Tianrun
Jan 1, 2019
Undergraduate / WILLIAMS COLLEGE ESSAY - Opium War [2]
Each Sunday night, in a tradition called Storytime, students, faculty and staff gather to hear a fellow community member relate a brief story from their life (and to munch on the storyteller's favorite homemade cookies). What story would you share? What lessons have you drawn from that story, and how would those lessons inform your time at Williams?
I am an international student and I need a native speaker to help me revise grammar mistakes of my essay~~
Soldiers' cowardice and official's corruption were in full charge of the failure of Opium Wars. I held this view for history under the influence of forums when I was young, but I abandoned my original idea after reading a history book. What the book convinced me was just presence of simple facts and details. Qing's cannons were heavy and difficult to move, were with insufficient firing range and high exploding rate, and weren't even able to turn an angle. Before the enemy's powerful and flexible fleet, Qing troops are vulnerable and doomed to failure.
This quickly reminds me something about the Chinese patriarchal ethos. Imagine a day when I go back home with my poor biology score. I explain to my mother that our teacher, who only played movies and asked us to copy texts during class, used ineffective teaching methods; or I explain to her that I am not talented in the field and I've done my best already. Whichever I say, my mom's answer would be, "Do not look for objective reasons, look for your own fault! How come your classmates got higher marks and you didn't?" This situation is so familiar to every Chinese student that we smile when we hear about it. So, why does everyone like this logic, ignoring the differences among individuals?
I think attributing the failure to objective factors is much easier than accepting the truth. In the first story, we don't have to admit that we were at low levels of technology; in the second story, my mom doesn't have to admit that her son is not at the very top. But we do have to learn to accept objective factors to be better dealing with failures standing in the way.
Great man doesn't mind being little, so should students in William.
Each Sunday night, in a tradition called Storytime, students, faculty and staff gather to hear a fellow community member relate a brief story from their life (and to munch on the storyteller's favorite homemade cookies). What story would you share? What lessons have you drawn from that story, and how would those lessons inform your time at Williams?
Great man doesn't mind being little
I am an international student and I need a native speaker to help me revise grammar mistakes of my essay~~
Soldiers' cowardice and official's corruption were in full charge of the failure of Opium Wars. I held this view for history under the influence of forums when I was young, but I abandoned my original idea after reading a history book. What the book convinced me was just presence of simple facts and details. Qing's cannons were heavy and difficult to move, were with insufficient firing range and high exploding rate, and weren't even able to turn an angle. Before the enemy's powerful and flexible fleet, Qing troops are vulnerable and doomed to failure.
This quickly reminds me something about the Chinese patriarchal ethos. Imagine a day when I go back home with my poor biology score. I explain to my mother that our teacher, who only played movies and asked us to copy texts during class, used ineffective teaching methods; or I explain to her that I am not talented in the field and I've done my best already. Whichever I say, my mom's answer would be, "Do not look for objective reasons, look for your own fault! How come your classmates got higher marks and you didn't?" This situation is so familiar to every Chinese student that we smile when we hear about it. So, why does everyone like this logic, ignoring the differences among individuals?
I think attributing the failure to objective factors is much easier than accepting the truth. In the first story, we don't have to admit that we were at low levels of technology; in the second story, my mom doesn't have to admit that her son is not at the very top. But we do have to learn to accept objective factors to be better dealing with failures standing in the way.
Great man doesn't mind being little, so should students in William.
