Things to learn from China

Obama in his recent visit to China mentioned US has much to learn from China in the areas of education, medicine and etc. In one recent issue, Time magazine also ran an article about  several things to learn from China: ambition, education, senior care and efficiency.  
Certainly it is nice for US to give Kudos to China, but Chinese shouldn't get too complacent at the outburst of the pupil attitude of US. Historically US has never been shy giving praises to other countries that she may admire with a caution. Personally I won't put too much into it, but it is still nice to be recognized, even for China - getting a pad on the back for doing a good job saving the world is always encouraging.  

This recent China kudoing trend is a sharp contrast to the pattern of early 90s when almost everything in the US media about China was negative. Did China really turnaround 180 degree from then to now? Well, I think the perceived change has a lot to do with overreactions in both periods. 

However, I do think there is one thing Americans need to take a note from Chinese. It's the insatiable desire for improvement. Learning and improving runs deep in every Chinese's vein. Night schools are everywhere in China and for everything.  in contrast, It's almost unheard of in US that people will go to night school to pick up a foreign language or to learn computer administration skills after daily 9-5 job. Graduate programs in China are also filled with top students because many Chinese college graudates' choice is to acquire more education.  Except for medical and law school, American college graduates will be hard pressed to study for advanced education. Guess who occupies most seats in graduate programs of Engineering schools in the US? The Chines and Indians. Forty and fifty years from now, not only will Chinese still outnumber Americans by 5 to 1, but also will average Chinese be more educated than their American counterparts. That's scary.  

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