A Mother’s Emotional Journey: 15-Year-Old Studying in New Zealand for a Month

We’ve been in New Zealand for a month, and I’m sharing this briefly for parents who might need it. Things are good back home, no need to criticize! We’re just here to enrich our life experiences!

In the end, we still had to get tutoring for Yuange, in English, vocabulary, grammar, and math. All classes are in English. Tenth grade is very important, and we hope that by the end of this year, we can catch up with the language.

I was quite laid-back at first, but Macleans is really more competitive [crying with laughter] (though not as much as back home, it’s a big difference!)

It’s almost been a month since we came to New Zealand for his studies. Yuange has gone from understanding very little to about 90% of what he hears, and from being too scared to speak to being able to say a little bit. He’s made progress in language, and he’s not anxious because he’s made many good friends with Chinese classmates.

I’m very grateful! Back home, he used to go to school at 7:30 in the morning and come back at 9:30 at night, and all weekends were spent on tutoring, leaving no time for hobbies. Here, Yuange goes diving, cliff jumping, swimming, beachcombing, mountain biking, and participates in sports meets where all students are required to take part in 200m, 800m, 1500m, high jump, long jump, shot put, discus.

.. In school, PE classes even take up time from math classes, which is unimaginable back home. He’s gotten much tanner and stronger, and even though he eats more, he’s actually lost weight [crying with laughter]. Once, when he came home, he told me that back in China, he was afraid of making mistakes, saying the wrong thing, or getting low scores, but here, he’s not afraid because the teachers always praise and encourage him, whether at school or in tutoring.

There hasn’t been a single time when he didn’t want to go to school because of the language barrier; he’s always happy. When I ask him how it is, he says it’s great and he wants to learn more. The teachers say “Good boy! Well done!” every day. It’s like brainwashing [smiling face with tears of joy], but it’s definitely working for Yuange.

He’s very positive, optimistic, and confident in his studies.

New Zealand is beautiful, and while Yuange is at school, we’re at home enjoying the mountains and water, but it’s also quite boring… I handle the business of my company back home from 3:00 PM to midnight New Zealand time, which is my busy period. My parents are just cooking, cooking, cooking… During the week when we switched cars, it was really inconvenient, and the international version of Didi is so expensive [crying with laughter].

I’m a person who likes to share, so feel free to ask, and I’ll answer [heart emoji]