> It reminds me of a story told by my boss when I was an apprentice. New Ze=
aland
> used to (I don't know if they still do) allow students from SE Asia to go=
 to NZ
> universities for free as part of NZs Overseas Aid schemes. My boss said t=
hat many of
> the ones that came through the Engineering School when he was there did n=
ot have any
> clues at all about engineering required. He put it down to not playing wi=
th
> constructor sets like Meccano when a child.
> >
>=20
> What on earth did they do at School?

This was at the time of the Vietnam War - although I believe most of the st=
udents came from Singapore and Malaysia, and many of the areas that the stu=
dents came from I suspect were village schools, then maybe off to boarding =
school for secondary level. I don't know that the educational standards the=
y achieved were that terribly high, but their governments saw potential in =
them, so were prepared to put them forward for university. Just how much pr=
actical stuff they did at any stage was an open question, but it is the pra=
ctical playing with constructor sets, these days stuff like Lego, to get th=
e feel for basic principles of what is needed. These guys never had anythin=
g to do this sort of play engineering with.

That same boss of mine had a related story, he used to work in a gas statio=
n while a student, manning the pumps and taking the payments. One day some =
Asian students came in to fill up their 50cc step-through machines. He take=
s out the bottle of 2-stroke oil, putting an appropriate dose in each tank =
as the gas went in, until one student got all excited and didn't want it. T=
heir English language abilities were limited, and despite all the best effo=
rts of my boss, this particular guy didn't want any oil in his petrol, with=
 him getting more vocal in his 'No' each time. Eventually the other student=
s caught on to what the commotion was about, and after a discussion in thei=
r own language he gladly wanted oil in with his petrol. Again the engineeri=
ng concept of why he needed oil in his petrol for a 2-stroke engine just wa=
sn't there.
--=20
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--=20
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