Some days ago, someone made an observation about kid from the West and the East:
"Kids of the West tend to be more confident and talkative cos their parents will let them say anything. For instance if the kid says the elephant is pink, the parents will agree. But if an Asian kid said the same thing as the Western kid, the parent will scold the kid, "Are you stupid? the elephant is GREY!" That's why Asian kids don't talk as much and have low self-esteem."
After pondering awhile (As I was taking a break from writing a research paper), I have to say that that observation was rather incorrect.
I think that the reason why Asian kids tend to talk less and seem to have lower self-esteem, is because if the Asian kid had stated that "an elephant is pink", the typical Asian parent will hiss at the kid to "shut up you idiot", then proceed to apologize for the kids to no one in particular for the kid's perceived 'stupidity'. The typical Asian parent will then usually continue the show by chastising the kid on his/her outburst of "stupidity" and leave the scene where the "pink elephant" happened.
To top it off, the typical Asian parent will leave the poor kid to find out on his/her own why the parent said that elephants are not pink, only to find out that elephants are actually grey. If the kid is a first-time 'offender', he/she will, in all probability, bound up excitedly about the now-known fact, and happily shows the fact that elephants are grey to the parent.
However, instead of "smart kid" the kid might've anticipated, the typical Asian parent (probably busy, as many typical Asians parents are usually) shooes the kid away saying, "Don't trouble me with this kind of trivialities."
Hence, the typical Asian kid grows up learning mostly to shut up, for fear of saying stupid things (and insure self against verbal abuse and belittlement by own parent/teacher/friends). Thus the seemingly less talkative and low self-esteem (which also tends to be very true) Asian kid is born.
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