My Global Bookshelf : Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, by Amy Chua

Unlike your typical Western mother, the Chinese mother believes that: 1. Schoolwork always comes first 2. An A-minus is a bad grade. 3. Your children must be two years ahead of their classmates in maths. 4. You must never compliment your children in public. 5. If your child ever disagrees with a teacher or coach, [...]

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The Expat Life, or the art of taking life-altering decisions in the blink of an eye

If your partner works for an international organization, the kind that seems to not give a hoot about the families trailing behind, the process goes something like this. You’ve been at your duty station long enough to know that you must start studying rotation lists. In some cases, you wait for those vacancy bulletins with [...]

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Rant : Do NOT make a mockery of piano playing and music, please.

Growing up in our family, music was THE most important thing right after school work. We didn’t do sports. We did music. My sister, brother and I all played at least one instrument. (I tried the cello, on top of the piano at some stage.) Our week was divided between school, and running to the [...]

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