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[–] 86 points 8 months ago* (9 children)

18+52+37+47+56=210 for China. Each child could pick up to 3 answers. The average number of jobs the Chinese children picked was 2.

For USA/UK the average was about 1. Very few children selected more than one answer.

That's weird. What a weird poll. Were there only 5 possible choices? I would have told you I wanted to be a veterinarian at that age, if I answered at all. (I did not become a vet, I became a failure lmao)

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  • [–] 32 points 8 months ago (9 children)

    I wanted to be an electrical engineer, then I saw all the math and settled for electrician, then I saw all the math and settled for Janitor

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  • [–] 8 points 8 months ago

    I wanted to be a naval pilot engineer at four. I’m colorblind, terrified of heights, not fond of authority, sloppy, and scatterbrained as hell. It’s quite possibly the worst possible job for me. To be fair, part of the reason was that I hated the word “bellybutton” and thought anyone who said ”navel” instead had the right idea, so it’s not like I really understood that part of it.

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  • [–] 5 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    Unfortunate, i know lots of engineers who never learned math.

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  • [–] 3 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    Not an engineer but I took calculus 1, 2, 3, discrete math, linear algebra, statics, dynamics, and probably others I'm forgetting.

    Since school, I needed one trig function for calculating distance between lat/long coordinates that I looked up on Wikipedia and plugged in to a program.

    ... Statics was fucking cool though.

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    [–] 62 points 8 months ago (6 children)

    Born too late to explore the oceans.

    Born too early to explore the stars.

    Born just in time to remind you to hit that like button, share with your friends, and subscribe so you don't miss a thing.

    The West is lost.

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    [–] 23 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    Dont worry, they will all be increasing shareholder value

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  • [–] 21 points 8 months ago

    "DUHH, IT'S BECAUSE SPEECH IN CHINA IS CENSORED AND YOU'LL LITERALLY GET SENT TO A XINJIANG CONCENTRATION CAMP IF YOU TRIED BEING A VLOGGER"

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  • [–] 19 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    You can see a mix of escapism and “how do I fast track as much money as possible?”

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  • [–] 16 points 8 months ago

    They need to run this survey again now that the Chinese space station has an air fryer.

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  • [–] 15 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    The thing I find most surprising is that this many kids want to be teachers. It doesn't sound like something kids would typically be interested in, nor do I remember me nor my friends ever wanting to be teachers.

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  • [–] 16 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    I wonder if kids pick that because its one job that they understand and attribute positively (to some degree - "a teacher is someone that teaches kids like me at a school and we have fun") whereas jobs that their parents have are more nebulous and more negative in their mind ("my parents leave for the day and then come back angry? I don't want to do that").

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  • [–] 8 points 8 months ago

    I know a former teacher in China who told me that it's a very respected profession there, in the same way that doctors and lawyers are respected in the west.

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  • [–] 5 points 8 months ago

    I knew lots of kids who wanted to be teachers. Ask a kid that age to list their favorite people and their teacher will pop up often, because it’s someone they know. Teaching is something tangible to them.

    I also knew several adults who wanted to be a teacher, but quit shortly after starting because they literally couldn’t afford it due to unreasonably low wages. We should really treat good teachers better.

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  • [–] 12 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    I think this may have to do with the fact that China regulates social media with regard to its effect on society, whereas it's the wild west in English-speaking countries. I don't agree with all of their criteria for regulating media, but I feel like there's probably a good middle-ground to be reached. It's well-documented how harmful social media has been to people of all ages.

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  • [–] 3 points 8 months ago

    Unless I misunderstand, in China it's illegal to distribute VPNs, but simply using one and accessing the wider net is fine. That implementation isn't great, but it could also be a lot worse. Effectively it means anyone who's tech savvy enough can leave the walled garden whenever they like with practically no consequence. Though, it still requires some group of people assume the legal risk of setting up and hosting the VPN infrastructure.

    I feel like there must be some means of achieving the same effect without criminalizing people just for providing a service. Like, defaulting to a garden of public and private webpages that meat the standard, but still with some means of leaving that garden provided you pass a minor techincal barrier to entry.

    Also forcing every social media site and glorified-website-app to default to chronological sort every time you close the browser tab or leave the app. It's a simple change, but it would do a lot.

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    [–] 10 points 8 months ago

    China has a space station that makes the ISS looks like a 1950 station wagon.

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  • [–] 10 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    China actually has a viable space program, so being an astronaut actually seems attainable. And do teachers in China actually make a fair living wage?

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  • [–] 8 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 child)

    For teachers, I guess they're the biggest figure for students as they grow up. Confucian culture emphasizes enormous respect, and tbf, conformity to teachers.

    I grew up wanting to be a YouTuber, and now work as a professor somewhere in East Asia with deep Confucian influence. The teacher-student dynamics here is truly shit.

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  • [–] [S] 7 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    For sure, their space program feats and plans are incredibly exciting, and things we might see in our lifetime. There's a hopeful star-trek-esque optimism about space rn.

    I'm not sure about teachers salaries, I'd have to look it up, but I do know teachers are well respected societally.

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  • [–] 5 points 8 months ago

    I felt that when I went to the Chengdu science and technology museum. Everyone was in awesome of the space program and the kids really wanted to get involved.
    Contrast that to the Melbourne or Canberra science museums and space technology isn't really at the front.

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  • [–] 5 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 child)

    Not China but in my country teachers would often get benefits like how US soldiers do.

    So for example some apartments had reduced rent and most private schools would accept your children for free and pay off lunch, clubs, school trip fees, etc.

    So even tho teachers weren't rich they weren't completely on their own either. Maybe a similar thing happens over there?

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  • [–] 8 points 8 months ago

    We’re cooked

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  • [–] 6 points 8 months ago

    I'd love to see this redone today, except i suspect kids in the us and uk all want to be like, _s_hitler

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  • [–] 5 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    Being an astronaut was defo something I idolized as being a kid. Then I got older and realized what it'd take to actually live that life, and the risks involved in rocket travel, and things like muscle dystrophy from being in zero G too long. Not to mention all the schooling and training needed. And it's all for... not much, really. Like, at the end of the day, space travel does not actually help humanity that much. Now, satellites have certainly changed things a shit ton, but like, we're not going to other planets anytime soon. We're not gathering resources from other planets. We're not terraforming. Our "going to outer space" is parking your ass in a station in orbit and living with reduced QoL while you run experiments in zero-G. Just like, nah, fuck all that noise.

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  • [–] 5 points 8 months ago

    Lot of aspiring young rappers in China it seems

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  • [–] 4 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    I mean, if given the chance would you rather have a job where you can chat about your hobbies and get people to send you money and gifts related to your hobby?

    No child is picking "Soul crushing office work" are they.

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    [–] 4 points 8 months ago

    Pre-COVID. I wonder what it's like now. Anecdotes from people who work in education seem to say it was pretty devastating for child development, but it's hard to tell if it's above and beyond the perennial "this new generation is totally fucked" sentiment.

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  • [–] 4 points 8 months ago

    It's funny when you just read the numbers and it's like the top pick for a US child is to be 29

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  • [–] 3 points 8 months ago

    On the upside, maybe western youngsters value having a personal life they enjoy more.

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  • [–] 3 points 8 months ago

    I wanted to be free. Maybe next life.

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  • [–] 3 points 8 months ago

    I wanted to be an inventory that makes crazy gadgets or as wealthy as Scrooge McDuck.

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