Posted on 05/17/2022 11:13:56 AM PDT by nickcarraway
A Chinese university’s move to shift a swimming test online sparks a wave of mockery on social media. South China Morning Post
Shanghai University has become the subject of mockery after it moved a practical swimming examination "online".
The dean's office at Shanghai University announced on May 15 that undergraduates finishing their bachelor's degrees due to take a 50-metre swimming test could participate online from home.
In China, students at some of the most prestigious universities must learn to swim before they graduate because swimming is considered a survival skill and improves physical fitness.
According to the university website, the special arrangement for the final swim test was in response to the ongoing wave of Covid-19 in Shanghai.
To finish the online swimming test students had to log in to the campus network and answer an online questionnaire.
"The classes and facilities including the swimming pool at the university are suspended under the ongoing Covid-19 lockdown. To ensure the students can graduate, we decided to conduct the swimming test online," an unnamed staff member from the dean's office told the Chinese news outlet Jimu.
The university's initiative has attracted widespread criticism and triggered a wave of mockery in China. At the time of writing, 65,000 users on Weibo had interacted with the post.
One person asked: "Is it a reality version of surfing the internet?"
Another also asked: "Could it be swimming in the bathtub at home?"
"Hahaha, go let the swimming sport completely and detach from the water. What a brilliant idea!" another said.
Many online even imitated the students who were due to participate in the online test. One TikTok user, who equipped himself with swimming goggles and a cap, filmed himself jumping from his nightstand onto his bed. Then he started stretching himself and practising swimming moves on his bed.
China's financial hub Shanghai, with 25 million people has been under a massive lockdown since April 1. On Monday (May 16) the city reported 69 new Covid-19 infections and 869 asymptomatic cases.
Reminds me of that Green Acres episode where Eb took a mail order barber course. They sent him an instructional record and some wigs and he would send the wigs back to get graded on it..
yeah, same here, in 8th grade. It was a big shock (and source of much joking) among the 12 year-old boys, to separate the errr, ummm "men," from those who were still boys...
I not so sure about swimming but showing online surfing abilty sounds quite plausible.
Swim a lap? That’s nothing. Drownproofing required that AFTER swimming laps (I don’t remember how many), we had tread water or float for 10 minutes, and then had with our hands tied behind our back, and our legs crossed at the ankles and tied. Basically for 30 minutes they tried to drown you, and if you didn’t have to be rescued, you got an A. I was in the section with the swim team, and I was one of two who weren’t on it, but good enough to be on it. So after 28 minutes I couldn’t stay above the water long enough, so they pulled me out and I got a B+.
I found out later that all the other girls who were in the second or third tier group never had to do the stunts that I did, and still got As. I was pretty upset, because it lowered my grade point average, but they were never impacted. In fact, for some of them, it probably raised their GPA.
The drownproofing sounds like a pain, but at least it made sense.
Swimming the lap just seemed like a silly annoyance—for those of us who could swim.
Very true.
It is an official document of Military actions (US) and deeds which John Kerry in particular promised to publicly release back in 2004 when he was running for President.
He never released it, to this day.
Releasing his SF 180 would have destroyed his campaign.
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