[nabwong]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oistrakh since you live in cambridge, do you go to either harvard or MIT graduate school?

Nope. I'm doing my 2nd undergrad in Music at New England Conservatory. My 1st undergrad was in Computer Science in Singapore. My gf is doing a phd program at MIT.

 

[Oistrakh]

Quote:

Originally Posted by luckybaer The bad acting is OK. They could have gotten away with it if it were scripted better. The script meandered, resulting in too long a wait for the good punchlines ("We don't give timeout, we give knockout" - or something like that).

so you think a tighter script like this "remake"

http://youtube.com/watch?v=-MD0wEF1L...asian%20mother

is better than the original?

 

[wanderman]

I was adopted by my chinese friend when he witnessed my mom yelling at me for the B I got in personal fitness in highschool. Yoruba sounds hella scary to manadrin imo.

Did your parents ever talk to each other about you using a different language/dialect. My mom always jumps to this wierd dialect I can't understand (she still hasn't told me the name in all these years), and iirc my friend mom would just to cantonese(sp?). Those days were scary.

edit:grr stupid keyboard

 

[gratefulshrink]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oistrakh so you think a tighter script like this "remake" http://youtube.com/watch?v=-MD0wEF1L...asian%20mother is better than the original?

No, it's even worse......

 

[granodemostasa]

I thought this essay (I heard it this morning on KCRW) provides a different perspective on what the "crazy asian mother" clip had to say.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...toryId=5552257

The essay is even better when you listen to it.

 

[Jahn]

Funny and sad at the same time. Check out this line - she's only 13? Sheesh!

"The first thing that flashed to mind when I put it on was how glad my family would be, how proud the motherland would be of the child it had borne and how my accomplishments would look on a college application."

Oh my.

 

[adhoc]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jahn Funny and sad at the same time. Check out this line - she's only 13? Sheesh! "The first thing that flashed to mind when I put it on was how glad my family would be, how proud the motherland would be of the child it had borne and how my accomplishments would look on a college application." Oh my.

no ****. it's amazing, this apparent total lack of any individuality whatsoever.

check this other quote out:

"Here in America, there is almost a pressure to follow your dreams. I don't want any more dreams -- dreams are illusions."

ah. so i'll just follow my parents' dreams then.

 

[Jahn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by adhoc no ****. it's amazing, this apparent total lack of any individuality whatsoever. check this other quote out: "Here in America, there is almost a pressure to follow your dreams. I don't want any more dreams -- dreams are illusions." ah. so i'll just follow my parent's dreams then.

I really hope she ends up at an Ivy to make her folks happy, then just goes wild on campus and learns to live a bit. Who knows, even with that robot brain, she might still end up chasing her own dream of working with the soil - maybe invent a microorganism that converts peat moss into clean water or something.

 

[JahJahBinks]

that's what happened when you are brain washed by their education system.

 

[purk]

Well....my parents were the same way, but I was always a bad student (a C- average), so they never expected much from me, until I moved over here and averaged A- to A. Of course, my parents were very disappointed that I didn't graduate with honor (3.44/4.00) for my bachelor degree.

 

[Lazarus Short]

Quote:

Originally Posted by themanster My mom is kinda like that... except without the crazy accent.

Everybody has an accent, but the "crazy" part is in the ear of the beholder.

Laz

 

[plainsong]

The insane pressure cooker environment isn't limited to Asians. True, mom went to HS in Taipei, but I doubt that had anything to do with it.

She had her own issues and such, but there was a time when I'd get yelled at for an A-, and that would be one of the better things to happen. It got to the point that I just gave up, did the bare amount of homework to pass and that's that. There was no differentiation between failing and an A-. Looking back it was a bit of breakdown of sorts. It wasn't all bad though, I had my horse, and then the young one I was starting out, and I had music. And in those things I'd push myself, no need for parents to push me.

It's easy to say now, because a lot of this crap really had little to do with me. Mom got help and pulled herself out of it, and that's all you can ask someone to do. People are human, and it's not like she didn't have my best interests at heart... even if the execution of that idea had so little to do with me. Apparently, she started to see there was a problem not when I started flunking on purpose (or rather, coming close to it), but when her friends were telling her she needed to back off. And then she found her own things to work out, and that's good.

Dad otoh is a different case. I guess it's partly putting himself in mom's camp and partly the fact that I'm an only child and "so smart", but I think he's probably a little bit dissapointed that I'm not famous for solving some world crisis by now. He'd never admit that though.

I'm just glad I had a spine and didn't rely on the dreams of my parents. I was strong, I took it, and I got through it. I thank my parents for what they did, mistakes and all. Hey, when you're an only child you get to try some of the best, and the worst ideas. And if you get through it then you learned something from it one way or the other.

I just think that you gotta stand up for the right to your own dreams, even if you don't have any yet. If you get beaten to a pulp, stand up and take it and show them there's a better way.

 

[EhJayKim]

This video is my life. I am half korean, but my dad is from korea and I dont know how many math books he has made me go through and I have gotten 89% in classes before...I think he almost hit me with a bottle of soy sauce. At least he says an A- is still an A.

-A

 

[chia-pet]

Quote:

Originally Posted by purk Well....my parents were the same way, but I was always a bad student (a C- average), so they never expected much from me, until I moved over here and averaged A- to A. Of course, my parents were very disappointed that I didn't graduate with honor (3.44/4.00) for my bachelor degree.

I was kinda the same way. It started in preschool where our only assignment was to play, and I didn't want to because all their crap was boring to play with. Instead I got to work on a special thick math book (yes in preschool), and received a D grade. I pretty much got C's and D's all throughout school, until one day my big sister came back from her ivy league, prestigious medical school education to explain to me in a most basic way why I need to get good grades. Nobody had ever explained the why to me; I'd just been going through the motions like a robot with no real thought or effort. Until that moment I really didn't understand the importance of the educational system and grades. After that I got straight A's all throughout high school. Before that, my parents told me I'd never go to college, and were so sure of it that they said they'd even pay for it if I did. I went, but they never payed.

Yes, I'm Asian.

 

[chia-pet]

Oh yes, and the great thing about coming back from terrible grades is the absurd amount of accolades you receive for being the "most improved." I felt like a ringer, unfairly taking away any chances for anyone who actually deserved this award for its legitimate purpose.