Cram School Culture
Main article: Education in Taiwan See also: Gaokao and SuneungTaiwan, like its neighbors in East Asia, is well-known for its buxiban (補習班), often translated as cram school, and literally meaning "make-up class" or "catch-up class" or to learn more advanced classes. Nearly all students attend some sort of buxiban, whether for mathematics, computer skills, English, other foreign languages, or exam preparation (college, graduate school, TOEFL, GRE, SAT, etc.). This is perpetuated by a meritocratic culture that measures merit through testing, with entrance into college, graduate school, and government service decided entirely on testing. This has also led to a remarkable respect for degrees, including PhDs and overseas Western degrees (US and Great Britain).
English teaching is a big business in Taiwan, with Taiwan, as part of its project to reinvigorate the Taiwan miracle, aiming to become a trilingual country—fluent in Mandarin, Taiwanese, and English. Many teachers come from English-speaking countries, such as the U.S., Canada, Great Britain, Australia, and New Zealand, and enjoy salaries of about $30,000–$50,000 per year at a low cost of living, with opportunities to manage or open one's own school and make several times that amount a year.
Read more about this topic: Culture Of Taiwan
Famous quotes containing the words cram, school and/or culture:
“You cram these words into mine ears against
The stomach of my sense.”
—William Shakespeare (15641616)
“True it is that she who escapeth safe and unpolluted from out the school of freedom, giveth more confidence of herself than she who cometh sound out of the school of severity and restraint.”
—Michel de Montaigne (15331592)
“What culture lacks is the taste for anonymous, innumerable germination. Culture is smitten with counting and measuring; it feels out of place and uncomfortable with the innumerable; its efforts tend, on the contrary, to limit the numbers in all domains; it tries to count on its fingers.”
—Jean Dubuffet (19011985)