An 18-year-old American girl, as a reciprocal student, came all the way to Shanghai to become a “schoolboy” of a 5-year-old girl. She was deeply shocked to witness the tiger mother education in Shanghai. But after his return, his attitude changed greatly. What the hell happened? Alice, the author of this article, shows us a real event. Behind the incident is the discussion of tiger mother education mode, but also the speculation of different education modes. Let’s take a look at the story between the American reciprocity student and the Shanghai tiger mother.

I received a special email the day before yesterday from my 18-year-old American friend Linda. In the first half of the year, she worked as a reciprocal student in two families in Shanghai for half a year, and it has been two months since she returned to the United States. As an American girl who has just experienced Chinese Tiger mother education, her view of education has undergone dramatic changes. There was an open discussion in our recent email. I was deeply surprised by her reversal after returning to the United States.

The email mentioned:

“When I went to China for the first time and accompanied Dingdang as a reciprocal student, I was shocked: I had never seen any 5-year-old learn so much! I thought the” tiger mother “education was too cruel to children.

But when I returned to the United States from Shanghai, I found that my family and the children around me could do nothing but read and write. Many American children still waste a lot of time watching TV and hanging around; Ding Dang of the same age can play the piano, ride horses and swim, and can communicate fluently in English. I realized that Dingdang’s education was much better. I also remembered that Dingdang actually enjoyed a lot of learning process under the tiger mother education mode, so it can’t be said to be a cruel education mode.

You know, studying in American universities is not easy at all, so I wonder whether American parents should learn from tiger mother education? In this way, it will be easier for American students to enter college… I have observed the comparison between jingle’s education and the education of children around me in the United States. Now my view of education has changed greatly… “

To tell the story of Linda and her Shanghai tiger mother clearly, we have to start from the beginning.

American girl and Shanghai tiger mother

I knew Linda when she lived in her second reciprocal family in Shanghai. We went to the kindergarten to pick up the children at the same time every day. It happened that my son and Abby, the child of her host family, were good friends and often played together. Naturally, we talked a lot. Slowly, I began to understand her experience.

Linda is a community college student from Ohio. She has the spirit of American adventure and is curious about countries outside the United States. As a young man in Europe and the United States, the most economical way to experience foreign culture and go deep into local life is to live at home in the destination country for three to six months through the reciprocal student program, and accompany and care for children in the matching family in exchange for their own air tickets and accommodation.

Since it is “mutually beneficial”, as the name suggests, the characteristics of this project are “equality” and “reciprocity”. Young people who join the program live together with their host families in a mutually beneficial relationship. Host families provide all living needs for reciprocal students and pay their pocket money every month. Reciprocal students take care of their children, do simple housework and experience local life at the same time. Reciprocal students are generally regarded as one of the family members by the host family.

Last year, Linda applied for the reciprocal student program in the United States. After an interview, she quickly matched two Shanghai families. Before Abby’s house, she lived in another family for three months. When I asked about that experience, her first sentence was: my first living mother was really crazy. She was a Shanghai tiger mother!

Ms. Lin, who is called Shanghai tiger mother by Linda, looks very loving. At the first meeting, mother Lin expressed her welcome to Linda to join the family in limited English. The next morning, Lin’s mother was worried that Linda couldn’t get used to Chinese breakfast, so she specially prepared a cake for her breakfast. However, Linda has never eaten cake at breakfast since she was a child, but considering her mother’s enthusiasm, she still ate the cake cleanly.

Unexpectedly, as a result, mother Lin thought Linda liked cake and used it as breakfast every three or five times. This makes Linda feel sad and laughing: This is the rhythm of fattening! She had to tell her daughter that she was willing to eat the cake for breakfast and had to end her life with wechat.

Despite this episode, Linda is quite satisfied with the fact that mother Lin’s family is her host family. In particular, mother Lin’s five-year-old daughter Dingdang is a little angel. The first time we met, Dingdang called her sister Linda kindly. She was also very cute and clever. Linda liked to accompany her very much. However, after contacting Lin’s mother’s “tiger mother education”, Linda was once confused.

Strict tiger mother education

As a reciprocal student, Linda’s “work” at Dingdang’s home is to accompany Dingdang for 30 to 35 hours a week. Dingdang goes to kindergarten during the day. She gets up with Dingdang and has breakfast; After kindergarten, she will accompany Dingdang until she goes to bed.

Linda, 18, is actually a big child. She likes listening to music and singing. At first, when Linda was with Dingdang, she would listen to English songs with her and teach her to sing together. Jingle has a good sense of music. Basically, you can sing together after listening to it twice. At such a moment, both people feel very happy.

However, such a happy scene was caught by mother Lin, who immediately banned them from singing together again. The reason is that singing will distract Dingdang from her study. She hopes that Dingdang and Linda can learn English systematically. The next day, Ms. Lin gave Linda a learning guidance schedule for that month.

Dingdang April study plan

1。 Learn 20-30 new words and tell me which new words I learned. I will give Dingdang a test. She needs to be able to explain the meaning of words and use them correctly in English.

2。 Review what Dingdang learned in kindergarten every day.

3。 English time learn two texts, at least one new one a week and one learned, and can be used in daily life.

4。 Read at least 5 picture books every day, and make sure jingle really understands and understands them