What is the difference between Chinese children and American children? For example: 1. Chinese children like to play computers; American children like to play the piano 2.…

First of all, they look different. Chinese children have black eyes, black hair, and yellow skin, while American children have blue eyes, yellow hair, and white skin. To be honest, when we compare any two different people or things, being there and observing them from a distance is very similar to looking at flowers in the mist and looking at the moon in the water. The differences on the surface are easy to distinguish, but the differences in the bones are not so easy to distinguish.

If you want to ask what is the biggest difference between Chinese children and American children, I believe that different people will have different answers. Just like comparing which one is better, pork or beef, people with different tastes will definitely have different opinions. There are no absolute things in the world, and there are no absolute comparisons. This article, for some reason, is a discussion of the topic.

Based on the author’s life experience of living in the United States for more than ten years, in my eyes, I can see two major differences between Chinese and American children: Chinese children study harder than American children, and American children are whiter than Chinese children. live.

Mao Zedong said that without investigation and research, there is no right to speak. Regarding this issue, I specifically visited several Chinese students in key American schools. Unexpectedly but expected, the children replied almost without thinking: "Chinese children work harder than American children."

Indeed, in the eyes of children, Chinese children are always better than American children of the same age. The kids have to be busy. A lot of extracurricular homework and various cultural and sports activities almost fill up the after-school time of Chinese children. When my daughter was six years old, we bought our first home and lived as neighbors in the United States for the first time. Every day after school, in our community, there are American children of the same age running and jumping outside, and inside the house, our daughter is learning Chinese, practicing piano and doing arithmetic. Whenever American children come to play with my daughter, the little girl always says helplessly, "I'm sorry, I have to do my homework, and then I have to practice piano." I stood next to the children and saw the disappointment on the faces of the American children and the dissatisfaction of my children. To be honest, I don't feel good about it either.

Maybe you will ask, why do Chinese children in the United States have to work so hard? I have lived in three states in the United States and have met many Chinese families. My daughter's helplessness can be seen in many Chinese families. Believe it or not, even the best Chinese children in American schools still cannot do without extracurricular homework when they return home. Maybe you will ask again, Chinese children are already good, why do we need to give them extra pressure after class?

When I was living in St. Louis, a city in central America, I met a mother with a doctorate from Guangzhou. Her views on parenting should be very representative. She said that American primary schools have so much extracurricular time. When I see my children wandering around the house with nothing to do, I feel very upset. I feel sorry for them if I don’t give them some extracurricular homework.

This is the Chinese mother who hopes her child will succeed, and this is the Chinese mother’s view on parenting. This is also a big reason why Chinese children study harder than American children.

I remember that when I was in junior high school in China many years ago, I memorized a few sentences from the English textbook, good, better, best. Never let it rest. That is to say, if it is good, it should be better. The educational philosophy I received in China at that time is unknowingly affecting the education of my children in the United States today. Like the mother in Guangzhou, I couldn’t bear to see my children doing nothing after school. Children, I'm sorry, no matter how you are doing in school, you still have to keep working hard and make it even better. Do you understand? How can you be the best without studying hard?

As a mother of three children, during my more than ten years of immigrant life in three states in the United States, when I observed the growth process of myself and other Chinese children, I found that Chinese children and American children are still different. There is another difference that cannot be ignored, and that is the issue of public oral language expression ability.

Let’s take us adults as an example. When Chinese people living in the United States talk about their American colleagues, they often say that the American in our unit has no real ability and just lives in vain. With that mouth, he coaxed his boss around. People who live in vain are popular. This world is so unfair. Complaints like the above can be heard in American universities, hospitals, and companies. The so-called white life here is what I want to say is the ability to express verbal language.

As early as when my children were in kindergarten, I saw the difference between American and Chinese children in this regard. When picking up my children every day, I can always hear American children and teachers talking endlessly about various things. For example, American children can always find things to say about the puppy at home, the cars on the road, and the lake in the park. But what about the Chinese children in the class? Most Chinese children act as listeners, or hide behind their mothers, looking around quietly. Is it because our Chinese children are born unable to express themselves? Definitely not. For example, the little girl Lin Miaoke not only expresses herself well, she also expresses herself to the Olympics. Is it the overconfidence of American children that suppresses the desire of Chinese children to express themselves? This is worth discussing and pondering.

Most of the Chinese children in kindergarten come from dual-income families. In most cases, Chinese mothers drop their children off at daycare and rush off to work immediately. In contrast, for those American children who love to talk to their teachers, in addition to their language talent, their stay-at-home mothers must also have given them more intangible encouragement. For example, there is a boy named Tommy in my son's class. Every day, his mother always deliberately chats with the teacher at school for a while. As time went by, Tommy became more and more talkative in daycare, eventually becoming as talkative as his mother.

As we all know, more American women are stay-at-home mothers than Chinese women. When mothers stay at home full time, the direct beneficiaries are their children. Many American stay-at-home mothers usually send their children to half-day day care in order to expose their children to groups as early as possible. Compared with Chinese mothers who work full-time, these American stay-at-home mothers will have much more time. Not only do they chat leisurely with the teachers when picking up their children, but they also go to the nursery to volunteer and help. According to simple reasoning, a child's self-confidence will soar when a mother helps in the nursery. A child with self-confidence will definitely love to talk. The more you talk, the more confident you become, and the more confident you are, the more talkative you become. This kind of positive feedback will make those American children’s lives more and more in vain, just like the American boy Tommy I mentioned above.

There is another factor that cannot be ignored that has a similar effect to that of a stay-at-home mother. In primary and secondary schools in the United States, there are parent-teacher associations (PTA) voluntarily formed by parents of students. These parent-teacher conferences are mainly responsible for the coordination and management of various activities within the school. The author made an interesting observation and found that most of the adults active in parent-teacher meetings are Americans. Although there are a small number of Chinese involved, the role played by the Chinese can be described as the tip of the iceberg. It is conceivable that in the process of being influenced by their parents, American children not only learned the management skills of their parents, but also learned how to communicate with others and how to demonstrate their abilities verbally.

When the author was studying for a Ph.D. at Ohio University, I also personally experienced the futility of Chinese students’ efforts and the futility of American students. At that time, in our biochemistry class, almost all the students who got A's in the written exam were Chinese students, and those who ranked first in the oral presentations were almost all Americans. This huge contrast is actually the main difference between Chinese children and American children. Excluding the factor of second language, our Chinese students' oral expression ability is not as good as that of our American classmates, which has a lot to do with the education we received.

I remember that when I was educated in primary and secondary schools in China, apart from chewing books and reading texts, I had almost no other opportunities to express myself in class. In American elementary schools, children have the opportunity to write book reports starting in third grade. As you can imagine, when a child timidly stands in front of the podium for the first time, shyness is inevitable. But this kind of language skills training is very valuable for children's future growth. For Chinese students, as long as they study hard and study books, their chances of getting an A will greatly increase. But that kind of rhetorical oral speech is not something that can be accomplished in a day. It is definitely a hard skill that cannot be sharpened in the field.

Recently, when I was interviewing Dr. Fengyi Sun, the only Chinese primary school principal in Maryland, USA, Principal Sun, who is well versed in primary and secondary education in the United States, also reminded Chinese children to strengthen oral language expression in American schools. Ability training. She highlighted that in our Chinese culture, adults often teach children to think before they act and not to interrupt or disturb others when they speak. She said that if we let our children adhere to such ancient teachings, Chinese children will definitely feel frustrated when communicating with teachers and classmates when they grow up in the United States. Of course, how to use skills and how to integrate yourself into the other party's conversation is a huge knowledge.

Take my own children as an example, let me think about this issue again.

My three children all do well in their studies, but their public language skills need to be improved. Sometimes when I think about it, even us adults would feel nervous or even shy about standing up and speaking in front of people, let alone children. In order to make up for your children's deficiencies in this area, I will try my best to spare time to volunteer at school for the primary school students at home. Every time I go to school to help, my six-year-old son will proudly tell his classmates, "Look, that's my mom." Then, my son would chat with his classmates about other chores. For my middle school student, I encourage her to participate in the school’s speech competition class, with the intention of training the child’s ability to express herself in public. This kind of training class usually takes place every Tuesday, and there is a full day of speech training on weekends. Although both adults and children invested a lot of time and energy, I felt it was well worth it. The reason is just like what Principal Sun mentioned earlier.

Dale, the famous American speaker. Carnegie mentioned in the preface of his world-famous book "Language Breakthrough" that only 15% of a person's career success depends on his own intelligence and skills, while the other 85% depends on communication skills. Ability, speaking skills and ability to persuade others. This shows how important "knowing how to live in vain" is to a person's growth.

If we can combine the learning of Chinese children with the "knowledge of living in vain" of American children, what will the children we cultivate look like? Needless to say, such a kid would be awesome! Optimistically imagine that if the left hand works hard, the right hand will work in vain. Such a child may be able to defeat the invincible hand in the world as long as he makes a move.