Reflections of cultural differences (Confidence in children)
Few years ago, I had a chance to talk with a Thai pediatrician who has been living in the US for a long time.
One of her remaks about one distinct difference of how Americans and Thai raise their children is the Thais seldom give their chlidren encouragement. I think this statement is more or less true....and, may have negative impact to the Thai society in general.
Let us imagine this way;
What the children would develop with small amount of encouragement?
I would make a wild guess that the children would be grown up with timidness, humbleness toward their parents/teachers/elderly, and lacking of confidence.
In a way, it makes the Thai a unique cultural development; a high respect to the elderly, which is a good thing though.
In the contrary, this makes something that I would like to regretably say that it hurts Thai society in general. Lacking of confidence will lead to always-obeying behaviors and, as an ultimate negative outcome, lacking of imaginations.
I don't believe that any country would succeed if people in its society have less imaginary ideas.
I don't know whether or not my assumptions on this are all correct. I believe that giving children encouragement will not hurt anyone, but it, in turns, will give our children to be more confident in themselves. With confidence, they can walk and lead our society to anywhere we would imagine.
โดย: Rive Gauche วันที่: 27 กุมภาพันธ์ 2549 เวลา:7:43:31 น.
My opinion, How to raise the children is so difficult to judge.
Hmm, Thai culture not get along very well with children's confidence. The border of self-confidence and aggressiveness is so thin...
Because I'm single and I have no experince in rasing the child (not any, at all) so I think this should be so far I could try...
P.S. Feel free to correct my mistake, would you please...
โดย: dont wanna no วันที่: 28 กุมภาพันธ์ 2549 เวลา:0:46:19 น.
My girl are 8 and 2 years old. The hardest thing in my life is to raise them in 2 different cultures. I would like my girls to have the self-esteem and confidence at least to be able to sustain themselves in "Hero style" American cultures. At the same time we are trying so hard to teach them about "respect". There is a fine line between being "Aggressive" and "Opinion expressing". Kids are oftenly confused about them.
Most Thais used "Discipline" strategy to raise their children. We tried to draw the border for them and hope they will never cross the line. The cons of this strategy is definitely the limitation of creativity and encouragement.
One thing we learnt from American cultures is we are not the owner of our children life. They have their own path, as long as we watch them closely, give them the opputunity and stand beside them when they fell and encourage them to get up.
================================= Note: My life has been intertwined with works and many others. New responsibility has emerged, resulting less and less time for my ordinary life. Although, a love to write is still intact... But having less time is related to having less imagination.... Therefore, I could not come up with new writings for quite some times.
It might be a good time for me to leave this forum for moment.... Please take it as Mr. A.T. is having a sabbactatical leave or something like that....
As noted above, my love to write is still the same... and will not be changed. Sometimes somehow, I hope I could come back and give some thoughts in this blog once more.
Cheers, Mr. A.T. June 6th, 2008
=================================
Hello,
My pen-name in Pantip is amatuer translator. Actually, I'm a lousy translator with lame translation. My pen-name is somewhat misleading, I have no background in linguistics what-so-ever. Anyway I love to read, write and communicate with people...
Reading is my most favorite hobby. I read everything from shopping bags to articles in theoretical physics. I do research and teaching for my living. So, reading, writing, thinking and doing research works are my everyday routine.
I would like to define myself as a person who is accepting new ideas and adopting those into my way of life.
I believe in power of knowledge/education. I think every society can be a better society with knowledge. Ignorance can be dispelled by it. Humanity can live sustainably and harmoniously with each other along with its biosphere with understandings in the nature surrounding it.
Apart from my philosophical thoughts reflecting who I am, I can tell you something I like or love in particular;
I love dogs.... Particularly, labradore retrievers.... One day, I would like to spend my time and life with them as a big part of my family.
Zhuge Liang is my hero. With his wisdom and faithfulness, he led a tiny army to a mighty and formidable kingdom. He left his humble residence with a hope to come back. But, sadly, he had never returned and died far far away from home in a horse carriage in a battle field. If I could choose where I would, I would say where-ever my lovely wife was nearby.
I value happiness and my family as my first priority. My profession and my philosophy come in the second. Pursuit in wealth has never been in my desire.
I'm glad to be your friend, and look forward to seeing you around krub.
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