As an American living in Asia I’ve got a few thoughts, just my limited observations/experiences…
EAST: Schools seem to be tougher. People here tell me high school in KR equals college difficulty in the US. The kids go *all day*, meaning the regular day plus additional private lessons (math, English, music) till midnight. Ouch.
But the education seems all about beating tests. I mean these kids are raging bad-boys of test beating. They are trained in the art from a young age. I’ve heard so many comments on CFA/CPA being not that hard, passed first try, bla bla. True understanding and application of that knowledge is something different. Here’s an example: kids here are experts at beating English tests yet can not hold a basic conversation with a Westerner.
Individualism, creativity, doing something different from the way others do it,absolutely NOT encouraged, particularly in KR. “The nail that sticks up gets hammered down” sort of thing.
Also one interesting statistic, IQs are higher in Asia. Korea charts #2 behind Hong Kong. Yeah I know not everyone agrees with these tests, but you do sorta feel it in the air, the average person is fairly sharp.
WEST: There are a lot of knuckleheads in the USA, I mean c’mon, we all know it!! Especially in certain geographic areas. High school is a joke, meh maybe 8hrs a day but I skipped most of my classes. Too easy. A 4-yr degree is not much harder.
*But* the big thing is individuality and creativity are encouraged. You probably don’t realize how much until you see parts of Asia which are basically “robot-land”. That’s a real big deal because nothing happens without an original idea. Thus in the West you see people doing well in areas like invention, film making, music/record production, writing, fashion, ideas for new types of businesses.
Actually even the average knucklehead in the US is taught that they can become someone special if they really believe (see GW Bush)…and so people have a rather gutsy can-do attitude. In Korea will people tell you “look why do you make a big ruckus, just conform and play the role you have been given dammit!”.
Anyhow two very different ways of going about things.