To be honest, I do not really feel there is much difference between Shanghai and Singapore in term of appearance, both are big, and fast paced city. The main difference to me is in people’s mindset.
Back in my first year of university, I asked my parents a question, “should I go to do a part time job?” I think most of my friends here will be stunned when they hear this question. And the fact is when I asked this question during junior college years, all of my family member were against it and my grandmother even spend a few hours talk to me and educated me that getting a good result was the more important thing for me.
In china, especially in cities, people do not want their kids expose to society too early. This is maybe also because there is only one child in a family in china, there is less burden and children a kind of “spoiled”. When I come to Singapore, I saw most of employee in MacDonald are secondary school kids, this is impressed me, this is hardly seen in big city of china.
To comment whether china children are “over-protected” is good? I may say it is both good and bad. For me personally, this kind of protection give me a happy childhood, without worry too much things. And to compare to my peers, I seems to be a bit less experienced.
Hi Chen Yan,
ReplyDeleteI think the part about 'over-protecting' china children may also be due to the one-child family policy implemented by the Chinese government? When there is only one children in the family, parents will tend to be more protective over their child. This case is very true for me:)
As I am the only child, I feel that sometimes my parents can be rather protective of me. For instance, they also did not let me work during the school holidays when I was in secondary or JC, preferring me to devote my time to studying or travelling overseas with them. My friends and I used to have a private joke amongst us in seondary school. During that time, we were learning about Singapore history, hence my friends that have more freedom have gained 'independence', while friends with some restrictions gained 'full self-governance' while I only attained 'partial self-governance'. I guess this description was rather apt for me at that time.
Hello chen yan!:)
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your personal experience with us. I believe every parent is protective of their own child. I guess most of the parents would not want their child to go out to the society to work if they could afford/support the household, especially in the case of China where one child policy is practiced. The parent will tend to worry, protect, restrict and concern more for the one child. :)
In my opinion I feel that parents having only one child often tend to be rather protective of their child and this trend spreads across culture as the parent's love and concern for their child is the same. However, in the western countries, perhaps the parents have a more open mind and would tend to give their children more independence and freedom.
Hi Chen Yan,
ReplyDeleteWoo, I just know you are a girl from Shanghai, China and I supposed you are Singaporean before that. Nice to meet you. Actually, my hometown is Tianjin, but my mom works in Shanghai from last year. Indeed, Shanghai is very similar to Singapore about both culture and economics.
Also, I agree with you about the issue on "over-protection" phenomenon in China. Meanwhile, during the peer reviewing session of application letter and resume in the previous class, I felt that I am lack of sufficient working experience on my resume and I am definitely a loser on the "competition" of working experience. Somehow, I felt shy when someone asked me about my working experience. However, studying hard has deep-rooted in my mind and I cannot switch my focus from study to part-time job, even CCA.
Anyway, now, I am learning to do multi-task well and I think this is the essential skill when I start to work in a company, otherwise I cannot survive in this fast paced city.
Hi Chen Yan,
ReplyDeleteI think I shares the experience of being overly-protected as well, as my family in Vietnam also care very much (sometimes too much for my and my sister).
But I think what's more important is knowing that fact and don't rely on it too much. Which I think you are doing well by doing tuition (remembered u mentioned it at some point while we are doing 1102 project) and doing various CCA now.
I think it's our desire for change that would make the best out of the situation.
Mark
Hi Chen Yan
ReplyDeleteAgree with you that in China people do tend not to let their children get exposure to the society too early and for them, that's kind of protections. Of course,for younger generations like you and me, the situation has turned gradually.
There lies a huge difference between Singapore and cities in China. Those teens in Singapore generally don't receive a competetive environment as in China and the culture of Singapore is more commercial.
In addition, doing part-time job is just one of the various approaches for us to get the taste of the real society. Events like participating volunteer activities may also be helpful.
Your family members' strong opinion on the importance of exam results over work experience is definitely the result of the intense competition for university vacancies in China. While your family will be worried about your safety and you being influenced by your work experience, I think their main concern is that you will perhaps "forget" what you have studied. I think it was great that you took the initiative in wanting a work experience. Perhaps in the future, when China has slimmed down, the situation will be improved for the future generations :). I feel that work experience should be as important as academic experience.
ReplyDelete