Local and Foreign Youngsters
While waiting for my lunch in a self service restaurant yesterday, I saw a teenage girl whisper into her mother’s ear when asked what she would like to eat. The odd behavior of the teenager reminded me of the matured behavior of two Japanese teenage boys I met at a friend’s house.
The two boys were in Singapore under the school cultural exchanges program. Though they couldn’t speak a word of English, they were not deterred from interacting with others. With a combination of sign language, Chinese characters (han ji), postcards and picture-composite made specially for the trip, they were able to tell me and my friend’s family about their country and school life. According to my friend, the two teenagers would voluntarily communicate with everyone in his household including visitors, the maid and even his illiterate 80-year-old granny!
The two Japanese teenagers were also conscious of their usage of water and electricity and disposal of garbage. They also made bed every morning during their 3-day stay in my friend’s place and made it a point to leave their shoes pointing outward every time after they got in the house.
Actually I was told of the differences between local and foreign kids by a cabby sometime ago. He said that if you tried to make conversation with our local kids you wouldn’t be able to get very far. The youngsters would either give you monosyllabic answers or shrug their shoulders or simply retreat to their homes. The foreign kids, from PRC to ang moh, would be able to converse with you eloquently, and some of them were as young as four years old!
Initially I didn’t believe the cabby but after meeting the two Japanese teenagers, I think I believe him now.
Maybe it is time for us to reflect on the way we bring up our kids.
The two boys were in Singapore under the school cultural exchanges program. Though they couldn’t speak a word of English, they were not deterred from interacting with others. With a combination of sign language, Chinese characters (han ji), postcards and picture-composite made specially for the trip, they were able to tell me and my friend’s family about their country and school life. According to my friend, the two teenagers would voluntarily communicate with everyone in his household including visitors, the maid and even his illiterate 80-year-old granny!
The two Japanese teenagers were also conscious of their usage of water and electricity and disposal of garbage. They also made bed every morning during their 3-day stay in my friend’s place and made it a point to leave their shoes pointing outward every time after they got in the house.
Actually I was told of the differences between local and foreign kids by a cabby sometime ago. He said that if you tried to make conversation with our local kids you wouldn’t be able to get very far. The youngsters would either give you monosyllabic answers or shrug their shoulders or simply retreat to their homes. The foreign kids, from PRC to ang moh, would be able to converse with you eloquently, and some of them were as young as four years old!
Initially I didn’t believe the cabby but after meeting the two Japanese teenagers, I think I believe him now.
Maybe it is time for us to reflect on the way we bring up our kids.
posted by locky2ky at 4:14 PM
4 Comments:
please don't use the term 'ang moh' it's racist and derogatory
please don't use the term 'ang moh' it's racist and derogatory
Who gives a shit?
I don't get upset when I am called 鬼佬 , not even when they it is used in a majority caucasian country like Australia.
What does it mean anyway?
Actually I was told of the differences between local and foreign kids by a cabby sometime ago. He said that if you tried to make conversation with our local kids you wouldn’t be able to get very far. The youngsters would either give you monosyllabic answers or shrug their shoulders or simply retreat to their homes. The foreign kids, from PRC to ang moh, would be able to converse with you eloquently, and some of them were as young as four years old!
You know, cab drives are such keen observers of humanity that they can tell the difference bewteen kids they have seen and kids they haven't seen.
For god's sake. This is a case of observation bias.
The foreign kids the cabbie and you have seen are a small subset of the kids from any foreign country, and they tend to be the best endowed (in many respects, including genetic).
If they have the intestinal fortitude to be able to travel to a foreign country and deal with people they are going to have high degrees of openness and curiosity and are unlikely to be representative of all kids in their countries!
Get a grip!
When I was studying in Australia, it was us ASEAN students who were chatting with the cabbies. The Aussie kids were the silent ones. Reason? The cabbies found us a novel bunch, and curious about our lifestyle and habits. There's nothing to learn talking with the Aussie kids, the cabbies were young once.
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