[volgo]

It's interesting blatant stereotypes about Asian and Asian Americans are thrown around like it's acceptable. Would you ever make statements like "it's cultural acceptable for black community to condone thefts and petty crimes, and politicians won't do anythign because it's inconvenient?"

Just because statistics reveal a uptick for one group, does not make it acceptable for you to generalize. It's a racist remark, just so you understand the unconscious bias

[cmplxconjugate]

Well his statement is definitely excessive, however I would agree that there is a shocking cultural problem with the acceptance of cheating in China.

I speak Mandarin and have lived in China, my partner is Chinese. I was shocked during her undergraduate and masters to see just how often cheating took place. Of her close ~8-10 friends, every single one paid for their work to be completed on multiple occasions. It was cheap and quick, and justified with things like “I have to go see a friend for a week, but I need to have the paper written by Thursday”. Costs for most pieces was in the region of $70-120.

The cultural attitude is that cheating is only bad unless you’re caught. Otherwise you’re cunning and able to succeed using any method; everyone does it so there’s nothing wrong.

[biggio]

Personally I think all exams or any academic assessment should be open book/whatever. Entire class should be allowed to find solutions together with whatever means possible and there should not be time limit.

[omegaham]

What do you do when large numbers of people don't care, and are content to leech off the few conscientious students who actually want to learn the material? This was a normal state of affairs during my undergrad at a crappy community college and state university. Group projects were a nightmare.

---

The best classes that I've taken have been "Feel free to collaborate, but turn in your own work." It allows people to work together on hard problems, but the slackers still fail.

[vymague]

So, like group projects?

[biggio]

I think people mostly waste time at the universities learning things they will forget. Giving students a novel problem to solve and ask them to come back when they find the solution might work better in terms of sticking knowledge. This doesn't necessarily need to be a group project.

[salty_biscuits]

It would be great for learning, but requires an enormous amount of work for the academics involved. That side is pretty important in explaining why the system is the way it is. It is due to have some novel ideas injected about how to balance effectiveness and efficiency.

[downrightmike]

Now, notice that I didn't mention "Asians" or "Asian Americans" anywhere. You may be forcing your own perception on something just to vilify it.

[ndnxhs]

Its not just statistics. Its painfully obvious to anyone currently in uni. Every single person I have seen cheating has been Asian. And the teachers do nothing. Had one guy in my class get caught cheating for the 3rd time and still nothing has happened.

[anu7df]

Since we are dabbling in anecdotes.. I am not sure if you are including Indians in this "Asians cheat" assertion. This Indian for one was brought up with the philosophy that knowledge / teachers are identical to God. Whether or not I believe in God is a different question. However it was always clear that cheating in exams was not culturally accepted. Not by a long shot. There is an extremely unhealthy emphasis on grades, but cheating in all it's forms was looked down upon.

[yomritoyj]

I'm an Indian teaching Indians in India, and there are quite a few students who don't see anything wrong in cheating. Not to say anything about the blatant cases of cheating and mass cheating in school-leaving exams that regularly make the news in India.

I can't say if cheating is more of less acceptable in India than elsewhere, and for sure very many students in India are honest and genuinely interested in learning, but people treating knowledge and teachers as divine is far from reality.

[cortesoft]

Oh, so the racism isn't based on statistics, it is based on anecdote.

[gpm]

This isn't racism. It has absolutely nothing to do with race. Most people who hold this view have no negative views against racially asian people who are culturally north american.

It is culturist (to make up a word). There's a huge difference between this and racism in that culture, unlike race, creates clear statistical differences in behavior.

There are good arguments that discriminating based on culture would have many negative effects, not unlike racism. That as a result of the negative effects we shouldn't treat people differently as a result of the culture they are coming from. Moreover there are already laws in many places attempting to enforce that.

Burying your head in the sand and denying that there are culture differences however is insane. It's entirely obvious statistically, and anecdotally that they exist. Burying your head in the sand is exactly what you (or rather volgo) are suggesting when you are saying that people shouldn't be making statements about the differences between cultures.

[darawk]

Is it racism to be aware of another culture? What, exactly, makes this racist?

[cortesoft]

I mean, there are a number of racists things. Saying something like "But apparently it is a cultural accepted thing to cheat blatantly in china" and then "Every single person I have seen cheating has been Asian".

Imagine if someone said something like "Apparently it is culturally accepted thing for cops to shoot black people"

I mean, you can find a ton of examples of this happening, and plenty of examples of nobody doing anything about it. Does that mean it is culturally accepted here?

[blt]

Lots of people would criticize USA culture by saying something like "Apparently it is culturally accepted thing for cops to shoot black people". Apparently it is, because we do not see any significant changes being made to the training, regulation, or military equipment of police.

[darawk]

> I mean, there are a number of racists things. Saying something like "But apparently it is a cultural accepted thing to cheat blatantly in china"

Maybe it is culturally accepted in China to cheat? Do you know? Is a statement racist if it is true?

[girvo]

Some argue that yes, it’s still racist even if it’s true. Depends on the context I think.

[volgo]

It's also painfully obvious to anyone who lived in large urban centers in US that certain races steal statistically more than other races.

Do you make a comment about that? No, because you have no context and you'll likely be shunned in polite society. You have a James Damore syndrome and probably will not help you in your career

[ndnxhs]

I dont live in the US so I don't comment on these things but others do regularly.