Education & Work Chinese tiger mums

Its a real thing... Chinese colleague sends her 6.5 year old son to 3 hours to tutoring classes on the weekend. (1.5 maths and 1.5 h English). Plus he's learning piano. Apparently he finds the maths easy but not interested in the English part of the lesson.

Ditto another Chinese mum, not sure how many hours but sending her boy to early primary school tutoring classes. His English comprehension is relatively poor.

And another, HK residents, came to Sydney for 3 weeks of their summer school holidays and stayed at my Sydney Airbnb so her 14 year old daughter and her friend could yep... go to 3 weeks of intensive English classes. They actually gave the girls the proper bedroom and the parents slept on the fold out sofa!

Its a cultural thing i'm sure...

 

In Singapore, nursery classes begin as early as 18 months for babies. Parents are advised to sign their children up even before they are born. For some popular schools, there is even a waiting list.

I once gave tuition to a 6 year old and the kid had to form a sentence with the word 'weekend' as part of a worksheet that we were working on. She formed the following sentence nonchalantly - "On weekends, I go to school". I was taken aback and asked if she knew the meaning of "weekends". She nodded innocently and said "Saturdays and Sundays?"

People are just insane these days.

 

I lived in Asia for a long time. I met a lot of teachers at international schools who couldn't believe their luck. The kids studied hard, didn't ask too many questions and did all the work.

Out in the workforce, I also noted a severe lack of creativity. My colleagues would work hard, didn't ask too many questions and did all the work. But they froze the moment they needed to innovate on their own...

I dunno, there are exceptions to everything, but I think there is a lot to be said for being naughty, telling the teachers that they're wrong and not listening to your parents (within reason). If you do what everyone else is doing, how on earth can you come up with something new?

There's a happy medium out there sonewherm, I'm sure....

 

Biggest issue I faced while communicating with my peers is the dire lack of creativity and desire to think out of the box. You are expected to conform to many ideas and if you are not doing so you are suddenly an extremist.

 

Is the TV show Fresh Off the Boat more like a documentary then?

 

And this is tiger mum??

How long is school for 6.5 years old here?

Starting year 1, I woke up at 5:30 am, finish school around 12, English lesson 3 times a week for 1 hour each, and Private tutoring for 1 hour every weekday.

By year 6-9, school finish at 3-4pm ish, English lesson 2 times a week 1.5 hour each, private tutoring 1-2 hours everyday, and during exam plus entire day on Saturday. This is for almost every kids I know.

 

@EN710, too much! I know the kids in Taiwan do heaps of study too, its ridiculous! I would have felt chronically deprived of sleep if I went through that system. When they all get to uni they all just relax!!!

Anyway, a uni tutorial I has for postgrad studies, the Western born students would all interact and share ideas and their thoughts (It was a critical thinking class, that's what we were supposed to do!). The Chinese half of the class would all just be very quiet throughout semester...

 

Sending Chinese kids to tutoring is very normal thing in Asia. What you are describing is pretty standard. Nothing new really.

I would partially blame it to the NSW School system though with people tutoring themselves to death to get their kids to Opportunity Classes, as well as selective high schools.

Once they are at selective high schools then they tutor even more to ensure excellent HSC results. They normally learn things at least 1 grade above what the normal school teaches.

Why do you think a lot of people move into Epping area? Apart from closeness to Eastwood, they move there because of Epping Boys and Cheltenham Girls are also around. Some move to Epping because their parents believes that their kids WILL go to James Ruse even though they probably not yet finish year 1.

My friend's kids go to Eastwood Public. It is rated very highly. However once they are in, they realised that it is all because everybody tutors. Likewise, my other friend's kids go to Beecroft Public (with Opportunity Classses), also very highly rated. They share the same view after a while.

My kid is 3 year old and my wife are already talking about strategies to get our kid to OCs as well as selectives. I am much more relaxed about this.

It is a lot less prominent in South Australia, as there are no selective high school system. It means there is no competition for elite schools. The parents just move their kids to say Glenunga International /Marryatville /Adelaide /Norwood-Moraialta/Brighton/etc school zones.

I am not sure how this goes in other states.

I love Fresh off the Boat. Whatever they have, it is a pretty accurate reflection of how Chinese thinks .... It is also rated very highly as well.

Jessica Huang (ie Constance Wu) is the star of the show!

I've watched all the episodes on ABC USA TV website (I set my location to USA in Getflix):

Fresh Off the Boat Episode Guide | Season 2 Full Episode List

 

Nay, I sleep at 10pm (or parents will start telling me to sleep every 5 mins) wake up at 5:30am. It's not actually that bad. I sleep a lot less nowadays. We have maids, so breakfast, lunch, dinner, cleaning all sorted.

I'd be in the quiet group unless I find people I am comfortable talking to. More like an introvert thing...

What the heck is Opportunity Classes?

 

After school English classes are common here in Spain also for small kids, I know several that go from ages 3 or 4 (I teach mine English myself). Preschool also often starts early, my kids started at 6 months. Its very good for them socially, they like it, do lots of different activities. My 5 year old gets homework though which I thought should start later, its not a lot though.

 

Based on my education I would recommend it. My parents couldn't afford a lot of tutoring so I graduated from high school essentially innumerate. I consider it a disability.

 

My family and I must be the exception then.
Tuition is never in our sight. My kids are the happiest.

 

It's unfortunate that you consider it a disability, but parents not being able to afford tutoring shouldn't be the reason. Doesn't cost anything to do homework with your kids.
Mumsie would take me to the school library to take books out before I had started school - thanks Mumsie!

 

Not sure you took my post the right way. I consider being essentially innumerate a disability. If I had competent teachers at high school, I should have excelled at maths. I didn't. My parents tried to help with my maths homework but it was beyond their ability. They did try to drill me with times tables but it never sunk in. It's embarassing at work to ask my colleagues what is something times something. It's even more embarassing that my colleagues don't know the answer either

 

We live in an area with a large Asian population. Their kids usually start Chinese school at age 3, and music lessons around the same time.
Marg

 

@Perthguy were your Math teacher likeable? Mine was and very good at teaching as well. As student I found that likeability of a teacher (and their teaching ability of course) improve my learning. It's hard to listen to from someone I disliked (when I was a student, I'm better now).

There are calculators nowadays. It's not embarrassing.

 

Opportunity Class Placement

 

It might be a bit of bad luck also but it went like this. When I started year 8, my teacher was very likeable and a fantastic teacher. He made it very easy to understand the concepts and I was averaging high 90's for all tests and assignments. The other teachers resented his popularity and had him kicked out of my school. He was replaced half way through the year by a real droob, who I did not like and did not understand. By the end of year 8 I almost failed maths for the year. Because of my poor marks I was put in the lowest grade of maths for year 9 and 10 and didn't qualify for regular maths for year 11 and 12. I tried post high school to pick up maths again at some adult classes but never really got far. I think it might be something you have to learn earlier in life.

 

Doesn't tell me what Opportunity Classes gives though :-/ Do they have shorter education? Better education? Special programs?

 

My friend taught in Hong Kong and found teaching there a delight because the students wanted to learn.

One of my children studied in Japan for more than a year. I was amazed at some of her stories. Noone could be different, otherwise you were a pariah. You were expected to conform and never have an independent thought. The group is more important than the individual in Japan.

Same daughter at high school here had a friendship group which consisted of Asian and Indian girls. All the parents took education seriously, as did their children. But one did end up with anorexia, I believe from the pressure of having to do well.

Another child had a best friend whose parents were from Bangladesh. Really decent, hardworking, lovely people. When the daughter played up, the mother took her to Bangladesh and told her that if she wouldn't take her education seriously, there was no point in the family staying in Australia as the parents had emigrated to give their children a better live; that they may as well be in Bangladesh with family, friends, support group and culture.