(I received the following as extra credit writing from a student of mine who came to the US from China about three years ago. He chose to write on this topic. This fifteen-year-old kid struggles daily to learn English, but has been placed in all mainstream classes this year. He almost never speaks, has no friends in class, and is an incredibly talented artist. This is about as close to “fuck you” as he could possibly say to his own parents. I have transcribed the piece as written, errors and all.)
Asian Parents and American Parents
There many kind of parents in this world, kind parents, horrible parents, lovely parents, or parents that does not deserve to be your parents. Most American parents are kind and lovely, but Chinese parents or Asian parents would never be kind to their child. They are willing to do anything to do you to make you study and get good grades, and if you fail their goal, a large amount of pressure will be added on you.
For example, the night before a test, your Asian parents made you study really hard. After the test, if you had a good grade these Asian parents will be like “Oh, my dear child, see how us helped you on your test so you can get such a good grade?” That will only happen if you had a good grade. If you had a bad grade, it will be hard for you to imagine what is gonna happen. They can scream at you like you are just someone that they brought home from the street, or they will extremely rude stuff to you and make you have a lot of pressure so the next text you have you wouldn’t want to get a bad grade on it. These parents wouldn’t let you watch television on week days and use the computer. You only thing can do is study and study until you get a good grade on next test.
American parents also care about their child grade, but if you get a low grade on your test, they won’t scream at you like you are picked up from the street. They do not give as much pressure as Asian parents give you. They will talk to you kindly if you have a low grade and discuss with you why you have such a low grade. They do let you watch television but not like all day long, so in my point of view, American parents are actually better than Asian parents. People may think I have this kind of idea because I have Asian parents, but it is pretty much true of most of the Asian parents. Of course there are some exceptions which I haven’t met yet, I might change my mind when I meet them. Some American parents might also act like the Asian parents I’m talking about above, but they are still kinder and nicer than Asian parents.
If you have an Asian parents, don’t be sad, if you get used to it, you might actually see something good in them, but for me, I haven’t seen anything yet, for the American parents, feel proud that you have such a kind and lovely parent. Enjoy having your parent no matter if they are Asian or American, they are still your parents. Even if you feel like your parent doesn’t deserve to be your parents, they are your parents. They are the only one in this world that will love you without wanting anything back. No one else will love you like that or give you that kind of love. So, love your parents! I love my parents too, no matter they do everything like evil, I know they do that mean they love me, they care about me, so, I love my parent Forever!
