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Q: Why do they have "normal" universities??
Is it just bad translation/interpretation?
Or the need to feel 'normal' and thus, harmonious, towards society??
It's not a bad translation, Normal schools (renamed "universities" in China probably for clarity's sake) are teacher training schools, a concept started in France a few centuries ago. Nowadays, those are supposedly highly selective "elite" schools back in France (with a mountain of criticism to be addressed otherwise but I'll keep this short) while in China, the difference with other universities might not be so noticeable. I graduated from one of those.
Understand "normal" as "standard - ized".
I once acidentally got onto a webpage for a bus company, think it was in Xi'an or so. They had for many years in a row recieved awards for "Standard bus service" or something like that, not "Outstanding" or anything positive, just mediocre.
RiriRiri:
One thing with Chinese translation is that they always translate the same source word with the same English word. They hardly ever understand the importance of context.
This comes either from the #1 highly rigid way they learn things (mastering a language = knowing the highest amount of cryptic vocabulary) or #2 the standards (as defined by the guobiao and most companies) of a "good translation" which is essential derived from #1 anyway.
So here I take it the original word was 规范, and the intended meaning was probably to say that this bus company does things according to certain standards and protocols. Surely outstanding things like stopping at every station and having the driver not smoke in the vehicle.
Which, yes, anywhere in the world would be perfectly natural and not really call for a prize, but this is China.
Nessquick:
yeah, here in Shanghai we have too some "standard bus lines" or what is it. so, thanks for explanation guys.
In Urumqi China Merchants Bank assistance counter is titled 'Love window'
coineineagh:
this time, your completely unrelated comment made me chuckle.
icnif77:
It was comparison on state of English translations in China. I opened thread about that a year ago. ''What is proper English translation of 'special assistance window'' or similar title. You should see female employees at that bank. Manager of the bank looks like 'fashion model'.
estern:
In Xishuangbana airport they have a love toilet (disabled). I'm sure countless foreigners have wandered past and wondered what is going on inside
I believe it's because of lack of creativity in naming. Normal university teaches normal stuff, Medical College teaches Medicine, Agricultural University teaches farming.
It's not a bad translation, Normal schools (renamed "universities" in China probably for clarity's sake) are teacher training schools, a concept started in France a few centuries ago. Nowadays, those are supposedly highly selective "elite" schools back in France (with a mountain of criticism to be addressed otherwise but I'll keep this short) while in China, the difference with other universities might not be so noticeable. I graduated from one of those.
Understand "normal" as "standard - ized".
" shi fan" 师范大学，or standardized teachers' university.
I worked at Linyi Normal University that prides itself for having the biggest campus in all of Asia, it was pretty mediocre, one day most of the 40000 students got food poisoning from the canteen.
mike695ca:
you lived in Linyi??? I go there for work often. A pretty dreary place man. Everything is always grey.
Eorthisio:
Mike : I was there for a year in 2009, agree with you, it's a dull industrial city. Its only advantage back then (and maybe still true today) it was dirt cheap in every ways, you could live on 10RMB a day including food (2RMB for a massive BeiFan, pork was 6RMB for 500gr, bread 3 jiao per piece), booze/partying (local beer, 3RMB per bottle) and transportation (bus 1RMB, 4 jiao with transportation card).
So that's what a normal university is.... now, what the **** is an experimental school?
laowaigentleman:
@eothisio
The experimental aspect is the structure of the fees.
The first place I taught at was an experimental school. In China since the 1980s, the ultimate experiment has been "playing" with capitalism. Because so many of the people in positions of power and influence are simple minded and complacent due to guanxi and family privileges rather than acumen and skill, they've forgotten that it isn't the eighties anymore and that capitalism is the standard.
Experimental schools are cruel. The students are pressured to achieve by having their performance ranked by the school and the level of fees charged to their families adjusted accordingly despite the massive flaws in the greedy robot mentality.
This is why China has so few engineers, (good) doctors, artists, teachers etc etc. Anything requiring lateral thought has been completely weeded out by this horrendous mentality. If education changes (and it never will) China will improve enormously.
Just as when people go on about crediting China for its extraordinary economic growth, the response from me tends to be, yeah well the only way is (was) up considering what Mao did to the place.
Dislodge a turd from a drainpipe and inevitably the water will come rushing. The same can be said about contemporary Chinese cultural life as distinct from this tragically myopic political economy.
Perhaps this is a cultural thing, where value is not placed on individual achievement and personal excellence in the strict sense, but on ability to adhere precisely to the universalized NORMS that have been set. It's probably a holdover from the Imperial education system, where regional moneyed families paid a lot to have their kid sent to Beijing, to learn-by-rote the exact system of writing. They'd come back regarded as an authority of sorts. My boss once spoke about how his mother had studied Chinese language in Beijing to become one of a select few bladibla in this small city blablabla. Education is seen as a privilege that sets the upper class apart from the lowly farmers. It's probably also why so many people enjoy anal-retentive nitpicking without shame: They, the privileged, are better at adhering to the norms than you, the clueless farmersy type. I say let them play; they're only hurting themselves. We use our knowledge for less petty pursuits.
laowaigentleman:
I am curious about what you mean exactly about "anal retentive nit picking"
When I taught at the local university I decided to try and introduction to western thought class. I chose some of the meditations of Descartes and portions of Locke's writings. The reason for this was because the writings are old, but they're considered very great and they're incredibly clear and easy to understand.
The general response to the discussion I tried to provoke was "who cares, it's a waste of time, it's ivory tower stuff, we want to know how to go out and make some money..." Many people all over the world hold these views, but I think for the most part they can appreciate a minimal practical usefulness from such study and that is that it encourages independent thinking, systems analysis and logical inter-relation between concepts. Perhaps it also builds a relationship between creative imagination and rationality. I think this is the case, but maybe I'm wrong.
Funnily enough, the next week I brought in some stuff about finance and economics and they thought it was boring too. It was simple and useful stuff. I used to wish that my teachers would have shown me that kind of thing.
Now I just stick with, when you go on holiday, to the movies to the park, you can... and then give them lexical chunks to fill in the blanks up until game time.
In my country they'd be office temps who'd have to be moved a lot.
It explains why so few of them can adapt to the western educational system.
They think big, without considering the quality of what they produce. Glorious facades. I am sure I know what's missing and why.
coineineagh:
Interesting anecdote about the uni students. I'm not surprised at all. When I first came here, I felt I wanted to teach adults English, to make friendships, cultural exchange and social involvement. But it's shocking, the way these people have been trained to shun independent thought and socially relevant discussion. They chastise and berate one another for little things, taking petty pride in any small display of superiority (hence the nitpicking I mentioned), but they can't think practically or solve problems. Even arguments are 'solved' by silence, leading to most Chinese hating the majority of the people around them.
A "normal school" is to train teachers : the school defines the norm of what have to be taught. So the "normal" comes from "norm", "normative". Across the world, many schools which started as "normal school of XXX" became regular schools, but they kept the original name.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_school
And for the hurried reader : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_school#In_Asia
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