Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Imports

So, thanks to angryasianman.com, I read this article about grad students accusing Yale of discriminating against Chinese students on the basis of their English speaking. It's always been something that I disliked about the American academy which judges scholars on the basis of their English rather than their research. At the same time, I can sympathize if students who are paying good money to go to Yale can't understand their TA. I also wonder about worldwide scholarship in a world where American universities are the richest and most prestigious and they put such an emphasis on English speaking.


On a similar topic, I've been interested in the topic of outsourcing and perhaps one day I'll get to research this but until then, I have this blog right? I read this article about tutoring in America being outsourced to India. Outsourcing seems to me a little fucked up, but the ultimate outcome of the HB-1 visa, which allowed American companies to import brown people for a while and then send them back when they would demand more money. Now they don't even have to bring them to the country, they'll talk to people on the phone while still at home.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

yeah, outsourcing seems like that, and it's about making more money and screwing over the states.

but at the same time it creates more jobs and we can get things cheaper and it helps fill the talent gaps in the US. also it lets some countries keep the talent at home and avoid a "brain drain". and in a connected way, it also helps develop that country's work force and it's economy and prime it for future growth.