I’ve been watching Crash Course in Romance, and it shows the extreme lengths Korean parents go to when it comes to their kid’s academics. This comes up in every K-drama that focuses on high schoolers.
Like Koreans, Nigerians value education and often have high expectations for their children’s academic achievements, but here’s how Nigerian parents enforce it differently.
They’ll never stalk your lesson teacher
Sorry to Korean parents, but Nigerian parents aren’t jobless. They won’t even remember your lesson teacher’s name unless you fail after they’ve wasted their money. Why would they waste their fuel or transport like that? The mum in Crash Course In Romance stalked her daughter’s after-school teacher, with her child in the car, like it’s normal. And she later hired a detective to do the same thing.
RELATED: The Horrible Practices in High School K-drama that Nigerians Can Relate To
What’s their business with what you do after school?
In K-drama, the parents are always pressed about what their kids do with their time after school. But if Nigerian parents think for a second that you’re playing too much, they’ll just lock you in boarding school. Someone will give them your gist without them making effort anyway.
How you pass is up to you. Just pass
Nigerian parents expect you to pass by divine understanding and a few low-budget lesson teachers. Korean parents enrol their children in private academies called “hagwons“, after school or on weekends, to supplement their regular education. Korean mums stand in long queues to make sure their kids get the best seats in front of the board, pay an arm and a leg to get their kids into top tutorial centres and might even kill if need be.
They won’t bully the person who does better than you
In Crash Course in Romance, a mum made sure a child got kicked out of a program just because she did better than her daughter. Nigerian parents will be proud of your competition and ask you if they have two heads. Your beef is not their beef.
Limiting your social activities
As a Nigerian kid, what even is a social life? If you want one, wait till you’re a doctor with three children. This is probably the one thing both parents have in common. But Korean parents go the extra mile by tracking their kids’ phones or picking you up from school themselves.
They won’t move just to be close to better schools
No, no. Nigerian parents don’t inconvenience themselves for you. You better get used to that four-hour-a-day commute because they’ll send you to that good school, but move closer to it? Never.
Or relocate to a different country
My brother in Christ, your best bet as a Nigerian kid is to learn how to take care of yourself because you’ll relocate alright, but alone. In Our Blues, a dad who was struggling to provide for his family moved abroad for his child’s golfing career and education. And the child still wanted to quit after everything. Imagine trying that with a Nigerian dad.
You must take responsibility for your bad test scores
Nigerian parents only intervene with prayer, shouting, flogging, and when they’re sure your head is actually just a basket, they get a lesson teacher. In high school K-drama, parents will blame themselves for not waking their kids up or taking them to school on time, or having enough money to pay for tutorials. Culture shock for real.
I can’t even tell which is worse, the ones who stress you out and make you forget you’re a kid or the ones who don’t stress you out but still keep you from enjoying your childhood. Sha, we move.
READ ALSO: Korean Parents Are Nigerian Parents in Disguise, Here’s Why
