The other day when I was collecting my child’s report card, I was speaking to another parent. She is Indian and her child is attending Chinese School like my child.

What is amazing, is the fact that she has planned for her child’s education from very early on. She has another child who is at the moment attending a Chinese kindergarten. She sent both kids to Chinese kindy from age 4 and in addition to that they have a private tutor coming in to teach them Chinese. She says I have to do this because we are not Chinese and I don’t speak Chinese.

Imagine that. What focus. She knows exactly what she wants for her kids and plans for it. Not like me. I don’t speak Chinese at all too but I remember I was still half minded and undecided about Chinese school right up to the first day of school! No plan at all. I was playing ding dong between Chinese School and Kebangsaan school and could not make up my mind.

As a result the kids were not prepared the way she had prepared her kids. They attended a normal kindy with only an hour of Chinese. My first child could not speak Mandarin by the time she started Primary 1. Looks like I have not learned from my mistake. The second child still does not know  how to speak Mandarin and he is going to Primary 1 in 6 months. Whereas this parent, of Indian descent has a kid who spoke fluent Mandarin by the time he attended Primary 1.

I’m afraid, I can’t look that far when it comes to my kid’s education. I have met parents who have all their children’s education fully mapped out. Where they want to sent them to Secondary Education and further Education etc. As for me, I haven’t looked beyond the Primary Years yet and am still undecided.


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