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For all it's apparent advantages, the Chinese education system also has some pretty deep flaws. A family friend in China is the head of the Computer Science dep
by simonh 5y ago
For all it's apparent advantages, the Chinese education system also has some pretty deep flaws. A family friend in China is the head of the Computer Science department at a local university. This was a few years ago, but he told me none of their graduates ever, as part of their studies, actually compile and run any code. They are taught java, algorithms and theory but no practical exercises, it's all on paper. That's not necessarily true of every institution, I've met some great coders from China, but they're mostly self taught.
Also even if you had the best students, they are constrained by the institutions they are in and the experience of their professors. It takes generations to develop deep institutional experience and culture. They know this, and expend a lot of effort trying to get experienced Chinese academics that have studied abroad in western institutions to come back to China.
- Vrondi 5y agoWe see this among students who come to American universities from certain parts of Asia: serious knowledge of syntax, but not able to navigate the OS, use the IDE, or compile the code. I've heard this same scenario of learning programming on paper from multiple countries. And, also, if you know the syntax of a few languages cold, but you have no creative practice at problem-solving, are lacking foundational computer science concepts and practice, then by the time you are in college or grad school, another language may have come along, while you may have to struggle to apply existing knowledge and creativity to new tools (which is the point of a CS degree). Some students have no mental toolkit to rely on other than brute force memorizing the syntax of a new language. The difference is highly noticeable, even at a low level of college work.