Malaysian Chinese Parents Hit A New Low

Posted on by Jolene

While I was at Carrefour just now with my mum, I took notice of the purchases of this young family who was behind us in the line.

Sometimes you get all warm and fuzzy watching the antics of other people’s children. This family had a daughter of about two years of age, sucking on a purple Vitagen with utmost concentration. Her pink singlet matched her mother’s t-shirt, which was the exact shade of pink. The father was teasing the little girl and asked if he could take some vitagen too. It’s even cuter when they can talk too. She said, “No..”.

Among the purchases, I saw alot of milk powder, a baby seat and other baby things. I was particularly attracted to this big toy set which was PINK and…medical. It contained a pink stethoscope, mouth mirror, injection needles, medicine and all the usual things you’d find in the medical profession. Just that they were alot cuter, rounder and very very pink.

The little girl’s mother pointed at the toy set and cooed to her little girl, “Whose birthday is it tomorrow??”

And the little girl giggled with glee, “Me!!!”

The little girl’s mother continued, “Yay!! You want to be a doctor when you grow up, yes you do!”

And the little girl just giggled happily.

 

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They start ’em young nowadays, don’t they?

Little Vitagen drinking girl will probably start her first piano class at age 4, go for tuitions from standard one, have her parents sit down and study with her, take up five tuition classes a week in secondary school, cry with stress throughout pre-u(I’ve got an Aunty who fell into depression when she was studying for her STPM) and her only option(read: The one thing that makes her parents happy) would be to do medicine.
Yay.

17 thoughts on “Malaysian Chinese Parents Hit A New Low”

  2. I truly understand the situation most of our chinese are facing now in Malaysia. Honestly, which profesions in Malaysia that can actually earn u a decent salary and do what u actually studied? Archaeology? Marine Biology? Biotechnology?

    Just open your eyes and look around, it’s really sad to say that if you are studying other courses like music or social science, most of the time you are ended up as a sales consultant or something else.

    Don’t get me wrong here, I do respect the professions of sales consultant as I’ used to be a sales advisors for Sony for 9 months after I’m graduated from UM. The ironic thing is that I study Biotech, but ended up as a sales man.Honestly, it is so rare to actually get hired as a biotechnolgist in Malaysia. Just too rare.

    Talking about the study stress that we are having right now(especially STPM), it’s all thanks to the “un fair” competition to gain entry to the public university. (you get wat i mean). Most of the middle class families are unable to give their children a private tertiary education. So, the only way to gain into the univeristy with a decent degree will be…make their children to study harder and harder.

    I’m one of the people who gone throught the gruesome STPM, the cruel unfair competition. So i understand the agony of other students who always got highlighted on the newspaper saying didn’t get the courses that they hope, didn’t get the scholarships and stuff like that.

    It’s sad to say that this cycle will go on and on again if the education policy didn’t been revamped and the mind set of the people didn’t change…

     

     

     

    jo: ohmigod george..why do you always give me such long intellectual comments? *faints*

    um.. malaysia is not developed enough to offer job opportunities to the most advance of mankind. One thing I don’t get is that, if they cannot offer these job opportunities, why are they producing more and more talents that they will never use?

    Maybe by doing so they are hoping to bring these 1st world dreams to life. Difficult to say when though.

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  3. err no i dont think so, kids nowdays go to tuition in their kindergarden years … and start pre-school 3 years before the kindergarden period …

    then when they are at std 1, tuition is at nite, as they attend 2 programs in the day, morning session is the must-attend malaysian gov syllabus, then after lunch they attend singaporean syllabus, this is optional …

    then saturday and sunday attends special maths or english classes … with their badminton courses every sunday too … all the way up to std 6 …

     

    jo: WHAT? why would kids need to go for kindergarten tuition? it is unheard of! ….. is this a norm? this whole singaporean syllabus thing? I did attend those special maths classes. .. I suppose I had it easier than most young children.

     

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  4. if u can survive STPM, u can survive anything 😀 STPM was by far the worst period of my life. studying everyday like a dog and knowing that anything less than 3.5 cgpa will get u a dead-end course and a dead-end career.

     

     

    jo: hahahaha i heard that stpm is the second toughest exam in the world. no shit. good that you pulled through! 

     

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  5. It’s the typical Chinese-family mentality.

    Traditionally, it’s the medicine field that’s deemed ‘best’ for them.

    But in reality, as we progress, there is a lot of jobs that offers very good pay as well, like being a consultant or a technopreneur – that is if you’re good at what you do lah. So parents really need to look and think beyond just ‘medicine’.

    And there is no telling how high the hopes these parents have on their children. I mean, education is extremely important to the Chinese and these parents would go great lengths to mould their children to ‘success’.

    Making matters worse is that their definition of ‘success’ includes being an all-rounder and this of course translate to long after-school tuitions, painful ballet feet and hours of fingering drill on the piano.

    Pretty much like how we’re so used to saying other people ‘kiasu’.

     

     

    jo: yeah all these “I wanna be a doctor!” determined statements will change to become more relevant sounding ambitions when they reach their college years. Or maybe even late secondary.
    I don’t know… i’m sure it’s a nice feeling to know that you’ve gone far in piano or even ballet…. but i can just imagine all the sundays wasted like that. I’m not sure what i’d do with my children. what would you do?

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  6. i wish they would just let her grow up like how kids SHOULD. i feel sad for her. 🙁

     

     

     

     

    jo: I wonder how I’d be with mine?;D

     

     

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  7. re: George

    Agreed. In Australia, i think all teens that have a citizenship there are eligible for a loan from the goverment to study, regardless of their marks. They pay back when they start working, and the parents do not have to fork out a single cent. Of course, this doesnt apply for university…

  8. nah. when i was little, my mum wish that i would be a doctor someday but look at where i stand right now! it has nothing to do with science or whatsoever. then again, we never know. maybe she will end up being a doctor like what her mum hoped for. oh crap. ur aunty damn kesian lah. hrm. 3 weeks left and im not even close to depression. anyway, CONGRATS ON THE NEW DOT COM!!!!!!! the template is SOOOO much neater weh. eh, what happen to the blue comment box?

     

     

     

     
    jo: ehehe most of us had less than realistic dreams as children. I’d use to tell any interested relatives that “I WANT TO BE A SCIENTIST WHEN I GROW UP”. Oh how my father beamed with pride. He’d nudge me and say things like, “Eh tell Aunty what you want to be when you grow up?” I had no idea what scientists did. Just thought the notion of inventing things were damn cool. When I grew older I hated physics..and pulled through chemistry but nothing can get me back into the world of chemicals. Na-ah.
    hahahah.. you’re a strong woman then. maybe coz you’ve been doing consistent studying leh? 😉

    Hehehehhe thank you!! i ‘m happy with my dotcom too:P nah the old one was pretty screwed. prefer this layout. 

     

     

     

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  9. Hey, *I* started learning the piano when I was 4! Okay, I lied. I was 5 when my mum sent me for piano and violin lessons. Oh, yeah. I did go for Yamaha classes when I was 4. Can you say, “freak”? :/

    -gina

     

     

    jo: haha hello freak! i think i attended my first JMC class when i was 3 and a half. hated the teacher and would pretend to be grumpy when snow white was singing a song to the dwarfs ..(ie. sulking in the corner)..then i had JMC, JXC right up to 9.. started grade 1. became the embarrassingly oldest exam candidate at every exam….and finally called it quits(PMR coming!) at grade 5.

    Quite hectic. My mom is a piano teacher:) 

     

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  10. my future child will be a bum. what will yours be? 😀
    better still, our future kids will be bums together and grow up watching us gab and goss and shop and do inane things. ho ho ho…look out, world…

    jo: lol! good idea. i’ve never lived on the streets before. it’s nice for the future generation to experience the hard life.:P hehehehe.

  11. haha.. well, dats the way parents are going these days. Everyone is getting more and more competetive as the world is getting flatter and flatter. U think its bad that kids here are like dat? Can u imagine kids in India or China?

    No, im not focusing on those who jz laze around either chasing buffalos in da padi field or sum other stuff. Talkin bout those who really wanna do well in life. Damn blardy competetive it scares me.

    Heck.. thank God im not born 2 decades later. I’ll possibly commit suicide from all the pressure by the time i turn 7. hahaha..

     

    Jo: kids in china and india have it hard too??

    hahahha.. our generation more lazy kan! that’s the way man. that’s the way:D
     

     

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  12. she’d probably grow up jiggling her boobs to terrorise her innocent primary school classmates. HAHAAHAHAHAHAAHAHA

     

     

    jo: lol! just because she saw me ONCE, i don’t think that is sufficient to cause some influence on the young child’s mental health:) bwahaha 

     

     

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  13. typical. parents wanted me to be a lawyer. i ended up studying psychology. they weren’t too impressed. until last year, when they realised that this city is FULL of umemployed lawyer graduates and companies snapping up psychology graduates.

    now they are bugging me to take up all the way the PhD. all paid for.

    being a rebel isn’t so bad sometimes.

    ;p

     

     

    jo: hahaha well whatever pays! 🙂 so go for it if your parents are offering you the opportunity.
     

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  14. i was that little girl.

    I still have the kiddy medical kit.

    HAHHAHA I’M DOING COMMUNICATIONS NOW! and my mother’s still mourning over the loss of a doctor daughter.

     

     

    jo: my god. don’t u ever give away your toys?:D yeahlor, for a parent who wanted u to do medicine, how did u manage to convince your parents otherwise? 

     

     

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  15. medicine is over-rated. way OVER-RATED. take it up, by all means, if you have the passion (& financial backing) for it. but if you think medicine still commands the same esteem that your doctor father/uncle/cousin did, & that you’ll earn tons of money in private practice, this scenario would have completely changed by the time the next generation of medics graduate. the recently-implemented private medical healthcare act & new immigration laws of UK will have seen to that. this doesn’t yet apply to dentistry, though. kristin is spot-on – parents may not always know what’s right for their kids.

     

     

     
    Jo: really! what are the restrictions? Hope dentistry will be secure.. until my time  is up! yeah, malaysian chinese parents should be more open minded in terms of career choices. 

     

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  16. trying to get into medicine – competing with students with perfect scores – is only the beginning. there’s no doubt that one has to specialise (& then subspecialise) after graduation – to make the big bucks in private practice bcos by that time, the country would have been over-run with specialists. same pie, smaller share. UK ,which is where most most overseas-based specialists get training, now have to offer these posts to docs from EU countries 1st. the private healthcare act gives the DG of MOH near absolute power to control setting up of private clinics, amongst other measures. the dentists have been spared of this for now.

  17. Any course you choose must suit you but you must also look at future prospects not only in Malaysia but also abroad.

    I had to take my first world qualifications to a firstworld country to get something worthwhile out of it. I knew Malaysia’s economy was small when I was studying in the UK. But I only realised how small when I came to Sydney – the NSW State economy is as big if not bigger than the Malaysian economy! So really it is horses for courses.

    When deciding what to study try and choose a course that will offer you options in Malaysia as well as somewhere else if required. It may be your only chance at a real choice. I am really glad I obtained qualifications recognised in the Commonwealth. I live in a AUD$million dollar house, wake up to a view of the ocean and breakfast to a breathtaking sight of the Sydney CBD – yet I am 9 kms away! There are 200+ nationalities here living happily with none of the poisoned political atmosphere of Malaysia. Yes that is possible in Malaysia but I cannot hazard a guess as to how long it will take. Best Wishes from Sunny, Australian Migration Planners.

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