8 june 06

Greetings,

The school year winds down as university freshmen students prepare for their Oral English final exam 19-23rd.

They choose one topic and speak for 1.5 minutes: a) what is the most important lesson you've learned this year and why? b) what is the best advice you'd offer new freshmen students next fall and why?

Their criteria is pronunciation, grammar, intonation, fluency, vocabulary, interest level and humor. They've all made great progress with increased confidence, staying relaxed and focused with a positive attitude. A joy.

(From the A.P.) "...There are 2.6 million places at China's universities, but the competition is fierce — 9.5 million youths are taking the three-day exams that are widely viewed as crucial to career and financial success.

Most Chinese schools still lack counselors and teachers receive little training in spotting emotional distress, Jin said. Parents are little help, often piling on pressure while ignoring their children's emotional development, he said.

"It's a basic unwillingness or inability to recognize and deal with emotional problems," Jin said.

Wang Yufeng, at Peking University's Institute of Mental Health, estimates the rate of emotional disorders such as depression and paranoia among Chinese students under age 17 at up to 32 percent — a total of 30 million students.

Others say the figure may be as high as 50 percent. A survey last year by the government said nearly 58 percent of students felt highly stressed by academic pressures.

Chinese youth now enjoy greater material comfort and personal freedoms than their parents' generation, but are more emotionally fragile, experts say.

Students educated before economic reforms began in the early 1980s were raised amid austerity and ideals of self-sacrifice. Under the job-assignment system prevailing until the early 1990s, graduates could expect the Communist Party to decide their futures.

Today's Chinese teens are largely preoccupied with the same worries as their Western counterparts — exams, jobs and the opposite sex."

A girl studies in Lhasa. Peace.