It’s not just Singapore that has Crazy Rich Asians – the Chinese Malaysian parents in KL are up there with the best of them.
The most ridiculous thing I’ve been asked to date by a parent, was whether I thought it would be a good idea for a five-year-old to start learning Latin ‘because it will be useful for him when he’s a doctor.’
‘But he’s five years old,’ I said.
‘And … ?’ her eyebrows seemed to say to me.
We also have a four-year-old at school with her own phone, which had Youtube installed, so she spent her evenings watching unsuitable videos instead of sleeping. When it was pointed out to her parents that this wasn’t a good idea, they went away to think about their parenting responsibilities, and came back the next day and announced proudly that they’d uninstalled Youtube … and given her Netflix instead.
And how do you ensure that you win any online game you play at school?
By bringing in both an iPhone and an iPad, of course.
Technology is also very useful for the crazy, rich Asian parents, not just their children.
So that they can secretly film their child through the fence while they’re at school.
One parent wasn’t even content with that; she wanted CCTV in the child’s classroom that she would have access to at all times. Needless to say, her child is not at our school – English head teachers are far too sensible to accede to those sort of requests.
Then there’s also a need for our school materials to relect the lives of these families. So we have reading comprehensions on useful topics like how to deal with your servants when you go on holiday –
How very different from the home life of our own dear Queen … although perhaps not, on second thoughts.