The Beginning of Kiasu-ism

My daughter came back from school one day last week, all sullen and teary-eyed. My wife was alarmed! Did something bad happenat school? Did she fail her test? She was so worried about her 'Bahasa Malaysia' and 'Moral' tests (the latter because her Moral teacher totally demoralised her....read my earliler blog in January). I think if she were old enough, she would have sprouted stress acne and pimples!

As it turned out, the cause of her distress was that she failed to score 100% in her Bahasa Malaysia and Maths! Apparently she scored ONLY 98% for the 2 subjects!!! Ouch! As far as I could recall, I have never scored anything resembling that figure in my entire school days!! Oh yes, I did, in Chinese....I scored 100%, in year 3, and even got a book price. The irony is that I have no idea how to read chinese!!!

It took us a while to convince her that scoring 98% was indeed very good! The next day she came back from school beaming as she scored 100% in both Scence and English! Took her to Mac Donalds yesterday as a 'reward'.

Actually it's rather disconcerting that kids now think scoring 98% is 'unacceptable'! I certainly feel that it's very good. Anyway, I am very proud of her and her achievements. On the other hand, I also hope she will learn that doing one's best is all that matters. No need to be 'kiasu' about it.

Btw, 'kiasu' is a hokkien word which means literally 'scared to lose'; initially used to describe our neightbour's citizens across the causeway but now more and more apparent amongst Malaysians as well.

And another piece of good news...her moral teacher has asked for a transfer....