(no subject)
I’m starting to wonder if a lot of Chinese develop a situational unawareness to psychologically survive in these crowded cities. They have the same cut and bump methodology with push carts in supermarkets as they do on the road with their cars.
But we had a good conversation in my American literature class. I was actually lecturing on American intellectual tradition this week, and they seemed to find Thomas Kuhn, Norm Chomsky, Jared Diamond, and James Baldwin particularly interesting. Then we had an impromptu twenty minute discussion about what they can expect when they go abroad (they’ve all been accepted to colleges in America for next year) and the differences between liberal arts colleges and large universities.
I really blew my debate class’ mind yesterday. They had signed up for debate teams, but the pro-environmental protection team had four members and the pro-economic development team only had two, so I went ahead and filled in as third speaker. One of the pro-environment team said 3000 people died because of global warming last year, so as part of my rebuttal I pointed out that 30,000 Americans and 200,000 Chinese had died in car accidents last year, but no one wants to get rid of cars, so why would we limit economic development over 3000? They just stared at me, dumbfounded. Personally, I’m in favor of alternative fuels, but I’ve given up on the world adopting them until either alternative fuels are cheaper or oil gets more expensive. I’m just cynical that way.
But we had a good conversation in my American literature class. I was actually lecturing on American intellectual tradition this week, and they seemed to find Thomas Kuhn, Norm Chomsky, Jared Diamond, and James Baldwin particularly interesting. Then we had an impromptu twenty minute discussion about what they can expect when they go abroad (they’ve all been accepted to colleges in America for next year) and the differences between liberal arts colleges and large universities.
I really blew my debate class’ mind yesterday. They had signed up for debate teams, but the pro-environmental protection team had four members and the pro-economic development team only had two, so I went ahead and filled in as third speaker. One of the pro-environment team said 3000 people died because of global warming last year, so as part of my rebuttal I pointed out that 30,000 Americans and 200,000 Chinese had died in car accidents last year, but no one wants to get rid of cars, so why would we limit economic development over 3000? They just stared at me, dumbfounded. Personally, I’m in favor of alternative fuels, but I’ve given up on the world adopting them until either alternative fuels are cheaper or oil gets more expensive. I’m just cynical that way.