• didn’t learn English until kindergarten

    I went through all the way to 2nd grade in China.

    My mom convince the school in NYC to put me in 2nd grade again, this time in the US in English. She told me she want to give me a better chance at improving my English…

    It’s much different, when you’re 2nd grade, you’re expected to already speak the language.

    I mean, I don’t think I even knew Mandarin till Kindergarden (I think the media at home was mostly HK-based, dubbed in Cantonese), yet I still managed K - Grade 2 fine

    As opposed to 2nd grade with English… that was so foreign to me.

    I found it easier to get to know other students to whom English was a second language.

    Yea I got along with other Cantonese speakers very well. Don’t really think I had much bullying from other Cantonese speakers. Mandarin speakers were rare and I kinda felt slightly more distant from them, but still feel kinda have a connection.

    paranoid about me being kidnapped

    Lol my mom went all in on the “stranger danger” teaching.

    Every stranger want to kidnap you. Reject candy, they want to drug you and steal organs of little boys and sell little girls into prostitution. Becareful of cars, bad guys are gonna hop out and pull you in.

    Jesus chist that shit scared me.

    I think Mainland China had a lot of kidnappings for some reason. Authorities didn’t do shit about it.

    I kinda developed a habit of looking behind me every so often, make sure no “bad guy” is following.

    I think I developed separation anxiety because of this.

    I kinda get scared of teachers that would hand out candy because I think it could be poison.

    But then again my mom was fine with halloween trick-or-treating? Lol?

    • Nasan@sopuli.xyz
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      6 days ago

      I think Mainland China had a lot of kidnappings for some reason. Authorities didn’t do shit about it.

      My parents gave me the impression that it was somewhat common in Bangkok too, but I didn’t need to worry as much because I’m not an attractive woman and/or rich looking white tourist.

      But then again my mom was fine with halloween trick-or-treating? Lol?

      Asian parents are so inconsistent like that. It’s weird how common it is. My parents were worried about me getting poisoned because of that whole Tylenol poisoning thing from the 80’s but didn’t bat an eye whenever the school called about my allergic reactions to peanut exposure. Even before they found out my case wasn’t life threatening. Same thing with peanuts in Halloween candy before I cared enough to read the labels to make sure I had regular M&Ms and not the peanut variety.