I remmeber, for the first six weeks, feeling the lessons were a waste of time and berating everything Chinese, especially the university, but ity all started to make sense eventually.

That, at least, was my (fantastic) experience in Tianjin, which i put down to attending every class every day. Of course, if your teachers are bad and the institution doesn't care then turning up isn't enough - but it worked for me at TNU. You've got to approach it all with a positive attitude and be prepared to make an effort, and only then do you have a right to make complaints.

furthermore, most of these 'lazy' people are kids whose parents send them over here, first time away from home on a holiday so they go crazy...

that seems to be a fair description of a lot of the Korean students in my class. But if you've been forced into such a situation by your parents, and it was never your choice in the first place to go to China, then it seems to me you have more right to be miserable and not turn up to classes. the students i'm slagging off here are the ones who choose to go to china and expect everything (including high-level language skills) to then be handed to them on a plate while they spend most of the day in bed, and then they moan and complain ot the university when it isn't.

Does my rant make this thread more "appropriate"? probably not, but i feel better for it at least.

[PollyWaffle]

For example, one of the students' biggest requests was to have special classes just for them conducted in English

this is ridiculous & self defeating!!! but there are hardly any westerners at my skool (unless you count russians), so i can't believe this attitude...

That, at least, was my (fantastic) experience in Tianjin

yes, i love tianjin! like a massive country town, 95% of the people are lovely & i especially love their accent...

btw, i don't blame the university, i attend 95% of classes, the content is relevant, but this semester's teachers are boring as are my classmates... we get the chance to speak freely, & they have nothing to say, so i spose it is not the teacher's fault... they are just boring people brought up in system that doesn't encourage laissez faire approach to learning... in japan, the teacher talks, the students listen (at least this is my impression)...

ps: tianda classes start at 8:30am, right?

[trevelyan]

I know it's off-topic, but if a cohort of students was requesting lessons in English, it seems pretty clear that they weren't learning much from their Chinese classes. They were being taught in Chinese above their level --- maybe the problem was the quality of the Chinese education at their own university.

Still.... I'm also a 夜猫子 for complicated reasons. The "every class starts at 8:00" thing gets pretty stale early. Let's not "加油" to the point where those of us who don't rise with the sun get labelled slackers.

Sometimes you can learn a lot from a bar.

[xuechengfeng]

I don't understand what the big deal is with the thread-starter's topic. I hate waking up early. I schedule all my college classes at either 11:30 or 1:30. My brain isn't as alert in the morning, I can't get full-functioning and I perform more coherently at later times. Some people are like that, who cares?

how the hell would we ever get a good argument going if we took Claw's advice and tip-toed around one another all the time? Bleedin' thin-skinned liberals.

With all due respect, most good arguments I've ever seen created in life typically don't start with name-calling. At least not fxckwit.

[Chappie]

Guys...

Breath in, Breath out, Breath in, Breath out, Breath in, Breath out,

and lets stay on topic ok?

[roddy]

most good arguments I've ever seen created in life typically don't start with name-calling. At least not fxckwit

Agreed. I'm still curious as to how anyone thought

U lazy bastard. Just get ur fat ass out of ur bed.

Stop being such a feeble lazy spoilt f**kwit.

Woliveri, if the best use of the hours between 6-8 you can make is heading down the park with the oldies to wave your arms in the air like a demented retard, I would suggest searching the internet for a pastime called masturbation as it’s obvious you don’t have a girlfriend. Facking pr!cks.

would be acceptable, and if anyone genuinely thinks

it's good to flame back sometimes.

how the hell would we ever get a good argument going if we took Claw's advice and tip-toed around one another all the time? Bleedin' thin-skinned liberals.

I admit, I haven't yet added 'don't call people fuckwits, etc' to to the Terms and Conditions, but that's because I thought it was obvious and nobody over the age of 16 would need it explained to them. Was I wrong?

[Ian_Lee]

Getting up early or waking up late depends on the weather and where you live.

I wake up at 6 a.m. sharp every morning. But I am not early. Congestion on freeway starts at 5:30 a.m. over here. But when I spent a year in the midwest by the Great Lakes, I skipped all the breakfasts in the canteen for all those winter months.

[Chappie]

Roddy there is a big differents who is saying that while he/she is a monrning person

Ok. I have said that but I also said Im not a morning person. That means im insulting people including myself.

[roddy]

That means im insulting people including myself.

and this makes it ok because . . .

[woliveri]

I find this thread hilarious, including the reply made to me.