In 2012, some of the award-winning contestants from our province at the global finals of the World Olympiad. Photo by reporter He Xiaogang.
Report by reporter Zhou Rui: At the 2012 World Mathematics Olympiad held in Canterbury, UK, Chinese contestants won 10 of the 16 global gold medals. The 10 contestants from Hubei Province won 3 golds, 3 silvers, and 4 bronzes. In response to this, British media wrote articles expressing admiration: Chinese people have a talent for math Olympiads. However, Guo Hongbing, the head coach of the Chinese Math Olympiad team, spoke more about the shortcomings of the Chinese contestants during a press conference in Wuhan yesterday. He particularly mentioned the gift exchange between contestants from different countries.
It was introduced that when Chinese and foreign students exchanged gifts, foreign children presented carefully prepared water bottles and pens, while Chinese children had not prepared anything and had to give out Renminbi (RMB) to the foreign children as gifts. Regarding this, the reporter verified with several contestants from Wuhan, who confirmed that they also "submitted" their answers by giving out "RMB".
At this World Math Olympiad, the Chinese contestants' results were top-notch, but the elementary school students who were contestants themselves found many shortcomings. Fu Baiyu, a fifth-grade student from Class 4 of Poyang Street Primary School, won a silver medal in this competition. During the modeling phase, he clearly felt the gap between himself and the foreign children.
"We were in groups of five, with no one planning or arranging tasks. The group leader did his own thing, and two classmates didn't know what to do, so I partnered with another classmate. The result wasn't ideal! On the other hand, foreign children had division of labor and cooperation, which went very well!"
"We were even worse! During the competition, our team members started arguing!" Wang Hongsheng, a sixth-grade student from Class 5 of Qianjia Street Primary School, although winning a gold medal in this competition, made a deep impression on the importance of teamwork.
"Chinese children are top-notch at solving problems, but in terms of teamwork and etiquette, there is still a gap compared to foreign teams." Guo Hongbing said that during meals in public places, Chinese children tended to be lively, always discussing noisily, sometimes needing to be called several times to quiet down. In contrast, foreign contestants ate quietly, careful not to disturb others.
Shared to: Comments welcome. I want to comment. Weibo recommendation | Today's Weibo hot topics (Editor: SN026).