Okay I know this is c/greentext and its not a serious comm, still just wanna infodump lol:

So… in 1st grade I was in China…

I remember them doing National Anthem… very similar to the US lol (as in the ritual, not the melody lol)

They use rulers to hit kids lol… 😭

I lucked out because my family emigrated…

Forgot if I ever got hit by a teacher… if I did, I must’ve deleted that memory since it sounds kinda traumatizing…

And they made us RECITE AN ENTIRE STORY! (Children’s story, but still) They made us stay afterschool for that 😭

I STILL REMEMBER the 9x9 times table “poem” thingy from first grade, it’s forever burned into my head (okay this might be 2nd grade tbf, forgot when I learned it exactly)

Article I found: https://yoyochinese.com/blog/Learn-Chinese-Multiplication-Rhyme-Time-Tables)

Oh yes I can sing the Chinese national anthem¹ + the American one too…

they played it too much the melody is forever stored in my hippocampus

(¹Okay I might have looked up the exact lyrics later on as a teen…)

And if I sing both, I get both sides to hate me… xD

I feel like that kindergarden, 1st, 2nd grade… just those few years of school there makes me very distinct from ABCs (American-Born Chinese).