Slow-to-Start

The thoughts of a mother, on HOW her child is smart, translated…

Since my daughter was younger, she’d not been outstanding, she was, a bit, timid too, I’d once, worried in secret, that she may be, mentally slow.  She isn’t like her older brother, everybody’s attention in a group, it seemed, that nothing, can arouse her interests, seeing how in just one year, she will enter into middle school, I’d become, extremely anxious, like my worries are about to, cause me internal damages, but I believed, deep down, that every child is smart in her/his own ways, it’s just, that how the child is smart, hadn’t been, discovered yet, and, as parents, we have, NO reason, to give up on her!  In the end, I’d, decided, to shoulder the responsibilities, to homeschool my daughter for a year, during this period of time, I’d taken her out all over the places, done everything.

Until she’d wanted to understand the dialogues in the Japanese animated features, she’d started, learning Japanese on her own, everything fell into, its, rightful places.  Luckily, the middle school she went to has a foreign language program, ever since, she’d, started, shining bright, in the area of Japanese, and, found her place, in the groups among her own peers.  In her first year of middle school, she’d, passed the examinations for a level four qualifications test in Japanese, and, her participation became, vital in the sister school in Japan, the ugly duckling finally, turned into a beautiful swan.

As the rest of her class faced the trials of tests, she’s one of two in her class who’d, selected a technical high school.  Of course, she’d, struggled and doubted, but we’d, encouraged her, to go toward her own areas of interests, to continue learning Japanese, before she finished the first year of applied foreign languages department, she’d, passed the level one Japanese examinations, it’d, shocked the rest of her school’s teachers and students, “interest is the BEST kind of instructor”, this was, proven on my daughter.  She also got, successfully, selected, to the “Taiwanese High School as Foreign Exchange Student to Japan” program hosted by the Japanese-Taiwan Foundation, became the very FIRST exchange students who got their tuitions paid for by the government, and studied alongside the Japanese high school students locally.

In that year, she’d experienced the life in Japan, whether it be getting along with her fellow classmates, or the daily living in her boarding family, or the culture, she’d, paid very close attention, and recorded everything down, and, all of her experience she’d written about online, received great accord, she’d also, gotten discovered by a publisher, they’d wanted to, put her experiences living and studying in Japan, into a book, to share it with the readers.

illustration from the papers online…

A stupid flies slowly, directly translated into “The bird’s too stupid, so it flew, slower”, but I’d much rather believe, that even if the bird is stupid, it will, eventually, take flight!  So long as it’d, mapped a course of its own life, never giving up, it can still, reach its, destination.

My daughter isn’t stupid, she’s just, using her own way, to walk on a path, all her own.

And so, thankfully, this young woman’s parents NEVER pushed her, or compared her to her older siblings, they’d, allowed her, to go at her own speed, and, surely enough, she’d, found what she’s good at, and, excelled at it.  That just shows, that every child IS intelligent, in her/his own way, if the child is slow to learn, that doesn’t mean that s/he is stupid, it may just mean, that s/he hadn’t found anything, that peaked her/his interests yet, and once s/he’d found something that peaked her/his interests, you can be certain, that the child will, soar, HIGHER than the rest!