As a Vietnamese-Australian, I feel so grateful living in Australia with its amazing education system and opportunities. 

Understandably, Vietnam and Australia’s education system are very different. Vietnam’s study ideology is stressful and difficult while in Australia we study less for more gain.  

We have all heard about the ‘Asian parent stereotype’ where if the child does not achieve their parent’s high expectation they are punished. Well, Vietnamese parents can be harsh but it is embedded in their culture. It is very competitive due to its population and limited opportunities for employment. As a size comparison, Vietnam’s population (95 million), is four times bigger than Australia’s, but Vietnam is around 23 times smaller than Australia. 

School is better for the Australian students, so Australian students should not be complaining about school. They don’t have to go through the long gruelling routine of high school as Vietnamese students do but have more free time for extracurricular activities like camping, sports or music and quality time with family and friends. 

Vietnam’s school holidays are prolonged and yet Australian students are complaining that our holidays are too short. 

Australia’s school holidays are split up into four breaks whereas Vietnam is stuck with one big holiday from June the 1st to August the 15th each year. 
Australian students are so fortunate to have this type of flexibility through having four breaks instead of one. This allows us to catch up on homework, extra study and to have fun. 

The downsides of a longer holiday and one break only puts stress on students because it is a nine and a half month study time with no breaks in Vietnam. My cousins went through this cycle from 7am school start to 12pm then in the afternoon to do extra study through tutoring. 

This is torturous and agonizing, through excess studying to late nights for the person’s social health, mental health and physical health. 

My grandma, being a shareholder of Ho Chi Minh’s TAFE of Technology, and former university lecturer has told me that I am so fortunate to be in Australia. This is because I don’t have the stress and depression like the majority of Vietnamese students do as she has experienced with them. 

“People like your parents worked and studied hard to get into Australia while you get it easy” - Grandma 

My cousins went through a period of stress and it impacted their social, mental and physical life. I observed that when they were here in Australia they found it hard to socialise with other people and even our family due to the lack of spending valuable time with family or their friends in their youth due to their lifestyle back in Vietnam. 

Young people here are more sociable and friendlier than in Vietnam but I’m not saying that for every person in Vietnam, just those that I know. At my school many people are more joyful and friendly with each other which is great. People are closer to their family and friends and are not as stressed and depressed with the burden of study. 

So don’t complain about your holidays being too short and how school sucks because we are living in a fruitful country whom other people strive and work hard to go to.