The smart, the dumb, and the expats

- The smart
This picture was taken at No. 1 Bathing Beach in Qingdao. There's no room to put down a towel or swim. Suppose there are only 0.1% people are smart, how many smart people can you pick out from this crowd? And this is only a small fraction of the Chinese population. Therefore I have to agree with a couple of friends' opinion on "Olympic math" which I mentioned in a previous posting. They think this kind of education is only used to allow kids to be a step ahead of others, because there are too many people to compete against. It doesn't really give them more knowledge, nor necessarily help them think better. One friend who is a high school chemistry teacher said that the chemistry the students learn today is much inferior than what we learned in our days. The education system now only emphasize on certain subjects like math just to make their students having higher scores than others. In the old days, only the cream of the crop could go abroad to study. Now, mostly kids who can't get into good universities here go abroad, if their parents have the money to pay.

- The dumb
I walked into a high end furnishing showroom, which has Italian design kitchen, bath and room furnishings. I was particularly intrigued by some toilets, especially the ones that looked like having very small water tanks. I asked the salesman if the volume is an issue. He replied no. He told me that the workers who put these up in their showroom, thought these were real toilets, so they started using them! Of course it's not connected to the sewage. They were ordered to pour the waste out and the contractor company had to buy the used toilets. These workers all come from the countryside, and none of them has a toilet at home or even has used one.

- The expats
I've met a few expats from all over the world who work and live here. I'm fascinated by them. One young man came from Wales, Mr N. He was a physics grad from Manchester, but couldn't find a job. After working as a pub chef for a year, he couldn't take it any more. He got an opportunity teaching English in Chengdu, China, and came happily. He subsequently got a job in the English magazine here, and teaches guitar part time. He loves Qingdao. I called this magazine two weeks ago and asked them if they need a freelance translator, they said sometimes. I went in and met with one of the young American editors and had an interesting chat. To have an English magazine is a huge challenge, which I can't go into details. It's a money loosing business, but the chief editor is a persistent person and wants to make the magazine a success. After being closed down for no reason twice, (he was still paying his Chinese staff salary during the close down), it has the status of the only official English magazine in town.
Another Mr Z from Germany is a character. He doesn't read or speak much Chinese but he's adventurous. He tries all kinds of food - he just points and then we eat. Two Sundays ago we went to a Korean restaurant and he ordered everything on the menu and claimed they were all good. It turned out to be either pig feet or some quite spicy food. I was ok with that, but most people didn't eat much. I heard a story about him from someone else. Once Mr. Z suggested to the group that he knew a good Israeli restaurant and has good Jewish food. A friend Ms. C who is a local here had never heard of it in her life. So they went. Ms. C thought it's strange since it doesn't look like anything Israeli though she has never been to one. She saw the sign of the army and thought it's a government owned restaurant. Mr. Z pointed to a symbol and said it's a Jewish symbol. But Ms. C said it's a symbol for the founding date of the military. The waiter came and gave them the menu. He got impatient and left after waiting for a minute while these foreigners discussing about what to order. After waiting for half an hour, the waiter never came back and some people got impatient so they all left! So now everyone is a little weary when Mr. Z suggests a restaurant:) But he did take us to a fantastic gelato place.
Then there's the lively French girl Madame A, who is selling French wine here. It's a lot of work and the distributor she's working with doesn't have too much experience. They work six days a week and the distributor's two male staff live in the office. The distributor was somehow responsible for her housing and they tried talking her into sharing the same apartment with the guys and live in the office. She of course insisted that she's living elsewhere and her husband was arriving. She speaks excellent Chinese. Her husband who is an English teacher in France just landed last week and got a teaching job that night!