Mohamed Ismail Ying Ying Yu need help Which one is more important, Grades or life? Recently, I read an essay called “This I Believe” by Ying Ying Yu. The essay talks about ying ying yu life when She was a 13-year-old who immigrated to the United States with her family. She was also an obedient child that cared about her parents, teachers and country and made them her higher priority in life. Ying believed that her duty is to get good grades and become a lawyer to repay her parents and teachers for the time that they spent in building her educational foundations. Ying believed that her duty was moving her and pointing her to the direction of being a lawyer. Personally, I believe that Ying is missing the whole purpose of life. She should be free to choose her way of life and don’t feel governed by her parents teachers or country. …show more content…
She should stop listening to her parents and focus more in what she wants in life. For example, she could become a farmer and have her own farm. She could start planting rice and sell it in the market. According to the wall street journal, “In 2012, Chania bought a record 2.6 million tons of milled rice.” Therefore, she could gain a lot of money by selling rice in her country and fill the need of rice in her country. However, she had become obsessed with grades and only care about them because she feared her parents. First, she claimed that she was an obedient child, then she said, “Grades mean more to [her] than a mother smile” that means she cared very much about her grades. Therefore, how can grades become more important to you than your mother if you are really obedient? Of course grades are important in our modern life, but it not supposed to be the only focus of your life. Ying should have some time for herself, and spent some time with friends or a hobby that she like and don’t become addicted to
“Only two kinds of daughters,” “Those who are obedient and those who follow their own mind!”(476). When a mother pushes her daughter to hard, the daughter rebels, but realizes in the end that their mothers only wanted the best for them and had their best interest at heart. In the beginning, Jing-mei, is “just as excited as my mother,”(469). Jing-mei eagerly hoped to make her mother proud. However, her mother’s obsession with becoming a prodigy discouraged Jing-mei.
Chua believes that Chinese parents force their children to be academically successful in order to reach “higher” goals in life. She emphasizes this when she states “…Chinese parents have … higher dreams for their children…” (Chua 8). Although Amy set higher s...
In the onset of the story we find Jing-Mei's mother convincing her that she 'can be prodigy…'; (491) and that she 'can be best anything.'; (491) Deciding that Jing-Mei's destiny is to become a prodigy, her mother takes control and begins to push Jing-Mei towards this goal. At first Jing-Mei is, 'just as excited as my mother, maybe even more so.'; (491) By saying these things, Jing-Mei's mother tries to create an ideal identity for her. Jing-Mei's mother begins to test her with questions and she cooperates. But as time goes on and the tests her mother gives her gets harder, Jing-Mei begins to be resentful and unwilling to cooperate. She thinks to herself, 'I won't be what I'm not.'; (492) This shows a child resisting it's parents control.
Problems only worsen as the mothers brag about their daughters having their talents. The traditional Chinese mothers have expectations for their daughters so they can show them off to everyone. Their daughters having a special talent gives them an augmented appearance, being the mother of that special gift. It gives the mothers a feeling of being higher in society; being able to brag. One incident of their bragging back and forth is a few weeks before June’s piano talent show. Auntie Lindo talks about her daughter being a celebrity in Chinatown as the chess champion. “Our problem worser than yours. If we asked Jing-mei wash dish, she hear nothing but music.
She started working at seventeen years old to support her family. In her situation, the necessity of supporting her family is very significant in her life. In Chinese tradition, parents do not expect anything from their sons and daughters, but the sense of respect towards the hard work that Chinese parents do for their kids is a must for successful men and women to support their parents with their free-will. These people are grateful that their parents gave them existence—creating opportunities for searching for ethical values that will help them succeed.
She honored her parents as she should, but longed for them to pass. In the beginning of the story she said "I had never expected my parents to take so long to die.” She had taken care of them all of her life she was in her fifty’s and her parents in their ninety’s. She was ready to live and break free of all the rules and duties put upon her, they were like chains binding her and holding her down. She was ready to explore to go on journeys and adventures she was already aging all she wanted was to be free. Her parents’ death let her run free, she left Hong Kong to start over and maybe find love, in any way possible, maybe even through food or luxuries. She wanted to be rebellious of her parents I’m sure she knew they wouldn’t approve but she didn’t care she wanted change. All her life she had followed so many rules, she had to fight to teach, to learn, to be with friends, her fight was finally over. She now had no one to rebel against, she now had the freedom to
In "thinking outside the idiot box", Dana Stevens responds to Steven Johnson's New York Times article in which Johnson believes that watching television makes you smarter. Indeed, Steven Johnson claimed that television shows have become more and more complex over the years in order to follow the viewers need for an interesting plot instead of an easy, linear story. However, Dana Stevens is opposed to this viewpoint. Stevens is not against television, he does not think it makes you smarter nor that it is poisenous for the brain, he simply states that the viewer should watch television intelligently. That is to say that, viewers should know how much television they should watch and what to watch as well.
She utilizes a survey’s results to support the argument that Chinese mothers believe that their children can be the best at something and that for something to be fun, one must be good at it first. She later states that Chinese parents can get away with things that Western parents cannot such as calling their children names which would be considered offensive to the Western parents. She argues that by doing this, it makes the children feel bad and not want to do what they did wrong again. Chua supports this claim by including a personal anecdote in which she shares with the readers a memory in which her dad called her ‘garbage’ after disappointing him and how bad it made her feel, not because she was called an offensive name but rather because she wanted to make sure she never disappoint her father again. She then continues to elaborate on the idea that children can do well on anything if they are pushed into doing so. To provide evidence for this, Chua uses another personal anecdote in which she pushed her youngest daughter, Lulu, to learn a complicated piano piece. She explains how difficult it was for her
Jing-mei and her mother have conflicting values of how Jing-mei should live her life. She tries to see what becoming a prodigy would be like from her mother's point of view and the perks that it would bring her as she states in the story "In all my imaginings, I was filled with a sense that I would soon become perfect. My mother and f...
Jing-Mei was forced to take piano lessons; this only further upset her as she felt that she was a constant disappointment. Her mother was mad at her on a regular basis because Jing-Mei stood up for herself and explained to her that she didn’t want to be a child prodigy.
No matter where life takes you, it is important to not forget where you came from. I come from a family in which both of my parents migrated from the Philippines and they started a new life in America to provide for my younger sister and I; this makes me a first-generation Filipino-American. Education is a very important value in our family; school comes before everything. I have accomplished a great amount throughout my educational career, which includes: being at the top 10% of my high school class, being honored as Student-of-the-Month, and maintaining a high GPA of 3.5 or higher to be recognized as 1st Honors in high school and on the Dean’s List of Benedictine University. At the start of my high school career, I had a strong desire to
This makes me really put education as one of the top priorities in life. Without an education you will never be successful in life. Many people want to go to college and get a high paying job, or maybe one day being a millionaire. With out school you will never be able to get anywhere in life, and most aspects of a persons dream would be crushed. We give children a false comfort and reassurance that they can be whatever they want to be. Little boys grow up dreaming of professional baseball and little girls may dream of dancing in the ballet, but these dreams will most likely never come true due to their given situations.
...ith Jing Mei and her mother, it is compounded by the fact that there are dual nationalities involved as well. Not only did the mother’s good intentions bring about failure and disappointment from Jing Mei, but rooted in her mother’s culture was the belief that children are to be obedient and give respect to their elders. "Only two kinds of daughters.....those who are obedient and those who follow their own mind!" (Tan1) is the comment made by her mother when Jing Mei refuses to continue with piano lessons. In the end, this story shows that not only is the mother-daughter relationship intricately complex but is made even more so with cultural and generational differences added to the mix.
In the Article “Amy Chua Is A Wimp” by David Brook. He points out chinese parents mindset and approach. Amy is a wimp for not allowing her children to experience the truly demanding cognitive, such as participating in the most intellectually demanding activities. Chua's intentions of isolating her childrens from the group is not allowing her children to be emotionally intellectual. Chua’s style of chinese parenting is pressuring her children to focus only on academic success. Due to Chua’s strict parenting method her kids are not truly creative and passionate. Chua’s firm guarding enables her children to build the sense of maturity and knowing the reality of the world. Therefore, Chua’s superior parenting style should not be praised.