The Student 读书郎

When a family migrates to settle in any western country, the parents immediately realise one of the major differences between the attitudes of parents towards child education. Whilst the eastern cultures of China, India, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Indonesia, emphasis the importance of “being educated” for the young, the western cultures concentrates on play as a centre role for the young - sports, nursery rhymes, war games.

This difference can be seen in top schools in western cities where the majority of the students appear to come from Asian families. Even at university levels, the number of top students from the eastern family backgrounds far outweighs the number from western cultures.

It is little wonder then that the the next British Prime Minister is likely to be from the Indian race although born and bred in the United Kingdom. In Australia, as another example, her Foreign Minister now is a migrant of Malaysia, having been living in Adelaide since her school-going age.

Here is one of the many children’s songs, encouraged and sung by many young students of Chinese origin, emphasising the need for the young to be educated. View the video of this song entitled “Xiao ErLang” or “Little No. 2 Boy”. https://youtu.be/fdWYZce7Pjc

The wordings of the song can be translated as follows:

Xiao Erlang, a student who carries his heavy schoolbag to school every day, sings:

“I’m not afraid of the sun, I’m not afraid of the wind, I’m not afraid of the rain, I’m only afraid of my parents (and society) calling me ‘lazy’.”

“Without knowledge, I’ve no face to see my parents, Without knowledge, how can I face my teachers? And, without knowledge, how can I talk to my friends?”

Little boy, Xiao Erlang, carrying that schoolbag to school, says: “For the sake of the future, and for the sake of face-saving, and for the sake of helping the poor, I have to be educated.”

“With education, we won’t be bullied, With education we’re no longer a cow, or a sheep, Don’t we want to be educated? Don’t we want to be better than the cow or the sheep?”

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NOW, FOR THE CHINESE VERSION OF THIS ARTICLE

现在，让我们阅读这篇文章的中文版.

当一个家庭移民到任何一个西方国家定居时，父母都会立即意识到父母对孩子教育的态度之间的主要差异之一。中国、印度、韩国、马来西亚、新加坡、泰国和印度尼西亚的东方文化强调年轻人“受教育”的重要性，而西方文化则专注于发挥年轻人的核心作用——体育、童谣， 战争游戏。

这种差异可以在西方城市的顶尖学校中看到，那里的大多数学生似乎来自亚洲家庭。即使在大学层面，来自东方家庭背景的优秀学生人数也远远超过来自西方文化的人数。

难怪下一任英国首相很可能来自印度裔，尽管他在英国出生和长大。在澳大利亚，另一个例子是，她的外交部长现在是马来西亚的移民，从她上学的年龄就一直住在阿德莱德。这是众多童歌中的一首，受到许多华裔年轻学生的鼓励和演唱，强调了年轻人接受教育的必要性。观看这首歌名为“小二郎”的视频。

读书郎

作词：宋惕

作曲：宋惕

小嘛小儿郎　背着那书包上学堂 不怕太阳晒也不怕那风雨狂 只怕先生骂我懒哪 没有学问　无脸见爹娘

郎里格郎里格郎里格郎 没有学问　无脸见爹娘.

小嘛小儿朗　背着那书包上学堂 不是为做官也不是为面子光 只为穷人要翻身呀 不受人欺负呀不做牛和羊.

郎里格郎里格郎里格郎 不受人欺负呀不做牛和羊.

小嘛小儿朗 https://youtu.be/ChUZZy-M5sc