Today, I read this articleThere are so many things that struck a chord with me in it, that no matter how long it was, I kept latching on to new thoughts like gold nuggets
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Thanks for putting that link up, it was a great read.
It always struck me how stupid I was at relating to people who were different from me while I was in sec school and JC. It seems like all I could do was pretend to empathise, patronise, even. And pretend to understand things like gejala sosial when the fact is we cannot even begin to understand things that are not happening around you, or people around you. Sure you can do something about it (volunteer perhaps), but it's hard not to feel like a complete poseur.
Oh well, it takes a different kind of smart to relate to people.
Confucious says: By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.
If you put stock in this quote, it would mean that two of out three ways require you to actually talk to other people.
Then again, and I don't know much about elite colleges (cuz there are plenty of poor kids in my school, although it's one of China's best, so there is a great deal of heterogenity in the student population here), I'm sure not everyone from elite colleges can be considered sheeple or act similarly and tend towards a mean of behaviour and normalcy. Oh well. Based on what the article says is a general homogenity in the class and economic origin of students, it's possible they are. But people are more than the sum of numbers that describe them (test scores, income levels etc). Ah who knows anyway.
"it's hard not to feel like a complete poseur" - yea I totally agree. Heh, it's like how it's tough to be a minah biker when all of your friends are uni undergrads. And it's hard to not approach all the gejala sosial without having some sense of righteous justice, which somehow inevitably feels contrived / misplaced x.x
Haha, I think it's quite possible there's a measure of homogeneity too... you can't really help that when you go to the same schools as everybody else in your immediate surroundings, for most of your life lol. And seriously, very few people ever think of breaking into somewhere new - like yourself, like why did you decide to go to China? That's a super path-less-trodden heh and esp for Malay girls =O
Btw sorry for extremely lag response heh I have this procrastination reflex I'm continually fighting x.x
It always struck me how stupid I was at relating to people who were different from me while I was in sec school and JC. It seems like all I could do was pretend to empathise, patronise, even. And pretend to understand things like gejala sosial when the fact is we cannot even begin to understand things that are not happening around you, or people around you. Sure you can do something about it (volunteer perhaps), but it's hard not to feel like a complete poseur.
Oh well, it takes a different kind of smart to relate to people.
Confucious says: By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.
If you put stock in this quote, it would mean that two of out three ways require you to actually talk to other people.
Then again, and I don't know much about elite colleges (cuz there are plenty of poor kids in my school, although it's one of China's best, so there is a great deal of heterogenity in the student population here), I'm sure not everyone from elite colleges can be considered sheeple or act similarly and tend towards a mean of behaviour and normalcy. Oh well. Based on what the article says is a general homogenity in the class and economic origin of students, it's possible they are. But people are more than the sum of numbers that describe them (test scores, income levels etc). Ah who knows anyway.
Good read!
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Haha, I think it's quite possible there's a measure of homogeneity too... you can't really help that when you go to the same schools as everybody else in your immediate surroundings, for most of your life lol. And seriously, very few people ever think of breaking into somewhere new - like yourself, like why did you decide to go to China? That's a super path-less-trodden heh and esp for Malay girls =O
Btw sorry for extremely lag response heh I have this procrastination reflex I'm continually fighting x.x
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