TECH

Chinese student bought robot to help with homework

The story of a young Chinese student has resulted in a heated debate in the Chinese social network Weibo. The New York Times reported that the young woman bought a robot to help her do her homework, such as copying various characters, phrases and excerpts of texts to learn Chinese.
She will have used the money she received as a gift during the Lunar Year festivities to buy the robot, which will cost the equivalent of 105 euros. The robot was discovered by the young woman's mother while she cleaned the room, breaking it in a way to prevent her daughter from using it again in the future.
According to comments made to the South China Morning Post, the mother doubted that her daughter was doing the work properly once these were completed in just two days. Given that the young woman was participating in the festivities and traveling, the mother assumed that the daughter would not have much time to complete the homework.
However, the case rekindled a debate about learning Chinese, which is seen as a tedious process for requiring knowledge of thousands of different characters. The debate is going further and involves the use of technology (especially of these robots) in the learning methods. Miguel Dias