concern2:

HVR:

..We should aim for a system where everyone can realise their full potential. We as parents must know some kids have higher potential than the rest. I for one would not want my kid to compete with scholars or force my kid to participate in all kind of competitions and then complain life here is stressful. What if others want to do it? They may do so.

Certainly good to know there are many avenues to which kids can realize their full potential. Many parents, however, fear for the less able ones, perhaps due to certain social disadvantages, how to propel them and help them realize their greater potential, and there is certainly room for improvement in this area. I heard something in the budget pertaining to education in this aspect, and they are starting at pre-school level.

Coolkidsrock2:

Me too but I like the smell of cash better.

Joule:

I like the smell....

nms1:

I understand that there are many people who will never be able to afford a car but the abruptness of this change may make people take drastic measures. If someone was planning to replace their car in the next few months assuming no down-payment and they now have to come up with 100k how do you think they feel?


They may have very good reasons for wanting a car - working place not easily accessible by public transport, elderly family members who need to be transported around, children who need to be taken to school. For our family, our whole lives and schedules are based on the fact that we have a car - yes, we could survive without one but it would mean a drastic change to everything that we do. Including my husband never being home in time to see his children at night. Not life & death but the government talks about \"quality of life\".....ours would go downhill without a car.

nms1:

HVR:

Another example. People are now talking about using personal loan for down payment in order to buy car. Complaining about the latest measure to arrest the run away car price. How to be happy like that? Die die must have car?

I understand that there are many people who will never be able to afford a car but the abruptness of this change may make people take drastic measures. If someone was planning to replace their car in the next few months assuming no down-payment and they now have to come up with 100k how do you think they feel?

They may have very good reasons for wanting a car - working place not easily accessible by public transport, elderly family members who need to be transported around, children who need to be taken to school. For our family, our whole lives and schedules are based on the fact that we have a car - yes, we could survive without one but it would mean a drastic change to everything that we do. Including my husband never being home in time to see his children at night. Not life & death but the government talks about \"quality of life\".....ours would go downhill without a car.

Joule:

I feel that this policy should have been implemented years ago, if it was, there would not have been such an extreme countermeasure now. Remember the times when cars were so cheap, they were popping out at pasar malams? 2 dollar hyundai driveaways, anyone?


anyway....

it is madness to buy a car now and the ones that can buy cars are the ones flush with a lot of cash.

If one buys a car now it would be 90k for COE and anther 50 k for the car itself, total about 140k which means 70k for down payment, another 70k for servicing over 5 yrs

which breaksdown to about about 70+ down, 1200+ monthly

if one is a PMET or young parent starting out with a family,

buying a car is REALLY unwise....

lets say they are both grads and median income about 7k

means take home about 5600.

must pay 1200 out of the 5600? must be mad.


seriously, if the powers that be had just instituted this rule YEARS ago, the car population would be manageable.

ah well. at least now we have less people going bankrupt because they cannot service their car loans.

HVR:

Another example. People are now talking about using personal loan for down payment in order to buy car. Complaining about the latest measure to arrest the run away car price. How to be happy like that? Die die must have car?

concern2:

HVR:

..We should aim for a system where everyone can realise their full potential. We as parents must know some kids have higher potential than the rest. I for one would not want my kid to compete with scholars or force my kid to participate in all kind of competitions and then complain life here is stressful. What if others want to do it? They may do so.

Certainly good to know there are many avenues to which kids can realize their full potential. Many parents, however, fear for the less able ones, perhaps due to certain social disadvantages, how to propel them and help them realize their greater potential, and there is certainly room for improvement in this area. I heard something in the budget pertaining to education in this aspect, and they are starting at pre-school level.

HVR:

..We should aim for a system where everyone can realise their full potential. We as parents must know some kids have higher potential than the rest. I for one would not want my kid to compete with scholars or force my kid to participate in all kind of competitions and then complain life here is stressful. What if others want to do it? They may do so.

ChiefKiasu:

Coolkidsrock2:

My HK friend's (going to turn 3 years old) DS applied to 10 pre-schools. He was only accepted by 1 with 2 more interviews next week. Rejected by the other pre-schools.


Another HK friend's son was rejected by all the pre-schools that he applied to. I know that he had hired a native speaker to teach his son English 2 times a week since the child was 2 years old and put in a lot of efforts in grooming his son but unfortunately, he is still not good enough.

The competition in HK is very keen, but thus far, neither myself nor DH had never heard any complaints from them and our circle of HK friends had been expanding over the years.

Agree that their standard of English and Chinese have improved - from my school days in the 199x to now as my counterpart at work. They are also highly efficient and they are always able to turnaround quite fast without compromising in quality.

This is also what I observed from a number of foreign friends I had the fortune to make. In many Asian countries, competition in schools is taken as a given - parents do what they can to help their children get that competitive advantage with little complaints. They are aware that what they are doing is over and above what schools are teaching, and whatever stress they may be putting themselves and their children is really self-inflicted but for long-term advantage. They don't think of themselves as being kiasu, but merely preparing their children to get a better future.

In Singapore, however, people get really hard on themselves when they find that they are forced to send their children for tuition just to keep up with the standards. We clamour for the government to lower the standards; we cry foul at the increased competition brought about by foreign students hungry for success; we insist on preschools being driven by a standard so that all children get to start P1 with the same footing, etc.

People seem to have taken meritocracy to mean \"fairness\" in the sense of equal distribution of resources or stress. That as a meritocratic society, everyone should be entitled to the same resources, the same level of stress, the same level of training, the same level of opportunities. We get uncomfortable when someone seems to be short-circuiting the process and getting ahead of everyone else. We frown on kiasu parents and we say they are the ones causing all the stress by increasing standards.

We seem now to be a nation adverse to competition, even though we are now at the very cusp in history where the world will be without borders, and staying in Singapore (or elsewhere) provides no insulation whatsoever from global competition.

That, my friend, is the \"Singapore reality\".

Coolkidsrock2:

My HK friend's (going to turn 3 years old) DS applied to 10 pre-schools. He was only accepted by 1 with 2 more interviews next week. Rejected by the other pre-schools.


Another HK friend's son was rejected by all the pre-schools that he applied to. I know that he had hired a native speaker to teach his son English 2 times a week since the child was 2 years old and put in a lot of efforts in grooming his son but unfortunately, he is still not good enough.

The competition in HK is very keen, but thus far, neither myself nor DH had never heard any complaints from them and our circle of HK friends had been expanding over the years.

Agree that their standard of English and Chinese have improved - from my school days in the 199x to now as my counterpart at work. They are also highly efficient and they are always able to turnaround quite fast without compromising in quality.

Em:

We are the only viable resource in our little red dot.


In 1988 while I was studying overseas, my classmates from Taiwan and Hong Kong were comparing what we had learnt for maths in primary school. Can't recall the details, but distinctly had the impression that Taiwan was ahead by one year, and Hong Kong by two years compared to Singapore's standards. The eighties, mind you.

Ten over years ago while holidaying in Hong Kong I had to struggle with my limited Cantonese to communicate cos no one really spoke conversant English and Mandarin. Went back for a holiday again two years ago, I was so shocked to find the MTR middle aged male attendant could speak reasonably good English, and the even older lady at the lost baggage counter in the airport was speaking in Cantonese, English and Mandarin!! Also saw 2 young girls (late teens/early twenties) at a busy busy bakery doing their jobs well with good spirit, and one still running after a customer who had forgotten her change. All I could think of was if the equivalent were to happen in Singapore we'd have gotten two grumpy little Singaporean twits. No wait, it would have been foreign talents at the cash register cos the Singaporeans cannot tahan.

Also, kids in Hong Kong have to be interviewed for entry into prestigious PRIMARY schools to show how multitalented they are. Primary One starts the year the kids turn 6, one year earlier than Singapore :yikes:

We are a developed nation and we face problems all developed nations face*, with the problems exacerbated by, well, see my first statement above, hence this population target of 6.9m coming in as a possible solution. Kudos if calculus is mastered before the new Singapore Citizen, but frankly, I don't think all our new residents are the creme de la creme of their homelands. Just means even greater competition abound outside of Singapore.

So gist of my long winded post? We've been competing to outsmart, outlast and out-everything since donkey years ago not just against our classmates, our colleagues, but against the world. Can't stop *pant pant* that's the Singapore Reality *pant pant*. If there is an even better country to reside in elsewhere, why, go for it, with both eyes WIDE OPENED. And if life really is better, then pray do come back and advise the Singapore gov't how to govern.

Hm, just a thought. My dad and his parents are/were foreign talents! Oooooh, I'm a foreign talent's kid. Doesn't matter, though I'm female I am serving my NS by endeavoring to increase our main resource

* About our MRT system ............... :roll: Japan and Hong Kong like no such issues leh. They also very developed right?

sinoboy:

Did you watch 校园superstar competition? :rahrah: The trailer show the students singing in hong kong uniform!! Looks a bit like hong kong uniform but also a bit like Japanese. :skeptical:

Maybe we are not proud to be Singaporean. Maybe we are really losing our national identity. :scared:

Em:

We are the only viable resource in our little red dot.


In 1988 while I was studying overseas, my classmates from Taiwan and Hong Kong were comparing what we had learnt for maths in primary school. Can't recall the details, but distinctly had the impression that Taiwan was ahead by one year, and Hong Kong by two years compared to Singapore's standards. The eighties, mind you.

Ten over years ago while holidaying in Hong Kong I had to struggle with my limited Cantonese to communicate cos no one really spoke conversant English and Mandarin. Went back for a holiday again two years ago, I was so shocked to find the MTR middle aged male attendant could speak reasonably good English, and the even older lady at the lost baggage counter in the airport was speaking in Cantonese, English and Mandarin!! Also saw 2 young girls (late teens/early twenties) at a busy busy bakery doing their jobs well with good spirit, and one still running after a customer who had forgotten her change. All I could think of was if the equivalent were to happen in Singapore we'd have gotten two grumpy little Singaporean twits. No wait, it would have been foreign talents at the cash register cos the Singaporeans cannot tahan.

Also, kids in Hong Kong have to be interviewed for entry into prestigious PRIMARY schools to show how multitalented they are. Primary One starts the year the kids turn 6, one year earlier than Singapore :yikes:

We are a developed nation and we face problems all developed nations face*, with the problems exacerbated by, well, see my first statement above, hence this population target of 6.9m coming in as a possible solution. Kudos if calculus is mastered before the new Singapore Citizen, but frankly, I don't think all our new residents are the creme de la creme of their homelands. Just means even greater competition abound outside of Singapore.

So gist of my long winded post? We've been competing to outsmart, outlast and out-everything since donkey years ago not just against our classmates, our colleagues, but against the world. Can't stop *pant pant* that's the Singapore Reality *pant pant*. If there is an even better country to reside in elsewhere, why, go for it, with both eyes WIDE OPENED. And if life really is better, then pray do come back and advise the Singapore gov't how to govern.

Hm, just a thought. My dad and his parents are/were foreign talents! Oooooh, I'm a foreign talent's kid. Doesn't matter, though I'm female I am serving my NS by endeavoring to increase our main resource

* About our MRT system ............... :roll: Japan and Hong Kong like no such issues leh. They also very developed right?

kiasu_student:

Hi there, I do understand that Singaporeans now have different perspectives at a different point of view. However, what I am trying to emphasise is the fact that 6.9 million people in Singapore will also means about 10000 per square kilometer. This is one thing that Singapore can be number one for. The competition will definitely increase due to cause and effect. At 4 million population, stress and competitiveness is steadily increasing. Perhaps this might led to kiasu parents website. I used to have a friend started learning trigonometry in P6. Thus, I had to also catch up with that friend who was a new Singapore Citizen. Perhaps this is why I am so kiasu. Luckily, now I am way ahead of him, learning calculus :).