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E-examiner S-student 
(0:00 – 2:48)
E: Thank you. So, we’ve been talking about an intelligent person and I’d like to discuss with you one or two more questions related to this. Let’s begin with, first of all, smart people. So, are smart people happier than others?
S: Well, that would depend on so many factors. First of all, and again, like what I said previously, intelligence is hard to define. And second of all here, happiness is also a very subjective thing. But I suppose there, there’s this phrase tha, that goes {lip smacking noise}: ignorance is bliss. So, I mean if you look at that phrase… and think that would also mean that the more you know, let’s say, the world {lip smacking noise} politics, philosophy just or even nowadays we always talk about fake news but then if we know too much about news, if you look at news all the time, you might not necessarily be happy because you just know too much because the world is… {lip smacking noise} can, it can, it can be a very {laughter} place. I mean people are
dying all the time. There are conflicts. {lip smacking noise} {lip smacking noise} There are all sorts of health problems. {lip smacking noise} The, the economy is always bad and, and as you know news always focuses on bad news because that’s how they kind of get people’s attention. So, yeah I would argue that no, intelligent people are not always happy, especially if they know too much or if they think too much. That’s the thing, yeah you, you, you… There’s also the, the problem with overthinking. Intelligent people are capable of thinking because they are critical. They
are always able to sort of read between the lines. They over-analyse things. And as
with most things in the world {lip smacking noise}, with the exception of perhaps science, there are no right answers. I mean if you look at all these isms, all these
philosophies, all these politics, let’s say capitalism, communism, the, the, there’s no perfect system, no perfect answers. And in a sense that could be hugely depressing to a person so I would say yeah the more intellige, inte, intelligent you are the more you are likely to be unhappy because you just know too much, you think too much. Yep.
(2:53 – 5:03)
E: So, in your opinion, are smart people sometimes quite selfish?
S: In my opinion, I think they have no correlation because I’ve seen so many people who are unintelligent being absolutely selfish. There’s… first of all, there’s no
correlation but however, I suppose intelligent people who are also selfish h, can sort of utilize their skills, the knowledge, the intelligence to {lip smacking noise} … for their kind of selfish gains. I suppose. I mean if you look at ts, our sort of for the sake of simplicity let’s just look at jobs in a hierarchal way, only high intelligent people
are able to become doctors, lawyers and even bankers, policymakers. And you can see
that our world is not exactly an equal place with lots of inequalities, inequity
pervading sort of {lip smacking noise} evy, every f, fabric of our society so I suppose if intelligent people weren’t selfish then you know our world wouldn’t be as unequal as it is today, causing you know, well, you know, protests going on all over the world, I mean, with wars that are imminent if you look at the Ukraine-and-Russia situation. I mean it’s, it’s all to me kind of {lip smacking noise} it, it, it all goes back down to
self-interest, whether it be on the national level or the personal level. Yeah so, all in all, yeah, I would say intelligent people can be quite selfish. Hence, we have the world today.
(5:03 – 7:44)
E: OK. Thank you. Why do you think some children are more intelligent than others?
S: Well, first of all, there is definitely sort of genes at play ‘coz I myself am a, a big
dog lover ‘coz my dogs are sort of barking right now. You know, hopefully you don’t really hear it. But what I notice is that genes do play a huge factor so I suppose if you’re… for, for humans, let’s, let’s go back to humans. If your parents or grandparents are – you know – intelligent, {lip smacking noise} have a high IQ which I know is a sort of a con, controversial measurement of intelligence but for the sake of simplicity let’s just accept IQ for what it is, yeah so if kind of parents and grandparents are smart then the likelihood of their offsprings being intelligent is higher but I wouldn’t say it’s absolute. And then there’s also the sort of {lip smacking noise} the social factors that are in play. Yeah, in addition to genes and hereditary factors, so as you know well-off families just simply have so much more resources to kind of teach to, to invest in their children for education so they simply just learn more stuff at a young age. They kind of thought these… well actually, like I said in part one, right? They have, I mean tutorials are not cheap. I mean these language teacher, teachers, especially native English-speaking teachers, native Mandarin speaking teachers, they are not cheap. And also there are extracurricular activities.
And these are all activities that, that sort of stimulate children at a young age and the more you get them to kind of cognitively use their brain, the higher the likelihood that they will be intelligent people in when they become an adult, when they reach the teenagerhood and whatnot. So, yeah I would say to…these are the reasons why some
children are smarter than other children.
(7:48 – 10:00)
E: Do you think that by being intelligent it’s easier to be successful?
S: Oh, well I’m, I’m sure all of us can come up with examples of intelligent people being successful. You know, I think I’ve spent enough time sort of navigating the definition of what intelligence is. Now we are talking about what it means to be successful, which again is a very subjective term. However, if you assume that society is meritocratic, then… you know that means {lip smacking noise} you’re sort of
rewarded with jobs and positions according to your merit. So yes, in such society, such idealistic society then yes intelligent people are more likely to be successful. However, a big however, what I’m kind of, what I’m observing in workplaces or sort of even just from the anecdotes that people tell me that sort of {lip smacking noise} relationships, and I don’t mean romantic relationships, but relationships in the workplace with your colleagues, with your seniors might play a massive factor as to how, how high, how quickly someone is promoted. Yeah, there is a Chinese saying which I’m not sure if it can be tra… perfectly translated into English. It’s that… it’s better to, it’s better to kind of walk more miles, to gain more hands-on experience than… than read more books and know more words – something like that. So that’s kind of the third thing I want to talk about: experiences might be more important than how intelligent the person is. But all in all, you know, if again you assume that, you know, we live in a perfectly meritocratic society then yes the more intelligent someone is the more likely they are to be successful.
Slice 2 (0:08 – 2:04)
E: Who plays the biggest role in a child’s development? The teacher or the parent?
S: Oh wow, this is ts… probably the best pe… question to ask someone who’s about to become a teacher. Hmm who plays the biggest role? I would argue parents. ‘Coz if you look at it quant, quantitatively, it is the parents who spend the most time with the children, not teachers. And as you know children learn by imitation so… yeah. The pa, parents just spend the most time with their children so they, it understandably are the biggest factor that influence a chil, a child’s development. However, with that being said, as you know, there’s no denying that Hong Kong is full of domestic maids. Lots, lots of middle-class families are able to afford them, even sort of well-off
working-class families are able to as well. And hence, children nowad… in Hong Kong, in the context of Hong Kong, children s, spend more and more time with their domestic mai than parents so I suppose to some families, {lip smacking noise} their helpers sort of play an important role in a child’s development as well. But I would
say, in short, parents still, relatively speaking, play the biggest factor. Yeah.
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