Friday, August 19, 2022

A Tale of Two Cultures

On Wednesday night's New Parent orientation... I bumped into a bunch of Cantonese speaking parents.  And we unanimously decided to create a Whatsapp group to combat /circumvent / supplement the WeChat group. Truth be told... I'm a Whatsapp fan.  Maybe cuz most of my friends are Hongkongers and won't even install WeChat for philosophical and political reasons.  But after creating this Whatsapp group... I can totally see the limitations.  Better yet... I can see the ever-growing features of WeChat.

After the Whatsapp group was created... I did something I never did in the WeChat group.  I started throwing stuff out there.  Only to be met by.... crickets.  Silence.  No one says a word.  Conversely... over in WeChat... parents are talking about lunch lines... how to use a locker... which combination lock to buy... how to enroll in Google Classroom.... PE clothes.... on and on.... a lot of humdrum, mundane stuff that's actually quite amusing.  

More amazingly... the mom's in this WeChat group will just randomly form a picnic or a lunch Meet-Up... and do something called 接龍。 And it'll catch on... more people will sign up.  Before you know it... there's a dozen people going to lunch together. Or picnic-ing together.  Or hiking together.  Completely, random strangers.  It's amazing.

Cantos? Hongkongers? Good luck. Oh... and the "American" parents.  They're using Shutterfly as a social platform.  Geez.......... how early 2000's. 

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