I don’t really know what to do. I’ve been trying to subvert the kids, in a way. Not politically, mind you - just in the sense of trying to get them to understand that their teachers can be wrong, that their textbooks can be wrong, and that sometimes they have to think for themselves instead of regurgitating rote-memorised factoids/vocabulary/etc. And - this is a long-term goal, which doesn’t make much sense given that I’m outta this job in another month - to give them a sense of irony and a sense of sarcasm, both of which I consider invaluable tools in dealing with life.

Happy Birthday to you, and many congrats and praises to your parents for letting you live this long!

Lots of love–

Erika

And our birthdays are only about a week apart. It’s final. We have to meet sometime.

—

Even though Chinese kids are no where near the maturity of Chinese kids, I enjoy them because they are far more kid-like and innocent, which for some reason when they’re ten or twelve think that’s what they’re supposed to be.

Ditto with Korean kids. They don’t have the false sense of maturity or security that you see in high school age Americans.

However, having said that, when the Chinese turn 20, that’s when the trouble starts. They aren’t mature enough to be dealing with the responsibilities that come around that time (sex, love, marriage, making money, whatever).

So what to do?

many happy returns!

You’re absolutely right about kids being less mature than their American counterparts. Part of it, of course, is that American kids tend to be jaded by the wide variety of non-crappy toys and amusements they have, and part of it is because their parents baby them far too much. I mean, the parents are real hardasses with regard to school, sure, but for everything else, they really do treat the kids like xiao huangdi.

(Perhaps you can sense that I don’t like most of my kids’ parents very much.)