smart asians only

[kasia]

so who here has gone through elementary school, junior high school, and high school with everyone assuming that you are a genius simply because you are asian? please share.

[tapestrybabe]

OMG, I got that quite a lot. People assuming that I was really smart just because I was asian. Like people assumed that I was smart in math... and the SAT's... forget it man... ppl had this expectation that I would pass with flying colors...

And the fact is.. I was just an average student.. A, B's, a few C's... a D in spanish... and one F in my lifetime. And wellz, when it comes to my SAT's... my lips are sealed.. I'm still too embarassed to even tell my score to others... cuz my score was terribly low...

[bigwong235]

yeah i especially hate the thing about being really good at math. cause i BLOW at math.

[angelaine]

Definitely.. math by far is my WORST subject.. the concepts just completely go over my head.. :P .. and it's kinda embarassing because most of my friends (who are asian) are the geniuses in math and science.. don't tell any of them that I failed Chem okay? :P

My mom was expecting me to be a math genius too (partly because my Dad's an accountant).. guess that expectation died. :P

[Bakayaro]

yay, I am not the only one. Who said that math was in the Asian blood is damn wrong. People in my class always assume that I have a 80% average in math, which I wish I had.

[OHTotoro]

I took pre-algebra twice, geometry twice and pre-calculus twice. hehehe
then I took an accounting class and loved it. go figure.

[OHTotoro]

but I'm not dumb, i promise. :D

[Arex]

Well, in the first grade, they initially put me into the remedial English/reading group 'cause I was shy and didn't really say all that much. Don't really think that was at all a racial thing though. But in the 7th grade, I always got shit on by my honors English teacher who, I believe, thought I was like the rest of the Asian ESL kids she'd dealt with. Because of her, I got dumped back into the non-honors program for the 8th grade. From 9th grade on, however, I was back in honors and AP all the way. Sheeit.

When I started working at this part-time job during undergrad, the people there wanted me to handle the computer and math stuff 'cause I was "Oriental and should be good at that kinda stuff."=P No matter though, these people were ignorant folk from Palmdale. I set 'em straight and explained both the model minority thing and the Oriental vs. Asian thing. :)

Alex

[kasia]

omg. me too! in fourth grade, i moved to an all-white town and was immediately placed into an esl class during my first week of school.

after one week, they realized that they made a mistake and placed me back into the normal class.

i had a good time in the esl class, though. i got lots of free stickers and candy for being a good chinese kid who could speak English.

seriously, though, i think it hurt me a bit. being 9 years old, i was unsure of why i was there. i mean, i was born in the United States and i thought, at least up until then, that i spoke perfect English. my self-esteem and confidence definitely suffered a bit afterwards.

[angelaine]

I remember in grade 9 the school gave out subject awards to student who got the highest mark in each class..

ironically, they were won by three chinese girls (myself included).. and on the actual award certificate under course it said "English as a Second Language".. they automatically assumed that since it's three asian girls.. can't be normal english class.. good geez.

[ChinaLama]

hheheh...in high school i didn't know about this whole "model minority myth was bad" thing, so i bought into the whole asians are smart thing and how we kick ass in math (although i didn't, but i did alright in hs...not so anymore :)). I think our parents kind of bought into it, too, but mostly because a lot of asian kids ARE better in math than native-born "American" kids, because math education in the US is a disgrace. Plus, for ppl like me who had a LOT of help fr my parents in academics, the only thing they could directly help me w. was math, so that area gets focused in a lot of asian american kids, and it's just "naturally" the better part for a lot of immigrants (cuz like i said, math education in ths US sucks worse than history).

[tapestrybabe]

We all know here that ESL stands for English as a Second Language.. but for the students in my high school, it meant.. Extra Slow Learners :(

[princess]

hmm i get that assumption a lot, especially when it comes to math and science. it sux, but then again i consider it kinda flattering. at least asians are classified as stupid.

[inkpainter]

Shin-Tson Wu, School of Optics, holder of the patent on Game Boy liquid crystal displays, inventor of a liquid crystal lens for eyeglasses ...

Just came on board at our local University....yeah baybeee... 8)

[bonani]

funny shit. nobody at school could understand why i could never get better than a C in my math classes... "but you're asian!"... the only people who had any sympathy were members of my family because WE ALL SUCK at math!

it sticks with me today in the real world... whenever anyone in my department has a problem with their computer, they ask ME about it. i'm the freaking department secretary!

[LilCPChik]

my SAT sux!!!! i get A's N all dat but even the stupid pple get higher then me.... aish!..

[DaBestSpooner]

Like I said, being smart on paper does not equate to being smart.

I've seen my fair share of double majors, honor students, mba's, they look good on their resume, but they couldnt navigate themselves out of an elevator with string attached to the entrance.

[kasia]

[quote:47c9c5462d="DaBestSpooner"]Like I said, being smart on paper does not equate to being smart.

I've seen my fair share of double majors, honor students, mba's, they look good on their resume, but they couldnt navigate themselves out of an elevator with string attached to the entrance.[/quote:47c9c5462d]

i disagree. i think that the level of a person's education is positively correlated to their ability to analyze, think critically, etc.

i've also seen a number of people make comments about j.d.'s and like degrees meaning nothing--yes, someone just said that to me at lunch today--which is why i'm a bit irked. my main question for people who think this is--how could you possibly know the standard by which to measure the intelligence of these people who are so much more educated if you haven't even been there?

and no, i don't think i'm super-smart, nor do i try to act it. but what's with the hating?

[DaBestSpooner]

The point I tried to make was that measuring someone's intelligence based on their education, is it an accurate assesment? There are many people out there who are good memorizing information which enables them to easily pass exams, gain certifications, degrees, even high gpas. But when it comes down to applying those concepts in real world scenarios it becomes a whole different story. I didnt mean to generalize but I see it everytime I have to go through a stack of resumes.

I stand behind my booksmart not equal to smart comment,


[quote:54194eec04="kasia"]i've also seen a number of people make comments about j.d.'s and like degrees meaning nothing--yes, someone just said that to me at lunch today--which is why i'm a bit irked. my main question for people who think this is--how could you possibly know the standard by which to measure the intelligence of these people who are so much more educated if you haven't even been there?

and no, i don't think i'm super-smart, nor do i try to act it. but what's with the hating?[/quote:54194eec04]

[kasia]

yeh, well, what's "smart" mean anyways?

[SaladShooter]

Holy geezer...Try being Asian AND a teacher's daughter. High expectations. :(

[Arex]

[quote:486637ae27="SaladShooter"]Holy geezer...Try being Asian AND a teacher's daughter. High expectations. :([/quote:486637ae27]

Hahaha. That sucks. My mom was a teacher too but her students were generally so stunted educationally that we probably would've looked like academic all stars so long as we were performing at grade level...=P

Alex

[artsfartsyjanet]

I didn't know about the Model Minority myth until I was in college. I actually went up to AP Calculus in high school, but I hated it with a passion. Plus, i was this seventeen year old trying to deal with a personal problem with this narcissistic boyfriend at the time. So, needless to say I sucked in that class of 7 people. My friends had no idea I did so poorly because I kept to myself a lot about my situation about my ex, and I couldn't concentrate with all the crap going around in my personal life. Anyway, after graduating high school and getting over my idiotic ex-boyfriend, I took Calculus again at a college and got an "A". It didn't really do much of a difference except prove to myself that I can finish calculus. =) I didn't see myself proving to other people that I'm this math genius because it's not easy and it took me sleepless nights to get those concepts in high school. No one ever really expected me to do well in math because I'm Asian. No one asked me for help in Calculus... probably because I was the one who asked for help. heheh.... but it didn't make a difference with my lack of concentration. It was like that for Physics too my senior year. I was already at the highest science and math classes, but if life isn't grand at the time, the grades suffered. First semester, I got a C in physics, but I managed to finish with a "B", which is perfectly fine with me. Oh well, I still don't regret high school.



<!--EDIT|artsfartsyjanet|Aug 14 2002, 02:16 PM-->

[Saiko]

Eh. I'd consider myself academically smart, since I could easily get straight A's if I weren't so lazy. I'm not trying to brag or anything. It's just that school is insanely easy. Then again, I'm just getting into high school so I wouldn't know yet. I get 100's in math on my report card. At first I was like "Oh, dude", but then it wasn't so much of a big deal. I don't think I've ever been labelled smart because I was Asian, except for some guy saying in class once, "These damn Koreans and their math." There were 4 Asians in my class, and 3 of them were Korean. It got annoying because they'd write in their own language and guys from my class would be like, "What's this say? Don't you know this language? Chinese... Korean. It's the same, woman." Or they'd ask how to say stuff in Korean. That's one of my pet peeves. People that can't tell us apart or think we're all the same. I don't even look Korean.

[AliBabaIncorporated]

hmm, I did fine in math during high school. then got to university and started getting my ass kicked (I came in as an applied math major, no less). squeezed by with a C+ in linear algebra and had to give up the idea of being a math major after I did nearly every single problem wrong on a numerical analysis midterm. thank god for late drop deadlines at my university. but since then I switched to the CompSci department, where I'm consdered to be good at math ...

actually most Asians in my university are in business, economics, or the scientific majors which require the least amount of higher math: CS, Computer Engineering, Biology, Chemistry, and Biomedical Engineering. For those you don't need anything more advanced than a vague knowledge of differential equations and maybe a semester or two of calculus beyond high school, and profs in major core classes usually spend a lecture or two reviewing that stuff, so if it went over your head in Math class you'll still be okay. (There's usually about 2 or 3 guys in the class who fully understand the math, and then they dumb it down and explain it to everyone else. I noticed this phenomenon a lot as a TA. More often than not those guys are white.).

Once you get to Physics-related stuff and the more pure-math majors, you see fewer and fewer East Asians - it gets to be lots of Indians and white people.

[angel nympho]

No. I'm one of those stupid Asians.

[artsfartsyjanet]

Originally posted by Chasiubao_Boy@Jul 1 2002, 07:45 AM
Gah you people make me feel mad old. High School, SAT's?!?!?! <sigh>.
Tell me about it... =) I think i dozed off in the middle of my SATs back in the day. =) Now, I'm just preparing for the GREs. fun fun.... ;)

[Xishi]

I was deservedly relegated into ESL classes back inthe 5th grade, because I just moved to the USA from China and spoke no English.

But by middle school, I was put into Honors English and the Accelerated division all the way. Haha, nice.

Am a FOB, but no accent ANYMORE!! :)

Dislike math, am a Finance major.

[Napoleon Chynamite]

smart asians only...hmm whoa I do not belong in here

[tvbdude]

smart asians only...hmm whoa I do not belong in here

me neither. I got mostly F's in skoo

[AngryABCGirl]

What happened to just being average!?

[contra_diction]

i used to get that oh you're asian, you're smart thing quite a bit.. but actually i am pretty smart
*polishing nails on shirt*

[BeTheReds]

People always told me that my grades should be the avereage of Jeff Smith and Jae Kim's.

lol...

[artsfartsyjanet]

just elementary and junior high. high school... i was the only asian in my calc class, but no one really asked me for help or suggested that i was smart at math b/c i was asian.

[enygma]

i used to be. but not anymore. well, kinda.

[Focker]

i used to be . . . then i met a guy named Jack Daniels.s..s.s..ss..s

[snuffles]

mmmm... jack daniels... greatest shtuff on earth......

i thought every asian was a "model minority" growing up. probably cuz i lived in bell labs county, where every asian kid was the child of an EE PHD father and stay at home mother... and all the mothers knew each other and compared report cards, sats, ap scores, etc with each other. ugh.

plus, i was forced to go to the engineering high school in my area... a class of 20 students for each year was in the program, stuck in amongst a regular school of 1200, with our own separate classes for the sciences/engineering subjects. Practically all the asians in the school were in the engineering program so all the teachers and students thought asians = smart... typically true, but i've been hating math since i was in elementary school so i had a pretty miserable time in high school... although freaking multivar calc in high school was nothing compared to the cs classes... i just couldnt' get recursion... didn't get quicksort until junior year... freaking fractals gave me nightmares... that and taking every single ap science class cold wasn't fun. grrrrr. every time students saw us walking in the halls, you'd hear "asian invasion" and the first day of class in english, history, and foreign lang was always a complaining session from the regular school kids of "why are we with the engineering class? i don't want them to ruin my grades. can i switch periods?" made you feel SOO luved.

so yah. didn't know the term model minority, but basically lived it growing up. sucked. but atleast berkeley was a piece of cake after that :pissed:

[rakovlam]

People always assume I'm a genius. But that's not a problem because I am and people can sense it from afar.

[kasia]

Originally posted by rakovlam@Mar 26 2003, 02:56 PM
People always assume I'm a genius. But that's not a problem because I am and people can sense it from afar.
assuming that you are, i think you may find this thread (http://forums.yellowworld.org/index.php?act=ST&f=13&t=6788&) of interest.

[AltimaGTR]

Mann! In my 1st semester of college, I was failing English (slacking off) and my prof had a talk with me and just felt that I was someone that never failed classes. Oh, and she assumed that I did well in Math in Science (both total BS). Thus, she passed me with a 'B' ... that's a good thing?

[Napoleon Chynamite]

Originally posted by AltimaGTR@Mar 26 2003, 08:20 PM
Mann! In my 1st semester of college, I was failing English (slacking off) and my prof had a talk with me and just felt that I was someone that never failed classes. Oh, and she assumed that I did well in Math in Science (both total BS). Thus, she passed me with a 'B' ... that's a good thing?
yea that's a good thing...for you at least...not that I don't care about Asian generalizations but if I were in your shoes in all honesty I'd be like 'ok gimme the passing grade, and then I can accuse you of stereotyping me later'.

[Green_Jade]

yep... people assumed that..and it hurt me in the long run.

Due to a genetic disorder I have 40 - 50% chance of having LD...which I knew since I was 16 that that's a possibility. But, because of what peolple thought of me, and parents, I never brought it up. I got screened for LD in college and was told that I most likely have ADD... I wish I had gotten diagonosed early (actually, it's never been officially dx'ed that urh..costs $ ) it would have helped me getting support for long lecture classes..(have a notetaker...although I'm a notetaker for deaf students, but only for courses that aren't long lecutres)

...I've gotten through though, mostly because most of my important classes doesnt requre a lot of reading..ect that require my undivided attention. But advantages of ADD... hyperfocus :D... if i get in the zone... I can work on things till they are done weee...

[Craig]

Originally posted by AltimaGTR@Mar 26 2003, 08:20 PM
Mann! In my 1st semester of college, I was failing English (slacking off) and my prof had a talk with me and just felt that I was someone that never failed classes. Oh, and she assumed that I did well in Math in Science (both total BS). Thus, she passed me with a 'B' ... that's a good thing?
I thought UH was 1/5 Asian ? Was this instructor new to the school ?

[Azn Retribution]

I have... everyone always assumed i was a genius...
and then when i started doing poorly in school people started saying i was a lazy ass and never tried(I guess its true)
but that came from the asians I knew too not just the whites. :confused:

[etcj]

The whole concept/context of smart in the US school system is getting good grades. I read this interesting essay by a professor in Montana State about the lack of motivation among college students to perform. One of his recommendation is the abolition of the grade system, which removes a lot of the crap that goes on, such as exams, complaining, and cheating.

It would be interesting to see how smart can be applied to Asians and Pacific Islanders if we didn't use grades. In what context would we then use? I think we can then kill the whole stereotypes that Asian students get straight A's all the time. Of course, it's not to say it's uncool to be intelligent, but to show that being smart doesn't necessarily mean getting A's.

Wouldn't you like to go to a school where there are no grades? It's all about qualitative analysis of your work, i.e. teachers will give you an indepth review of your work only if you support an indepth perspective in your work.

interested in knowing about this new system? check out my school in my college: (http://cpcs.umb.edu/)