11 Things All Asian Kids Grew Up With

Hey guys, welcome back. So today we're gonna be talking about our childhood and if you guys are Asian, Asian-American, Asian-Australian, I think you'll be able to relate to these feels. Yeah, exactly. We have a list of things that if you can relate to this, you probably are Asian. All right, number one. So growing up as an Asian-American or as an Asian-Australian, I'm sure you've had Saturday school or Sunday school, some equivalent of that. Yes, the bane of my existence. So this is where you go there and learn Mandarin because your parents forced you to do it. Right. And did you take it seriously though? For me, it was like, because it was on a Saturday and it wasn't normal school, I felt like I could do anything I wanted. And you had these like lame little backpacks and textbooks. But actually now looking back, I should have put more effort into it because I'm like, dang it, now I don't know Mandarin or now I don't know Cantonese and I could have. That's true. I speak Mandarin at a five-year-old level and it's because I didn't pay attention to it. Let's do a really simple Mandarin conversation. Do we have to? Oh my God, you know what's the worst? When you start a sentence and it's like, you ask it in Mandarin or Cantonese and so they expect you to know and then they start talking and you're like, oh, it's too late to back out now. Okay, next, if you had Asian parents, I'm sure you will relate to this. It's when your parents always compare you to their friends' children. There's always someone who did better than you. Whether it's real or not, it's there to just, I guess, push us to be better. And to reach maximum potential, I get it. And I always used to be like, why can't you compare me to these people? I'm so much better than them. Yeah, look at that guy, he doesn't even have a job. He's in prison, you know? Oh, this is so you! Run free tiger. Ah! God, where did you blow that from? From my pants, it came out of my pants. This is something that also was passed down to my parents. It's using Tiger Balm for literally everything. I mean, Tiger Balm can be used for nausea, soreness, insect bites, for stuffy noses. It can heal gunshot wounds. It's great for, I'm just kidding. It's great for everything, though. Yeah, every time I smell this, it takes me back to this time that my grandma would make me rub her wrinkly back with Tiger Balm, because she'd be like, it hurts. And I'd be like, I don't get it. If you guys haven't smelled it or come across this, it's kind of minty, tingly. And when you put it on, it's kind of like heated. Yeah, it's like Bengay. So the next thing is when Halloween came around, it just never seemed to work out the right way in my house. It's either you had the lights off so that no one came and TP'd your house, or you left a bowl of candy outside, of weird random junk that's collected in the kitchen cupboard. When I got a ring on the doorbell Halloween, I was like, oh my God, mom is gonna open it. And clearly we don't have candy. So she goes into the pantry and just brings out all these stale biscuits, or it's not even in the same realm of candy. She might as well have brought out dumplings and given them dumplings. And then you're wondering why your house is getting TP'd. Yeah, and then it makes sense to just have your lights off. But yeah, Halloween is big in some neighborhoods. People decorate their houses, and it's like this whole excitement, and then I'm not a part of it. All right, so the next one, if you guys went to school, which I hope you guys all went to school, and lunchtime came around, and you're like, yay, time to eat, open the container, and it's like. Right, everyone else has like sandwiches or pizza, Lunchables. It's like hot food usually. Yeah, and then it condensated, because in the morning when your mom packed it, it was hot, but by the time it's lunch, it's like dripping. You know, everyone else has things you can trade. It's like, oh, I got my cookies, you know, I have a cool jello thing. I'll give you this sandwich for, you know, yeah. Do you want a handful of rice for your cookies or something? Can I offer you a piece of beef? Like, I think our meals were more nutritious. And they're actually really delicious. The main point is the smell in my locker. And then I guess like along the same lines, when you go on road trips, there's always tea eggs. Tea eggs, yeah, zongzi, zongzi, right? Which are actually quite good, you know? They're delicious. You know, my favorite thing in life is like tea egg. You know, it's interesting because back when I was a kid, I always felt like I was missing out, but now if you think about it, like road stop restaurants suck. It's like McDonald's, KFC, but we're usually the only people using the picnic benches outside of the road stop. Everyone else is like chilling inside and we're like full out, spread, like out on the stern tables and everything. So cute. So having like immigrant parents, like obviously we're pretty poor. So everything that we had of worth was usually wrapped or protected, including like TV, remotes, couches, car seats. So the TV remote would have the plastic wrap. The couch would have some sort of knitted blanket quilt thing and then in the car would be like those wooden pearls. Which are horrible. You get like pinched by them. You know what I mean? It's just like, I know like I had Italian friends who also had, they like would have the whole like living room wrapped up in plastic. So I guess, I think this one's more for like, not just Asians, but immigrants. It's like protecting things that are really- You know what blows my mind though? Like you buy this couch and you spend so much time deciding which to have to get, only to have it fully covered. That is true. But with the plastic wrap, I mean, it's a good thing because if you spill drinks or food while you're watching TV. Until it gets to summer and then your body sticks to it. It's like, I need a sound effect. It's like. The grading system. According to your parents, anything below an A plus or an A was regarded as a fail. An Asian F. Glee mentions it. A minus was an Asian F. Yeah. There's like a different, you know, standard I think with Asian parents. I think in China, it's just so competitive. Yes. For people to get, like it's all about tests. It's all about grading in school. So if you got an A minus, you are Asian F. Actually affects me. I think I had this and it's Asian parents hoarding stuff. Oh my God, yes. Plastic bags. Plastic containers. Like boxes for appliances. I have like a room in my parents' house full of boxes for appliances. But also like if they go traveling, they hoard the little shampoos and steal the hotel shampoos and conditioners. It's like the resourcefulness is directly tied to a lot of our parents were immigrants. And then like, yeah, I mean, it wasn't easy. So like, hey, if that means hoarding supplies. If you can find a use for it, you know, why not? I still do it today. I do it too. I have a cabinet full of plastic bags in the office. I don't know why. I don't know why because there's nothing for me to use them for. It's like a reflex. All right, so the next one concerns our free time. So during school, after school, all my friends used to just like watch TV, blah, blah, blah, on weekends. How dare you? But for Asians, growing up in an Asian household, free time is synonymous to, you're either studying more and perfecting the art of mathematics or violin or piano. Or all of those things at the same time. Yeah, all of the above. Whenever my parents got me something for my free time, it was an investment. It wasn't just for having fun. An intellectual investment. Exactly. So you guys all know of those herbal stores you see that sell all these dried powders. Many of them made from illegal animal parts. Cusks of elephants and turtles. Like rhinos, tiger faces. Yeah. So my grandma, every time I was sick or was developing a cold or had a fever, she would make this concoction of brown soupy stuff and it would smell so bad and make me drink it. Like forcefully shove it down my throat. And she's like, this is good for you. I remember that was one of my earlier memories, having to drink nasty stuff. Yeah. It was traumatizing. It was always such a struggle to finish these. And it was like huge. It's not like Western medicine where it's like a pill or it's like a little. Yeah, you down it and it's done. It's like a soup. It's a cauldron. But yeah, that brings us to the end of the video. How many of these could you guys relate to? I'm sure it'll have to be at least like a 90% rate. 90%, I think so, yes. These are pretty much standard things that like if there's a handbook about being Asian, it's gonna be in that. Should we write one? Oh my God, that'd be so fun. We should just write that. And like, which one would you pass on to your children or your future children? Or did these things scar you and you wanna raise your kids completely different? Yeah, it's like, I'm never gonna do that to my child. So yeah, let us know in the comment section. And don't forget to like and subscribe. Yeah, the button will be here. No, it's gonna be here. Anyway, thanks for watching guys and we'll see you in the next one. Bye.