When I was less than a year old, my mother sent me off to swimming lessons at the local YMCA. A few lessons later, the instructors asked my mother not to bring me back for a while. Too much screaming! And now that I’m a mother, I take my daughter to swim lessons, hoping not to damage any instructors or, worse yet, her.
This past week was Maeli’s first swim lesson in Cantonese, of which she doesn’t speak. But last fall, Maeli was enrolled in the western style swim lessons, which ran 35USD a lesson. The Chinese lessons cost under 12USD. At three times the price, I decided that the English language really isn’t the most important factor in a swim lesson. Maeli could just get by like I do…with sweeping gestures and looks of confusion.
I brought my domestic helper along, who speaks Cantonese, just in case any disasters struck. Luckily, her translation services weren’t needed.
At the beginning of the class, a dozen Chinese children surrounded Maeli. The swim instructor lead stretches, to which Aaron commented, “a very Chinese thing to do.”
After the stretches, everyone disappeared into the shower area. I assume that all was peachy keen in there, even though a male instructor chaperoned in the girl’s changing/shower area.
Maeli was then sectioned into a group of three boys. The real trick for her was wearing goggles. They make every child wear goggles. In the other class, they didn’t enforce this rule. Why would they? When paying 35USD for a half hour class for a three year old, who wants to listen to the kid scream and fight the instructor for that kind of money? But with the Chinese 12USD lesson, there is a whole hour of instruction. They have time to torture the kids with goggles.
Maeli kept taking her goggles off, and the instructor kept putting them on. Back and forth, back and forth, until the hour was up. I assume this will go on for another few lessons until they break my daughter. I’ve seen this Chinese tactic in the kindergartens, and it works.
But, in the end, the first thing that Maeli said after the class was, “I am happy.” I don’t remember her saying that after the 35USD lessons!
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