China - 我女儿在她的creative writing class的一篇习作

In China they tell you that hard work will get you anywhere. But here in America all you see is lazy people. They come into my shop and ask me to find this or that. How come they don’t look themselves? People in America depend too much on other people for help. And then they pretend they cannot understand me. My English is funny, they say. I bet if they go to China they will see how hard it is to learn another language. American kids act so bah-bi, it means they act like they know everything. They all act like they are rich kids, not humble at all, especially to their elders. I see the kids in America do not know respect. They just burn money and don’t care about anything. ‘Ah, Daddy I want Burberry, I want Gameboy, I want new car.’ And then their parents say “Yes Sir.” Ai ya, in China they ask the same thing and their parents will beat them; ask for so many things and they do no hard work they are asking for beating. Even my kid has become lazy. Always complain to me, but does no hard work to get what he wants. All he does is dream. In China you did not dream, you did what your parents told you. And that is it. If your parents say you become a doctor, you work hard to become doctor. They say the sky is orange and you say “Yes, Sir.” But the world is different now. I don’t expect my son to become a doctor, no way he is not smart enough. But he don’t even try. He is smart, maybe can become engineer, but all he wants to do is dream. Dream of becoming a writer, actor, something useless. Ai ya, we work so hard in America and all he does is give us heart attack. Maybe we should send him back to China; he can work in the rice fields and see when he can have time to dream.

注解 bah-bi－巴闭， 广东话，即很牛的意思