so are you like the chinese americans or japanese?

Chinese high school students have the longest study hours compared with their peers in Japan, South Korea and the United States, a survey conducted by the four countries has shown.
According to the survey, released by the China Youth and Children Research Centre on Monday, 78.3 per cent of Chinese students spend more than eight hours at school, while 56.7 per cent put in another two hours or more at home every day.

In contrast, only 24.7 per cent of students in the US, 20.5 per cent in Japan and 15.4 per cent in South Korea study for two hours or more after school.

While most Chinese students spend their rest days studying, resting or surfing the Internet, the Americans go out and have fun with friends, the Japanese exercise while the Koreans watch television.

Not surprisingly, most of the high school students in all four countries entertained thoughts of dropping out of school, said the survey, which was carried out in September and October last year and covered more than 4,000 students.

It also warned of the possible fallout from pressure to do well at school.

'Moderate study pressure can better drive students to develop; however, too much will squeeze their development space, and can even cause harm to their physical and psychological health,' the survey observed. 'Balancing their studies and all-round development is a very important task.'

Indeed, across the board, about 60 per cent of students said studies formed their heaviest burden in life. Japanese students appeared to feel the burden most, with 79.2 per cent ranking studies as their biggest headache.

The other sources of grief for young people in the four countries were a monotonous leisure life, unsatisfactory appearance, little time for exercise and making friends as well as no spare money.