I hope nobody would offend after reading this, but if you do, they are just my thoughts. I have the freedom to speak up my mind and I am happy to hear what do you really think and why you oppose it. I have discerned the education and schooling in Asian countries, especially Vietnam.

Asian parents, in general, are infectious by a disease called pride. Their self-conscious and covet of reverence are so high that they tend to forget to true value of learning. Most Asian parents follow a trend that they would raise their kids since they are small, force them to learn everything from Math, Handwriting, Reading,.. to Chess, Piano, Basketball and so on. They want to train their kids to become well-rounded without caring whether they like it or not. It is not idiosyncratic if you see a 7 year old child go to classes from 6 am and not until 10 pm does he come back home with exhausting face, unless you are Asian. You may ask ” What’s the heck is he doing?”, well I’ll tell you now. School starts at 7 am, students have to prepare and get out of their house somewhere around 6 or 6:30 am. Some schools end at 11: 30 am, luckily may have time to rest from 12 to 1 pm for lunch; otherwise, they would stay at school until 3  or 4 pm.  At 4, their parents pick them up, give them a bread to eat on the way and continue to fight like going to extra classes such as Math, Vietnamese,…or to basketball, chess, ballet, piano and so on. The term “extra classes” in Vietnam depicts a class with average 30-50 students, but a hundred should not be surprised. Imagine, a bunch of students are put in a room and one teacher talks. After this extra class, the kids go to other extra class until 9pm and certainly they would get home around 10pm. I haven’t taken much classes here but I’ve tried piano and ballet, no need to tell how bad is it. Again, a bunch of students in a same room, playing and practicing by themselves. Since there are so many students and sometimes the teachers do not really pay attention ( they chat and text), the students feel bored. I didn’t know what to do, I didn’t know whether I played or danced correctly, I received no encouragement of exhortation. While to some of the kids, those activities are too much pressure for them, others have to acquiesce take some more languages classes like Chinese, English, French and so on. What am I telling you is a typical day for a 7 year old kid. What about the high school students? It’s the same but somehow worse. Instead of leaving the house at 6am, they get on their bikes at 4 or 4:30 am. It’s not too enigmatic to explain. The extra classes have to start at 5 am as there are not enough space to put all the classes after school so the teachers have to arrange the classes in early morning before school starts. This usually happen to freshmen. How about summer, then? Well, “summer” does not exist in the students’dictionaries. They have no idea of what is summer like.

The question is why? Why does this phenomenon happen? First, Vietnamese parents are, as I said, infectious by pride disease. When they see the other kids learn more than their kids, have a lot of talents than their kids or scare some day their kids would not be as good as the others, by all cost, they send their kids to classes. Second, students in Vietnam tend to follow reputations. Grades are the most important elements in judging a student in Vietnam. Vietnamese students compete each other in every grades. For example, a student receives a 8.8 in his GPA, and the other receives 8.9, spontaneously jealousy and anguish grow in the 8.8 boy. That’s conventional.

I hate myself so much for having once time fall into that type of person. Luckily, I was pulled out of that reign of terror and now have a chance to real learning as well as pursue my knack. ( I know this somehow digresses from the topic but I just want to tell the sophomore and freshman who are preparing for that big test). Even my freshman and sophomore year were preoccupied with the Entrance Examination to Quoc Hoc Gifted School, I had tried my best to fill in the schedule anytime I could to swim. People woke up at 5 to study, I woke at 5 to swim. Swimming, somehow really helps your body feel much relaxed and your brain is working really efficiently. So, try to exercise even though you are really stressed, it helps A LOT…