Nor have chinese schools quite struck the perfect balance between rote learning and independent thinking or even practicing the skills that rote learning is supposed to give you. A typical adult taiwanese ESL student has memorized thousands of vocabulary words. He works VERY hard and has a sincere desire to learn the lanuage. He is not stupid, may be a computer engineer or a doctor, but his actual fluency remains at the level of "I velly like amellican basket-a-ball" or "the patient have much trouble with the dermal necrosis."
Taiwanese schools simply move too fast. You're constantly cramming in more information, preparing for the next test, and being tested at a level at least a year ahead of where you actually are. You've got no time to rest, digest, and consolidate. It's quite common for every student in a class to routinely fail every test even at less intense non-academic high schools. Can't tell you how many times I've had a kid glide into class just absolutely beaming, walking on sunshine...because he scored a 70 on his mid-terms! a 70! The best in the class!
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