Hong Kong: Help

By Christina (Age 14, German Swiss International School)

In Hong Kong, it's not unusual to find a home with two helpers or more. It's also usually expected for people to have drivers and for the kids in that family to go to tutors. People who grow up here have generally been born with silver spoons in their mouths, and grow up pampered with constant help with everything.

Photo via Wikimedia Commons

Parents work in a society where everyone sends their children to extra tutoring after school to help them improve their grades to straight-A's. Then they are sent home by their driver in their private car, where their two helpers will then cook them dinner. This makes many students spoiled, and lets them become so used to the extra help that they don't learn to do things by themselves. It then becomes normal for people to say that they don't know how to do their laundry, or do the dishes.

These are things that kids are meant to learn how to do from a young age, when they are given chores to do around the house. It shouldn't wait until they're about to leave for university when they have to learn how the washing machine works. Having helpers in Hong Kong means helpers do all the house work. This prevents children from knowing their responsibilities. They should be learning from a young age that they can't just sit in their room all day, as they should be helping around the house: something that they will have to do in their later life when they start working and have their own house or flat to take care of.

Parents pamper their children too much, as they themselves have either also been raised like that, or they earned their way up there so they want their children to have more comfortable lives. Students are spoiled with the fact that they have too much help, up to the point when many don't even pay attention in class because they know they have an extra tutor for that subject later that day to explain to them what they weren't paying attention to in school.

It is good that people can live more comfortable lives, but this shouldn't result in laziness. They should be able to know their limits, and do things when necessary. They can't always depend on help.

In conclusion, I think that people in Hong Kong have been over-pampered with help, and that this should be fixed in some way. People shouldn't grow up too spoiled, and not learn about how lucky they really are that they have this help.