How to NOT be an Asian Failure

1. Go for tuition classes

I cannot remember a time when I never had to go for tuition classes on a Saturday. 

Before primary school, I'd been enrolled in a Chinese theatre class. An aunt had told my mum that it would help to develop confidence in children, allowing them to speak fluently while also helping them to learn Mandarin at the same time. Obviously, anything that would push me up the bell curve of my future peers was a must-go. 

Sure, I made friends. But at the age of 4, who didn't? 

In primary school, obviously, the Chinese Theatre classes didn't stop. They just got moved to Tuesday nights instead to allow me to go for extra tuition classes on Saturdays. English, maths and Chinese from Primary 1 to 2, and then science as well from Primary 3 onwards. 

Unlike my classmates, I was never naturally smart (it took me years to learn how to draw models for maths despite all the tuition) and this meant that I had to compensate by studying hard. This was much unlike my older sister, Janet, who breezed past all her years of formal education. 

In other words, on top of wasting an entire day on tuition, I had to even more assessment books. My mum was what you'd call a tiger mum: she worked from home, giving her ample time to watch us (or me really) finish our school homework, tuition homework, mum-issued homework on top of our chores. 

I once casually brought up how most of my classmates had domestic helpers to help with the chores and the cooking (my mum is an awful cook). Her reply was a glare. 

I never brought it up again. 

When I was in Primary 4, I once asked my mum if I could stop attending tuition if I did well for the next exam. She gave me the mum look. You know the one all mums give when you ask them a stupid question (also otherwise known as the face I see my mum with 75% of the time)? 

"Of course!" was her reply, "do you think your tuition classes are cheap? If you can score well for all your papers, I'll let you stop tuition." 

The thought of having Saturday mornings to sleep in and watch Pokemon or Ben 10 in the morning like a regular kid had me studying at every free moment I had. I would, at all costs, do well. 

Of course, I should have known, mum probably had no intention of letting me stop classes. 

So there I was, armed with my exam papers. I'd been top in class for every subject, scoring at least an A for everything. It was an incredible achievement for someone who usually got B's and C's. 

I proudly passed my folder of papers to the woman. 

She narrowed her eyes at the papers when I reminded her of her promise to allow me to stop tuition classes. 

"You think your 89 percents are good?" She asked. 

"I got top in class!" I declared. "I even beat the usual top scorer!" 

I should have stopped gloating to the woman who didn't see my grades as an achievement. "These are mediocre results," she told me. "You think you're competing with your school for your PSLE? Of course, you're not! You're competing with the entire Singapore! 

"Just because you can beat your class doesn't mean you're the best. And only the best get into RI! Just because you did acceptable for this exam doesn't mean you'll do well for PSLE right? Since your tuition is clearly not enough to get you your full marks, you'll have double the tuition next year!" 

I learnt to never again ask my mum to reduce the amount of tuition I got. 

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References:
1. Primary school is part of the compulsory education system in Singapore (there's a minimum requirement of 10 years of formal education here) which children aged 7 to 12 years attend. At the end of the 6 years, the primary 6 pupils all sit for this exam called the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE), which is basically a national exam that determines which secondary school you qualify for. 
2. Tuition classes are basically extra lessons conducted by external teachers. Tuition is completely independent of your school and is usually done in a class of 10 (depending on the kind of tuition you attend). 
3. Because of our bilingual policy, taking our mother tongue is compulsory (unless you're the lucky few that qualify for exemption) to take it. That is why there is such a great emphasis on the number of Chinese classes poor Calleach had to take. 
4. Models are probably the most useless things we were forced to learn in primary school. It is supposed to help with visualisation (it's basically algebra but with blocks which are further split into tinier blocks) of situations.
TLDR; it's a maths concept that was compulsory to know only in primary school. This method becomes obsolete past that. 
5. If I remember correctly, scoring 85% in an exam gives you an A and 91% and A*. 
6. Raffles Institution (RI) is like the school most (the exception being those who are more open minded and ACS Old Boys lol) Singaporean parents dream of sending their son to. It was one of the first few schools to be founded and is one of the most established and elite schools to get into. 

If you think some parts sound ridiculous, I can assure you my own parents have definitely pulled some of the tiger-mum moves on me haha. I'm not even exaggerating - I have friends who have literally had Mrs Wu level mums. 

Let me know if you have any other questions about things raised and not covered in the references :)

I know this one is a short chapter, so I'll see what I can do to extend the length of the next chapter! 

Thanks for reading and don't forget to comment to let me know what you think! If you liked it, you can vote for it too :D