<p>I see. As you might have noticed, I'm not very good at catching these obtuse things. :)</p>
<p>john , this should be of interest to u. at least it's a bunch of malaysians who know the system. some are for u some are not, some say u may be someone big in the future, some want to kill u. take a look! <a href="http://recom.org/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=3381%5B/url%5D">http://recom.org/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=3381</a></p>
<p>By the way which part of malaysia are u from?</p>
<p>For what it's worth, I'm from Stella Maris. Best school ever. :D</p>
<p>viceice.........i have a feeling that you are christine......</p>
<p>Which Christine do you think I am? :D</p>
<p>the one who hangs out with tracy.....the one who has a sister named celeste......</p>
<p>Ah yes, Christine Lye... no.. I'm actually a dude... and i'm 2 years older then Christine :D</p>
<p>And who are you?</p>
<p>somebody........</p>
<p>Haha...you are nick chin......</p>
<p>Who are you lah?</p>
<p>Mrs Kang Beng Hoe.....</p>
<p>Very Funny. And I bet you're Edwin Low</p>
<p>who's that?</p>
<p>stella people eh? i have a brother there. well had. hes out now.</p>
<p>actually i don't really mind staying here other than well, i suppose i just want a fresh start, a clean slate if you will.</p>
<p>i love canada and i think i'll always be a canadian at heart. yet i want that clean slate where nobody knows you at all. it's exciting. lol. we'll see i suppose.</p>
<p>i've lived in the united states for four and a half years, and... i like being here. i don't want to leave, and anyway, the swedish system of higher education doesn't offer what i want from college. among other things, a sense of community, the 'college experience', and the liberal arts system.</p>
<p>when i was in sweden last summer i explained the liberal arts system to my grandmother--that you get to study lots of different things, in order to get a well-rounded education. she said, "why would anyone want to do that?" in her view, any education that didn't directly prepare you for a job was useless.</p>
<p>swedish society, in general, is very anti-intellectual. there's this mentality, i guess it's a socialist ideal, that no one is allowed to be better than anybody else. as someone who's always taken pride in intellectual achievements, i don't think i'd feel comfortable with that.</p>
<p>i lived in stockholm for three years in elementary and middle school. i was teased, insulted, and exclued on a daily basis because i didn't wear slutty clothes or whore myself out to the sixth grade guys, and (oh, the horror) liked to read. the teachers were unable to control the class, and we learned practically nothing. needless to say, it left a sour taste.</p>
<p>i feel that ever since i came to the u.s., i haven't had to be ashamed of being intelligent or curious. in stockholm, traits that were intrinsically part of me were looked down upon, and treated with disdain. in america they were glorified. i'm not told "don't you dare think highly of yourself" and to settle for mediocrity... i'm encouraged to be ambitious. to achieve something. to me, at the time, that encouragement meant everything.</p>
<p>i have many criticisms of america, too. but at age 11, having been indoctrinated that who i was was "bad" or "wrong", coming here and finding out that it was not only ok, but good, made a huge impact on me.</p>
<p>It is quite disturbing to see such things happening in a country like sweden.......</p>
<p>thisyearsgirl, almost everyone outside America goes through that. I can't even begin to imagine what my extended family would do, if they found out that my main interest was Archaeology,Ancient History and Writing and not engineering. My parents have never made any effort to hide the fact that they think my interests can never be more than hobbies. Cant wait for my eighteenth birthday. One way or another I'm outta here.</p>
<p>impaled,</p>
<p>wow, i'm really sorry you have to go through that. it must be hard to know not even your parents support what you want to do in life. my family supports me in that sense, but is otherwise quite dysfunctional... so yeah, i'm really excited to leave. ;)</p>
<p>
i was teased, insulted, and exclued on a daily basis
erm, that's "excluded", by the way.</p>
<p>Just as a note to thisyearsgirl and the rest of you...</p>
<p>I'm an all-American kid who has therefore gone to school here since preschool. I have to say, schools here aren't necessarily great, especially public schools. A lot of the problems that thisyearsgirl described exist in public schools...The cause isn't the "intellectual atmosphere." It's the government not funding these schools enough, at the cost of the intellectual environment. So I guess we Americans are lucky to have a free society that appreciates intellectuals, but I don't think I or other Americans should be celebrating it until that opportunity is extended to more members of the society.</p>