I Love Hong Kong

@Mugin16 interesting. You read the book?

@Mugin16 I had never heard of that book, and it seems to be quite popular.

@Cierzo no need to read it. You have seen the roar of the Tiger Mom.“ 起来，起来“ plus yelling when the kid drags his feet to his books. Real life enactment. 😂

@novembermoon No, I have not. I have read reviews about it and another books by Amu Chua. She is Chinese, a Harvard Professor (or was it Yale?), her husband is a professor too. She drilled her daughters, one of them became a concert pianist.

@novembermoon I have watched the movie instead. And in real life 😂

@Mugin16 I just read that after the book was published, Wall Street Journal issued a poll among readers, and two thirds were in favour of Eastern style, against the too soft Western education.

I agree with the Eastern focus in discipline (and deplore the bad reputation the word has in the west now); however I think education and life general in East Asian countries is too competitives.

In my opinion, these two problems must be addressed separately. Discipline is very important too in environments where relationships are cooperative rather than competitive.

@Cierzo you know, the reason we love the western professors in our universities is precisely because they are always more encouraging than Asian ones. They talk and interact more in class and do not put you down when you think you have given a silly answer. I grew up with very little praise both from parents and teachers and often feel them distant. But when I did my training to be a teacher, it was the encouragement by a western prof that spurred me on to take English and do well in it as a teaching subject. I really appreciate the western method of 'teaching the student to see the broad direction but not dictating what she should see'. And the fact that the prof believed that we were capable of thinking and writing independently our thoughts on things mattered a great deal to me. Those were not things in the Asian way, at least not in the years that I went through my schooling.

@novembermoon At the university I studied the Japanese students did never engage in discussion during the tutorials unless the professor asked them directly.

@novembermoon I think both a good parent and teacher must combine both encouragement and scolding. Acknowledging that getting positive results comes often from trial and error, encouraging them not to surrender, and praising thrm for their progress, but also scolding when apathetic, whining or defeatist attitudes turn up.

@Mugin16 that's very common. Asians are usually more reticent. Sadly, that is sometimes mistaken to be passivity. In a group, I tend to feel more comfortable fading into the background too.