雙語閱讀：中國貓爸軟實力逐漸超虎媽

摘要：世界各地都一樣，當中產階層的父母養育第一個孩子時，尤其是當孩子準備開始上學時，都會一時喪失理智。我們都聽說過中國的虎媽，不過據我所知，其他國家也不乏這種兇猛的“貓科動物”。

All over the world, the middle classes taketemporary leave of their senses when they beartheir first child and especially when junior is ready tostart school. We all know about China’s Tiger Mums,but as far as I can see, other countries haveferocious felines too.

Chinese mums are not the only ones loading their tiny ones up with after-school classes, tomake sure they do well in college entrance exams (China’s own version of this — the dreadedgaokao — finishes on June 9).[NB CHINA’S COLLEGE ENTRANCE EXAMS RUN JUNE 7-8 INMOST PARTS OF THE COUNTRY, HENCE THE REFERENCE TO HOW IT HAS “JUST FINISHED” ONJUNE 9]

世界各地都一樣，當中產階層的父母養育第一個孩子時，尤其是當孩子準備開始上學時，都會一時喪失理智。我們都聽說過中國的虎媽，不過據我所知，其他國家也不乏這種兇猛的“貓科動物”。

並不是只有中國媽媽會帶着小孩去上補習班，確保孩子在大學入學考試中取得好成績。就在6月9日，可怕中國的大學入學考試——高考，剛剛結束。

I sent my first daughter to pre-school at 20 months, convinced that if she waited to start withall the other two-year-olds, she would never get into Harvard.

我大女兒1歲8個月大時，我就送她去了幼兒園。當時我相信如果等她兩歲再跟其他孩子一起入托，她肯定永遠考不進哈佛大學(Harvard)。

By that time, she had already completed courses in baby music, baby swimming, babygymnastics, baby Chinese (and doubtless some other dumb thing that I have since forgottenabout). Last week she finished sitting final exams for her first year of high school. I am notprepared to disclose the results but I think I can safely say that I could have waited on thewhole pre-school thing — at least until she could talk.

其實在入托前她已經上完了許多課程，包括嬰兒音樂、嬰兒游泳、嬰兒體操、嬰兒漢語……我肯定還爲她做了其他很蠢的安排，不過我已經想不起名字了，因爲實在太蠢了。上週她剛考完了高一最後一門期末考試。我並不準備公佈她的成績，但我可以肯定地說，我其實沒必要那麼早送她去幼兒園——至少應該等她能說話時再送。

It seems I am not the only one having a rethink on the idea of academic training for toddlersthough, even in China. One of the most popular series on Chinese television recently was TigerMum and Cat Dad, about that perennially tortured topic: does ferocity or meekness producethe best gaokao scores? The child in the series has a nervous breakdown due to too muchhomework pressure: I guess that is your answer. It seems it is no longer so obvious that it isa good idea to start cramming kids for university entrance in the same week you take them outof nappies.

現在看來，即便是在中國，反思幼兒學習培訓的觀念的人並不只有我一個人。最近中國的一部熱播電視劇《虎媽貓爸》探討了一個長期困擾着家長們的話題：到底是該嚴厲還是溫和，才能讓孩子取得最好的高考成績?我猜人們會回答，這部電視劇裏的孩子由於作業太多，壓力太大而患上抑鬱症。對於家長來說，讓剛摘掉尿布的嬰兒早早開始填鴨式高考教育，似乎不再是個好主意。

“Parents born in the 1980s, unlike their predecessors, are more aware of the importance of thehappiness of their child at kindergarten, instead of just the development of their academiccapacities,” the official China Daily quoted the general manager of Kids R Kids in China assaying.

官媒《中國日報》(China Daily)援引Kids R Kids駐華總經理的話說：“80後父母與上輩人不同，他們更能意識到孩子去幼兒園更重要的是快樂，而不再僅僅關注孩子學業能力的進步。”

They would say that, wouldn’t they, since Kids R Kids is a US early education company whosemotto is “hug first, then teach”. You can’t sell that kind of thing to Tiger Mum — but theremust be more Cat Dads out there than before. Otherwise who will Kids R Kids peddle classes inthings like infant sign language and “lying on the belly with friends” to?

當然了，人們肯定會說，這是因爲Kids R Kids是一家美國早教公司，其座右銘是“先擁抱孩子，再教授知識”。虎媽是不會接受這套說辭的，不過現在的貓爸肯定比以前多。否則Kids R Kids向誰推銷譬如嬰兒手語，“與朋友們趴着玩兒”這類課程呢?

The government also seems to be more on Cat Dad’s side these days: changes in officialeducation regulations introduced in Shanghai this year halved the number of childreninterviewing for slots in highly competitive private kindergartens and primary schools,according to state media. Shanghai Daily said the goal was to “ease the parent frenzy aboutgetting offspring into the best schools”. Sounds like feline fathers are getting the upper handthere, too.

近來政府似乎更站在貓爸的一邊：根據中國官方媒體的報道，今年上海出臺教育條例改革，使競爭極爲激烈的民辦幼兒園和民辦小學的入學面試報考人數減半。《上海日報》(Shanghai Daily)表示，改革的目標是“緩解家長對於擇校的焦慮心態”。聽起來，貓爸們似乎逐漸佔了上風。

State media gave this as an example of the kind of question primary school interviewers mightask: You have a 5m pole. If you take a deep breath and climb up 2m, but then slip down 1meach time, how many deep breaths will you have to take before reaching the top?” I’m glad theydidn’t ask my high schooler that.

對於參加小學入學面試的孩子們要回答的問題，官方媒體給出了一個例子：有一個5米的爬杆。如果你深吸一口氣能爬高兩米，但每次都會滑下1米，你需要深呼吸幾次才能爬到杆頂?我很高興我上高中的孩子過去沒被問到這個問題。

Yang Huiyu is a young dad with a child entering primary school next academic year, and hethinks pre-school cramming is a waste of money: he holds up a maths test from such a school— which even includes a few algebra questions — and points out that children only have alimited period to answer the questions. Not for him, he says: “It’s just a matter of time, mychild will learn this in school anyway,” adding that if his son is given more than an hour and ahalf of homework per night, “I’ll ask him to take the unfinished work back to the teacher.”

楊輝宇(音譯)是一位年輕的父親，他的孩子下學年就要上小學了。他認爲學前填鴨式教育完全是浪費錢：他拿起一張這種學校提供的數學測試題，裏面甚至包含幾個代數問題，他指出孩子們只有有限的時間回答這些問題。他不認同這一做法，說：“這只是時間問題，我的孩子遲早會在學校裏學到，”他還補充說，如果兒子每天晚上的作業量超過了一個半小時，“我會讓他把沒完成的作業還給老師。”

Like many Chinese parents these days, he plans to administer after-school education himself— in a fun way. “I can teach him about physics by telling him the story of Archimedes while he’sin the shower,” he says. I hope my kids learnt that at school, since I surely wasn’t up toteaching them physics at bath time (and if you’re rusty on it, I can suggest a good infant cramschool). Will he send his son for extra lessons after he finishes his primary school day? “Definitely not, unless he wants to,” says Mr Yang. Don’t let Tiger Mum hear you say that.

和現在的很多中國家長一樣，他計劃自己給孩子實施課後教育——用一種寓教於樂的方式進行。他說：“他洗澡的時候，我會給他講阿基米德的故事，教他物理知識。”我希望我的孩子能在學校裏學到這些，因爲我過去肯定沒打算在孩子洗澡的時候教他物理(如果你的物理生疏了，我可以給你推薦一個很好的幼兒補習班)。我問他會不會在孩子放學後送他去補習班?“絕對不會，除非他自己想去，”楊說。這番話可不能讓虎媽聽到。