Posts by Roski

28

Why Chinese Mothers are Superior

by skeeter1 in

jw
friends

below is a wall street journal article on oriental parenting.

see similarities to jw parenting?

be in a school play.

Roski

fulltimestudent: you are correct of course - one should not generalise too much, however, this is not just a Chinese issue - it is an Asian issue.

One of the major differences is the need for consensus (quite understandable given the history) which leads to conformity of behaviour and thought. Asian students are taught mainly by rote memorisation - for the test....and therefore are often very good at test-taking, if they are a serious student. This learning style doesn't encourage critical thinking though. There is also a passive student/active teacher dynamic that is the crux of the classroom which also (while in some ways positive) encourages 'learning to the test' - and the resulting 'score' is the main focus for most mothers.

I think a mixture of both Western and Asian(?) learning/teaching styles is productive, but quite difficult to implement. Obviously, there are people who operate outside of this stereotype and they are very intelligent people and often leaders in their field. Some take very well to different learning styles - others do not and they are the ones that go home and continue as before.

The sleeping/looking tired isn't always indicative of study - quite the reverse. Many Asian students are not good at time management and are just used to spending lots of 'time' at the desk but the quality of the study is lacking. Long periods of study actually involve lots of social interaction and other stuff maybe slightly (or not at all) connected with study. Confucian thinking definitely focuses on the time spent studying rather than the knowledge - connected to the process of rote memorisation which begins from a very young age, and hence the mother's driving "do it again" mentality.

In my opinion the most unfortunate outcome of this style of teaching/learning is the importance of the 'arrival' not the 'journey' - but I'm not Asian.

28

Why Chinese Mothers are Superior

by skeeter1 in

jw
friends

below is a wall street journal article on oriental parenting.

see similarities to jw parenting?

be in a school play.

Roski

There are a lot of suicides but they are not often acknowledged (or in just a limited way). While one of my friends was teaching in a university in Sth Korea two young people fell past the window to their deaths - nothing was mentioned among the students or the staff.

28

Why Chinese Mothers are Superior

by skeeter1 in

jw
friends

below is a wall street journal article on oriental parenting.

see similarities to jw parenting?

be in a school play.

Roski

The article tells only a small part of the 'life story'. The mothers are very competative with each other and the sucess of their child is tightly bound with their own self esteem, and they will go to great lengths to keep this in tact. The mother is also usually answerable to the grandparents (father's role is much more limited).

While the kid's lives are highly controlled, they learn to be manipulative at a very early age - learning to get what they want (now days mostly the latest high-tec stuff) while allowing the mother's ego to remain intact (somewhat). They know how important their scholastic results are to mum so mum will give in to their demands. Phones and the net also allow them to play both ends against the middle in a very sophisticated manner from a very early age. Many also know if they can't get things correct they can cheat - and that is OK, too.

Of course the ones that don't learn (or can't) play the game for some reason dip out in a big way (or go and live overseas away from the family).

31

G'day from Oz - My Story

by Gemmel in

hi, i've been lurking for a few days reading the site, interesting stuff ;).

i've been out of the org for 23 years, i was 27 i left an agnostic and became an atheist many years ago.

i knew i was going to leave for 7 years before i did but had stayed in because i didn't want to hurt my family, it hadn't occurred to me that they might shun me.

Roski

finallysomepride - you have a PM

9

Unity and Jehovah's Witnesses

by stuckinamovement in

jw
friends

faithful people will tell you that unity worldwide is one of the identifying marks of the true religion.

jehovahs witnesses will especially point to the unity of belief no matter where you go as proof that they are gods organization.

as i sat listening to the service meeting part last night about our unified organization it hit me........... the largest group of unified people is within an army.

Roski

Just on the military theme - when my husband was in the military (not a western country), for long periods of time they were made to dig holes and then fill them in again. He says this was to reinforce blind obedience and to teach the soldiers not question whether an activity was worthwhile or not - the benefit of this being that when told to kill they would simply obey and not make a value judgement. It broke down their ability to think individually - according to him.

22

Japan closed down 638 Congregations losing 5,337 Publishers....any ideas why? Internet?

by Witness 007 in

japan had incredible increases in the 80's and 90's of 20-30 thousand publishers a year until it collapsed in 1998....figure since then till 2011 have been going down.. 1998 -222,912 publishers -3,802 congregation.

9 years later.. 2006 -217,519 publishers -3,164 congregations {loss of 5,357 publishers closed 638 congregations} .

{note that japan publishers average 31 hours a month compared to world 15 hours}.

Roski

Internet, high stress (intense) lifestyle plus in Asian countries (at least the ones I know) fads tend to come and go in waves somewhat more than the west. They rode high initially on zeal (+ competition) then reputation (competition again)..then other things factored in.

37

Australian Convention Pioneer family Experience - We found our vegetables in the gutter..why do they wanna be Martyrs?

by Witness 007 in

a couple years ago district convention - a pioneer family with two kids explained how they had ran out of funds and had no dinner...as they turned the corner out witnessing they saw a vegetable truck had spilled some produce in the gutter and so "jehovah provided in our time of need..." i felt like yelling get a job you bum stop starving!!

not encouraging.

this week an elder with pnemonia discharges himself from hospital, promising to remain home...so he can go out preaching!

Roski

Broken Promises/life is too short - thank you for your thoughts.

Chicken Little - I remember many years ago my father telling me that one day while out witnessing he felt an overwhelming need to visit a local brother and turned around from going home to visit this person who apparently had some issues to resolve. The next day the brother died. I can remember thinking at the time that god/a higher power does not discriminate, but uses whomever to help any person in need - this may be in any organisation/individual etc. I was quite young at the time and a zealous pioneer, but that experience clicked with me and from then on I questioned the 'exclusivity' of the WTS as God's (only) organisation. I've seen and heard of many such situations since - sometimes to do with JW's and sometimes not. The millionaire story and other self-congratulatory nonsense I do not believe - however... and I've heard lots of those!

37

Australian Convention Pioneer family Experience - We found our vegetables in the gutter..why do they wanna be Martyrs?

by Witness 007 in

a couple years ago district convention - a pioneer family with two kids explained how they had ran out of funds and had no dinner...as they turned the corner out witnessing they saw a vegetable truck had spilled some produce in the gutter and so "jehovah provided in our time of need..." i felt like yelling get a job you bum stop starving!!

not encouraging.

this week an elder with pnemonia discharges himself from hospital, promising to remain home...so he can go out preaching!

Roski

BD - it is tragic but unfortunately not unusual - it was their way of life (and mine too at one time). Even as I said "..don't go to the convention..", I knew they would be thinking that I would say that due to my 'poor spiritual' state - no longer 'relying on Jehovah'. I felt guilty afterwards for not being more forceful, but that is coming into focus as I've tried to help my mother in the intervening months only to find she is more than willing to be swindled out of her money by her 'spiritual' friends (dementia aside).

MrMonroe - the mysterious millionaire story was perpetuated by the elder giving me all the grief atm

37

Australian Convention Pioneer family Experience - We found our vegetables in the gutter..why do they wanna be Martyrs?

by Witness 007 in

a couple years ago district convention - a pioneer family with two kids explained how they had ran out of funds and had no dinner...as they turned the corner out witnessing they saw a vegetable truck had spilled some produce in the gutter and so "jehovah provided in our time of need..." i felt like yelling get a job you bum stop starving!!

not encouraging.

this week an elder with pnemonia discharges himself from hospital, promising to remain home...so he can go out preaching!

Roski

My father was ill with what the doctor diagnosed as severe bronchitis. He was told to stay indoors until he improved as the weather was cool/windy and lots of flu around. He went to the convention on Friday and came home sick. I spoke to him on Saturday and was astounded that he and my mother would be so irresponsible as to go to the convention - I had seen them the previous week and advised him to follow the doctors advice (worried that he would go to the evening meeting again). I concluded our conversation on Saturday by saying "and don't go to the convention tomorrow..." I needn't have worried - he died early Sunday morning.

77

Moral Dilemma

by Mattieu in

excuse me so called holy spirit directed governing body; what do you do when you discover that a long term hospital liaison committee elder who gives talks at all1 day assemblies, 2 day assemblies & district assemblies and is quite prominent n the victorian/nsw circuit, is addicted to pornography, particularly under age and bestiality porno?

and oh, if you have print outs of his internet log ins and internet history fully detailing his log ins from his work computer???

and im not talking breach of privacy, im talking his breach of work usage of computers, of which im in charge of the it.

Roski

Aside from those issues involving the workplace - Boyzone made a good point, he is a deviant and therefore will be acting out in some form in his non-working life. From what you say it seems as if he is 'projecting' a lot and this may involve unjust JC procedures or it may involve his own behaviour with (young) women, and most likely women who are at risk in some way.