My parents are not civil servant, so I did not enjoy the heavy subsidy that the Government used to provide to SINGAPORE children who studied in overseas universities. My parents have to pay the expensive high fees in the UK University. I did not get a smooth ride, but man-made hardship and negligence + denial by the University officials. In the TV drama, there is a nasty step-brother who tried to exploit the new-comer sister everyway that he could. The British universities are even worse than that, in the way that they exploit and extort SINGAPORE students in terms of Basic Rights and Family Fortune. Even more recklessnessly.
I have talked to other Civil Servant children who got the British Citizenship for their whole family. The UK university still deny them to pay the local student fee (around 2,000-00 GBP) but insist they have to pay the high fees for overseas students.
Since I was young, my parents provided all I need, like a bicycle and a computer etc. I have been a nice, well-behaving, hard working and brilliant at all my studies. I went for one of the most intensive course in an UK university. But the arrogant British put me into a nousy tiny storage area underneath the staircase and called it the spare room. The space is so small; I hardly could extend my arms there. The furniture was old, tiny and wobbly. It is just ridiculous when compare to all other British students on the same floor who got single room that was big enough to park 2 normal size cars.
For university course, British University Education cost more than double than a same degree course in any university in Hong Kong. Beside the difference in the tuition fees and living expenses, there are employment restrictions as well. Nowadays, British University charges the whole year tuition in advance even the students might have scholarship and loans coming in. In Britain, Singapore and Singapore Students are simply the MILK COW for the British Economy. The local student only paid one-third of what the Singapore student paid. Furthermore, their Local Education Authority (LEA) will lend them all the tuition fees and let them have some living expenses too. On the other hand, it could cost Singapore parents up to 150,000 annually. [They got 17.5% Valued Added Tax / Sales Tax for most of the supermarket goods and Restaurants]. For secondary school, the average cost is more than 200,000-00 SINGAPOREdollars per year. It is enough to cover the construction of a front yard swimming pool in many countries. Why it worth so much money? It is never justifiable. It is simply because of their parents studied in English, it is good to know that their children study in English too. When we compare with the top-notch education around the world, Germany and Japanese use their own mother-tongue language to teach. Their English is not the best but the quality of their products is the highest. The British People are not as friendly as Canadian or Australian, the arrogant-for-nothing British accent is worse than the crystal-clear American accent.
Did you realised that:
In UK, there are a lot of confusing Indians there, as many Indians came to Britain when India became independent. Their accent is the worst in the world and their minds are just simply crazy. Many black people behave much better and much more educated than the always smiling-for-nothing Indian people. Your children might come across with the Indian medical doctors that are well known for their clumsiness. On the other hand, those Islam and Muslim students never play fair during exam; they got a variety of cheap tricks during examination. For example, one of them will keep on shaking their legs during the whole examination as long as he thinks that you work harder than he does. At the end of the exam, I complained to the teacher for such incident. She simply said, she did not saw it to avoid any further investigation.
For Christian Family, did you know that:
The Christian Churches in UK practice half-Christian and half-Catholic. The worship schedule is about singing for half of the ceremony. It is very different from Christian Schools or Christian Churches in HK. They have booklets in which not only for hymn but also they will repeat the phrases time after time in each ceremony. Pretty much like brain-washing. The priest will read a phrase, then the attendants will say the few words aloud at the end of the sentence, like fill in the blanks. The wordings are stipulated in the booklet. Not so much about strengthening of inner-self and keep it to yourself. But reinforce the theme of: Catholic are cool, Condemn all the damn, Conquer every single con. They called themselves Churches of England, but they are as manipulative as a Catholic religious Cult.
I have studied in UK before, what I¡¦ve got is: continuous bullying [pushing around] and mis-treatment from the UK university. Most Singapore students get the worst rooms in the British School accommodation. Always in a weird corner, size is tiny and an inhumane place to live in. I was put in a storage room that was under the staircase. It is tinier than the maid bedroom or the closet of a master bedroom. I could not move at all if put my bicycle inside, this shows how tiny it was. The furniture is old and extremely tiny. This is in contrast to other single student¡¦s bedroom on the same floor, the room is big enough for them to park their cars inside. We were all paying the same single room fees. Once and once again, these things happen to every Singapore student. Not just me. It is just because British are arrogant towards foreigners and the Singapore students are too polite and speechless to make a complaint even the situation is unbearable. British look at us as tiny slave in one of their many colonies and they created unfair hardship for all Chinese students. Other British parents use their car to help their children to move in, does the Chinese parent take an extra suitcase, fly there and see the room that their devoted child will be living ? They could get a shock and will get 2 returns tickets immediately afterward.
For any uninformed parents who are thinking to bet their salaries on their children UK education :
>> It would be better to go there to have a good look to see what it really like. The sunny picture in British Universities Prospectus never do any justice to the real foggy weather
>> I did make this serious mistake for my life; I don't want to see any decent human being following my path. This is the reason why I wrote to you.
In the past, fluency in English did have a competitive advantage esp for Civil Service Jobs. Nowadays, unless UK universities offer intensive Mandarin training. There is no obvious advantage to be a graduate from an English University. Just imagine, would they pass the Civil Servant benchmark test in Chinese after staying few years in UK?
Very few Singapore parents really know what Britain is like. There are a lot of confusing Indians there. In cities like London, Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow, Indian made up a big portion of the student population.
British always bloat about how good the British Systems are --that is unfounded, just PR activity of BBC. The UK University will offer places for SINGAPORE students to boost up their income too. If your children could get some offer, keep as many as possible. Then use the UK offer to apply to any Universities in Singapore for their ideal course. The same method could be used by other current students who came back in summer, Why not writing to the Department Head in any University in SINGAPORE to see whether a credit transfer to SINGAPORE universities is possible and finished the degree in HK. This way, the job prospect will be very much improved. In my opinion, even the equipment in City University are much modern than those found in UK. Many UK universities have not updated their computing equipment since 1980s. Similar circumstance in Engineering Departments Laboratories. It could not be as wise investment to look up the British as they are the Kings and Queens while your children being treated like hell, in a refugee-type accommodation.
There is a Chinese idioms, well-known among china town:
Â^°ê¤H ¦n½a ¦n½â ¦n¶Â¤H¼¨ It is so true.
[British People are very poor, very nasty, just nuisance group]
Other well known widespread problems in UK : soft drug and nicking. Marijuana and ecstasy are very popular among the British public especially teenagers. Unlike Hong Kong, they do not see that as a big problem, they even have a public opinion to legalise such drug. Most British are so laid back: they are against New Technology and fast speech too. Ironically, this is what SINGAPORE people are used to, British use these to form the basis of prejudice judgment. In the past, I bought an expensive Franklin electronic dictionary, some British keep on saying the American pronunciation is wrong so as to express their jealousy on new technological products, while they can¡¦t speak clearly. Eventually, it was stolen in a British Airport by some young British children who sit next to me. They called it Nicking - a slang term for Stealing. British are unsophisticated, arrogant and jealous ¡V especially when SINGAPORE students get ahead of them in grades. Very different culture than SINGAPORE people.
Though looking happy, independent, excited and eager to explore a new environment; deep down in the students hearts, all students are suffering from the loneliness of leaving all their closest family and friends, and leave the Chinese environment. Facing new friends, new school, new hallmates, it had to be tough so as to survive. The students face many problems and some unforeseen situations, being abandoned, they had to solve those problems all by themselves. Independent would be difficult when Singapore students face constant bullying by their own kind and other white students. What the goodwill parents are actually doing? Putting their children in an expensive private orphanage overseas. British treat Singapore students just like orphan refugee. In reality, the parents just put their students in mentally handicap British schools because the Singapore schools of their choice got no place for their own children. The level of mathematics and science in Britain is well below the average standard of schools in Hong Kong. In the last few years, the GCSE O-level examination standard has dropped dramatically. It is not all right for their children to go into a Band 3 secondary schools because of pride, what is the rationale to send their children to a handicap-alike school overseas ? What is the point of spending life saving for an unworthy BritiSHIT education? Will it be better to save up those money and buy a Real House with a real green lawn. An annual 200,000-00 dollar for a secondary school place is just over-priced, the education services has not even seen before purchases. Does it make any sense ? at all ?
For any devoted parents considering British Schools for the Beverly-Hill budget type of education, Australian and American students pay the same fees as the overseas students for their University Education, they are much friendlier than the arrogant British. In those countries, Chinese are generally considered to be brighter in science subjects; however, they are all right about that. Unlike UK, jealousy is not an issue when fair competition is the fundamental drive of their economies for centuries. The biggest fear of mankind is Uncertainty, why the Singapore parents would pay a fortune to some mysterious old schools in Britain for an uncertain academic attainment that they knew little about while certain that the British would be biased against Chinese kids ?