Word: binges
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Standing in his Grays common room, Bing Huang points out his roommates' new "Animal House" poster--showing dozens of actors waving their middle fingers--and gestures in disbelief. "Americans are so casual about everything," he says. "In China, we have posters to criticize, but nothing like this...
...Bing and his two fellow freshmen from the People's Republic of China, Harvard's first undergraduates from that country, the past two months have been full of such surprises--from adjusting to the "rich" food in the Union to coping with the nonstop "commercialism" of daily life...
...Everyone wants high grades in China--we have very much competition," Bing says. "Every year after the scores and admissions are published, there are many incidents of suicides among high school students. The newspapers have to publish long articles to convince them that failing on the exam is nothing shameful--that there are other things in life." And once the students get to college, "the pressure's so high that some people go out of their minds...
American students, however, "are always having parties, drinking beer, and chasing girls," Bing says, adding that there are few parties at Chinese colleges like the Foreign Language Institute, which he attended for more than two years before coming here. "We were used to working on weekends to prepare for next week's exams," he recalls...
...Bing also notes that "information is kind of stuffed into you," citing that PRC's regular "recitation contests," during which students have to recite long passages by memory. However, the independence here has made him feel occasionally "too disorganized" and "helpless." "I'm way ahead in one course, but far behind in another," he explains...