From the Great Wall to Great North: Part 1 (Story of Gelato, Growth, and Global Education)

 Escaping Pressure, Embracing Possibility — One Gelato Scoop at a Time                

What happens when you trade cultural tradition for  true freedom?

In this episode, host Debra, the Experient Explorer, sits down with Xin Wang, a Chinese entrepreneur who left behind the intensity of modern life in Nanjing China to start over in Calgary, Canada for education, opportunity and making dreams come true.

We talk about what it was like growing up under China’s competitive, exam-driven education system — and how it shaped Xin's early identity. His stories of  navigating extreme academic pressure reveal the emotional cost of conformity.

Now a gelato shop owner, and soon to be pilot student, Xin shares how Canada’s education and social culture gave him and his family space to explore, question, and rebuild — not just his career, but a philosophy to life

💬 “In China, education was survival. In Canada, it felt like liberation.” - Xin Wang
💬 “Tradition taught me discipline. Canada taught me choice.”- Xin Wang

This is a deeply human story about transformation, cross-cultural courage, and redefining success on your own terms.

🎧 Listen now — and ask yourself: What would you leave behind to start truly living?

 💡 Key Takeaways

 01:45 – Meet Xin Wang: From Nanjing to Calgary
 05:20 – The Pressure Cooker: Education in China
 10:45 – Mental Health and Emotional Suppression
 15:30 – A Pandemic Pause: Life in China During COVID
 21:00 – Culture Shock in Calgary
 26:40 – Starting Over: From Survival Mode to Self-Discovery
 32:30 – East vs. West: Redefining Success
 38:50 – Takeaways: Lessons from a Cross-Cultural Life 

"Freedom isn’t just geographical—it’s emotional. Xin's story reminds us that starting over can be the bravest act of self-love."

Connect with Xin!

Email: tennyson369@gmail.com                                                                                           My gelateria on red note: https://www.xiaohongshu.com/user/profile/613c7b91000000001f03d161?exSource=

📣  If you enjoyed this episode,  download, follow No Borders No Filter, and drop a comment -share with someone curious about culture, identity, or starting over abroad.

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Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DebraExperientExplorer/

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 #NoBordersNoFilter #ExperientExplorer #ChinaVsCanada #ImmigrantVoices #EastMeetsWest #GlobalIdentity #WomenWhoLead #EducationReform #ESL #CollaborationEpisode #Stereotypes #Covid #Pandemic

Transcript

Debra, Host (00:00)
The topic of China. Let's face it that China has gotten a bad rap in the news through the pandemic. Certainly my country, especially where I was watching my home country in the U.S. doing the direct opposite of what I was experiencing in China. You know, I think that was probably one of the conversations definitely we had was this, know, why is China doing things this way? You know, America is not doing this. And like we just went deep on that.

Xin, Guest (00:28)
To say that life compared to what I'm living now in Canada or some of the countries I have been traveling to, it was really convenient. It's mainly because of two things. One is the technology development. The other one is about the population. China has relatively lower labor costs than other countries. What I'm comparing to is the...the developed countries, western countries. Imagine you order something online, you can just have it and maybe in next 30 minutes, and you don't have to tip them. That's true.

Debra, Host (01:05)
You don't tip in China.

Hello and welcome or welcome back to No Borders, No Filter podcast. I'm Debra, the host and the Experient Explorer. Gen X nomad who's been living outside of US borders and looking for my home still.

But right now I'm currently in the Philippines. Imagine leaving everything behind. There are no guarantees, but just hope and inspiration. Moving from Nanjing, China, which is where I met him. And now starting his journey living in Calgary, Canada with his wife and two sons. My guest has some of the...

confidence, beliefs in himself, unlike anyone, honestly, I have ever met in my journey across this planet. And today we are going to talk about dreams, challenges, and what it truly takes to start over. Without further ado, I'm going to introduce Xin Wang. He's an entrepreneur.

in the gelato industry, someone who dreams of becoming an aviator, but he's so much more than that. I met Shin in China during the pandemic. In a previous episode, I shared how difficult it was to go out and enjoy my life during the pandemic. But with my dog, I was able to find Shin's gelato shop.

has kind of a refuge to the mundanity of my life during that time. Hi Shin, how are you too?

Xin, Guest (03:23)
Debra, thanks for allowing me to go in now. Yeah, we now separated by the great Pacific Ocean. Good to see you again. Yeah, we got to know each other during the maybe most difficult time in our life. And now that everything has gone, it's good to see you.

Debra, Host (03:45)
So great to see you, but it's been wonderful to have technology and be able to stay in touch with you. ⁓ All these years later, I do consider Xin one of my dearest friends. For me, a dear friend is not how long you know someone, but the quality of the relationship and the respect that we have for each other. know, Xin is actually one of the people, my go-to people in my life. ⁓

He's just an extraordinary person. What I hope for you, the listener, is to keep your mind open, your ears open to Shin. ⁓ He grew up in China, so he's Chinese. And there's been lots of things in the news in the last several years, especially in America, that really puts us in a very narrow view of

what Chinese people are like, what life is like in China, and so much more. So please stay tuned as Xin is going to unravel stereotypes and share his favorite things about China. And more importantly is why he had the courage to uplift his family and move to the other side of the world to start over. Okay.

I want to give you the platform now. you share with the audience more about your journey?

Xin, Guest (05:17)
Yeah, it's been a pleasure. I grew up in China, in Nanjing, where I met Debra. And actually, I spent most of my time of life in that city. The city has around eight million population, so it's very vital. And we have many opportunities actually there. My major was in automation and mechanical design. I had a great chance to spend five...

fantastic years in automotive industry. I worked for a French company who knows where the fat quarter is in Paris. Working five years in automotive industry taught me massive ⁓ regarding the attitude to working on the high pressure. In automotive industry, the customer is extremely demanding.

most of the time we have to work on the extremely faster to meet their requests. So it taught me a lot. if we take this as an advantage, there are also some drawbacks. In 2015, my oldest son was born, so it's not possible anymore to do.

be involved in this kind of work environment because we have to travel on weekly basis outside of my city and spend five days and just spend the weekend at home. During that time, I was wondering to start a new career. I'm quite interested in traveling and I went to Italy. Italy is one of my most most loved countries. Yeah, I knew that. Yeah, I knew that.

Debra, Host (07:18)
That's another thing we had in common. Yeah.

Xin, Guest (07:20)
So that drove me to consider what am I gonna do next. Firstly, to support my family. Secondly, to also fulfill my personal interest or dream. I decided to start my own business in my hometown. Why I choose Gelato Ice Cream as my business? It's irrational.

This isn't because open this small scale business ⁓ I don't I don't want to put too much investment this because this is my first my first entrepreneur thing This kind of business is what I can handle just fine Sometimes it's by myself during that time it grabbed the market so far. It's been running for almost 10 years. I'm very grateful

and I'm so proud that I can do it for such a long time. I never dreamed of doing it for that long.

Debra, Host (08:25)
How long did you like foresee doing the gelato

Xin, Guest (08:30)
At the start of it, I didn't make the very long-term plan. just trying to earn some money to support my family. The first few years was really difficult. So as a new brand, don't have too much promotional budget or promotional weight. ⁓

Debra, Host (08:56)
This was his first entrepreneurial business. He loved Italy, but again, he's not, he wasn't an expert in gelato. mean, he just, you know, enjoyed it, got inspired to do it. ⁓ And then he opens up his own business and figure out how to make the gelato, but more so he also took it to the next level. He made the most unique flavors like where

When every time I went into his shop, there was always a new flavor. He had his staples, but there was always something new to experience. And someone that is an artist and a creative, it was just like, it was a sensory overload in my mouth. It was like an explosion of, of newness that I had never had before. Around 2019, that's when your business started to get better. Am I correct? Yeah.

Xin, Guest (09:53)
can survive in the market. And I did put a lot of effort in this product. Before I opened the gelatory and the ice cream parlor, I went to Italy to study how to make it. I imported, most of the machines were imported from Italy. So that was very rare in this small scale ice cream shop. yeah, we, you know,

despite some of the traditional flavors from Italy like pistachio, chocolate, lemon. Yeah, we did invented a lot of customized flavors. We have a blueberry and mascarpone and we have a banana and a pear, which is the ap sorbet, ap gelato recipe. it's a balance of the freshness and the richness.

We also have some like, especially during the fall and winter time, we have the purple yam, we have the roasted chestnuts, which is very popular. So we did this intervention. We did it according to our local culture or local people's favorites.

Debra, Host (11:12)
Yeah, it was definitely Italy meets China in your flavor. What if I mix this and this, what would happen? During that time in the pandemic, people, when we were allowed out, you know, his shop had a flow of people because it was a way to enjoy something. His shop was in the historic area, a really charming place right near the river, where a lot of the flow of traffic was going to the Confucius temple and was really perfectly located as well.

Xin, Guest (11:50)
Yeah, we were just trying to build a vibe of a community store to serve the community. this very darkness we located by a famous tourist, the Aston Hutt Confucius Temple. Yeah, that indeed brings us some more tourists.

Debra, Host (12:14)
I moved to Nanjing, I think the summertime because I was starting a new job. I think it took me into the autumn or the winter season to actually find you. His shop was so close to me. It was ridiculous. But because of the pandemic, it kept my world very you know, very small. How did you continue staying afloat and thriving during the pandemic?

Xin, Guest (12:41)
Once we make excellent product, I think everything else will come through naturally. So during pandemic, it was really, really hard, especially when a nearby neighborhood was locked down. I mentioned, I mostly I work just for myself. I have some bright time. I don't have to pay much. So I spend most of the time to do inner talk and that's

It's that keeps us ourselves to survive during the most difficult time. We were a bit of a famous in the city. So we were interviewed by local TV stations and by also by some web influencers. So it gives us some more opportunity to promote ourselves. So after that, more and more people come to our shop and find this is a kind of local jam, right?

Debra, Host (13:41)
It's a, it's definitely like even it's very true. It is a local German and almost a hidden gem, but I would have to say social media and influencers. Let's face it. They can really make or break, ⁓ a business. And I think that it really came at the right, right time as well. And I went to a shop to get ice cream, but Shin has a very approachable, friendly professional. He interacts with the customers, his, you know, personal touch, professional touch and interacting with them and getting them to try new flavors instead of just following what was on social media. 

You know, he's really engaged in his business and he's very passionate about it and he wants to share that passion. Shin has worked already with internationals. He had a little more confidence to talk with foreigners and we ended up talking, like he, I don't know what we talked about first, but you know, he and I started to have short conversations and then they led to longer conversations. And we would talk about deep conversations about things in China, about things, ⁓ regarding my country in America and like comparing things. 

And we just got into these rich, you know, ⁓ chats that nourished both of us, I think, because we both needed those engagements to go a little deeper than, you know, our just routine every day. I would have to say, and I'm not being exaggerative, but I really do think that Shin's ice cream and who he is as a person and those conversations kind of kept me sane and saved my life in some ways. I'm, you know, I'm really serious about that. Yeah.

Xin, Guest (15:30)
I appreciate that. It's just a really high appraisal that I could be killing myself by.

Debra, Host (15:35)
So let's go back to just the topic of China. Let's face it that China has gotten a bad rap in the news, you know, globally through the pandemic. do listen to the news and stay in tune to what's going on. ⁓ I was watching my home country in the U S doing the direct opposite of what I was experiencing in China. And in fact, was doing things that were truly harmful to Americans, you know, I think that was probably one of the conversations definitely we had was this, know, why is China doing things this way? know, America is not doing this. like, we just went deep on that.

Xin, Guest (16:18)
to say that life compared to what I'm living now in Canada or some of the countries that I have been traveling to, it was really convenient. The convenience was mainly because of two things. One is the technology development. The other one is about the population. China has relatively lower labor costs than other countries. What I'm comparing to is the developed countries, Western countries. Imagine you order something online, you can just have it. You can just have it and maybe next 30 minutes, and you don't have to tip them.

Debra, Host (17:02)
That's true, you don't tip in China.

Xin, Guest (17:04)
Yeah, so that was really, really ⁓ convenient. And I just mentioned the China developers really fast.

Debra, Host (17:17)
When did, like, can be more specific? Like, I know the 2000s really changed everything, but when in the 2000s did really ⁓ things develop as far as your infrastructure, you know, like, because you had the shipping, your shipping services in itself. I've never experienced in my life. It's amazing.

Xin, Guest (17:38)
This is what I'm going to talk about. Let's talk about transportation. It kind of has a high-speed train. It was built high. I was remembering it was built starting from 2010, I think. It's 2010 now, it's 2025. During my university time, if I travel from my hometown Shanghai, it's about 300 kilometers of distance. If I take normal train, it took up to...

5 hours with about 5 to 6 stops in the middle. But now, for the fastest train which just non-stop train, just directly from Nanjing to Shanghai, just takes you 56 minutes. That was insane. And even to Beijing, know, the train code was the G1 or G2. This is the minimum stops of the train. Even from Nanjing to Beijing, it takes 3 hours and a half.

So it's way cheaper than the airplane and it's way more efficient than the past 10 years before. has abundant amount of logistic companies. So most of the goods you order from online platform, you can get within the net. Here in Canada or United States, the cases not possible. I clearly remember I bought a thing from Toronto. It took two weeks to arrive in McAlgary.

Debra, Host (19:15)
So can you tell me how it changed the people and how everything has evolved for them?

Xin, Guest (19:20)
The most benefit is the massive amount of job opportunity. In Canada, we have an online platform, food online platform with a door desk. So the delivery guy, we call Dasher. We need a huge amount of Dashers in China also.

During the development of technology, ⁓ are more connected to each other through their smartphones. They can easily get to know each other just by the phone, just by some specific app.

Debra, Host (20:02)
What's important to the average Chinese, regardless of where they're from? What's really the important values of Chinese culture?

Xin, Guest (20:14)
from my personal opinion yeah Chinese people don't think a lot in our culture we trying to be humble we trying to be we trying to be a good listener know and the other thing is from time being our living cost has been

Debra, Host (20:17)
As a Chinese man.

Xin, Guest (20:42)
I think going higher and higher. for the real estate cost, price. They crazily going higher.

Debra, Guest (20:58)
Right. like the cost of living. Yes. Just to give people a context. Yes, a lot of foreigners go there to work, especially teachers, because to us, from our perspective, the cost of living versus salary, wages and benefits and, you know, our day to day needs, you know, food, and our shopping, conveniences and everything that China

offers, you can have an incredible work-life balance, unlike the majority of people in the U.S. Unlike in many countries around the world. Again, it's the perspective of what country you come from to really see, you know, China is so affordable, China is so cheap, or China is expensive, because it really just depends on where you're, where you're from.

And so like, if you're from China, like just to make like people clear that the cost of living went up for them, ⁓ exponentially faster due to their rise in power in, you know, business, in technology and everything else, you know, they were, they're expanding globally and they have, you know, China has a real true vision of the future.

And I don't know the details of it. I'm not really going to get into that. But my point is, is that China might be like, as you say, very humble, stuck in, I would say to me, stuck in the past mentally. ⁓ Let's be real, like a lot of their thinking is still very much from old school, very much about, you know, with family, very traditional ways with, you know, the obligations of like the oldest child taking care of the parents when they get older.

⁓ and things with marriage and getting a job, then you're, you know, then getting a house and then starting a family. Like there are very, you know, let's say this rigid ways about China's life, which was very difficult for a free spirit like myself. But at the same time, the world around them just like, you can't see the real traditional like architecture or ways, unless you go deep into neighborhoods.

Or you go to the landmarks like Confucius temple and the abundant UNESCO sites and so on throughout their country. But their cities are, you know, built up and have, you know, the modern, you know, skyscrapers and all of those, you know, ways of modernization. But in contrast, the people still are living very much in their ways, which we kind of talked about kind of like a kind of a clashing of old and new.

in China, right? Which, which I guess maybe my question is to you, maybe I'll be more specific. How do you think China, is there anything that you feel like modernization causes any disadvantage or ⁓ causes potential risks in things like losing traditions and ways, or you, you don't foresee that?

Debra, Host (24:16)
We don't lose the distance. Some kind of distance, it's little bit fading, know. It's a little bit fading because we now more focused on making money or more focused on taking advantage of modern technology. From my point of view, during my childhood, traditional Chinese festivals, we have a strong vibe.

We have a strong right now family members are gathering together to have have a good meal and the city were ⁓ and city were very good at created in our day in our case, this kind of atmosphere is. Just just fading and the big has the we are more relied on the technology. Yeah, more technology. Yeah, for example.

Yeah, for example, during Chinese New Year, we were doing Chinese New Year about maybe 10 to 15 years ago. Our tradition is to write text message to the family members, to the friends, yeah, specific ones. But now with modern technology, we might just copy and paste some stickers, formatted greeting things, just to up-send them.

So it's the types of the drawback for the modern advancements, think. Yeah, this is the one point.

Debra, Host (25:54)
Well, you know, for me, ⁓ being an outsider, you know, being a foreigner again is being able to be more like a wallflower to observe other countries, which is part of the thing I enjoy most when I travel or move to another country is I like to step back and, you know, just take in a breath of the life of the people. And of course, as you, as a person that

does that and you're interacting with them and your routine, can really feel the powers. You can feel the influences of the government. can feel the influences of you say of your historic ⁓ traditions ⁓ and the food like in a routine, let's just say this food I would say is very still traditional. Like, I mean, I know that of course the younger generations love KFC and some of the fast foods, but in general, the love.

for the local food is still strong and I don't foresee the loss of the traditional foods and things that I don't see that disappearing. Yeah. And it's not like they're jumping into the Western ways when it comes to that. And for me, again, what I noticed about China is that as you said,

Xin, Guest (27:04)
A little dramatic. Yeah.

Debra, Host (27:18)
You know, Chinese are strong in their traditions, strong into their beliefs. ⁓ still very superstitious as well. and there's these things that you can experience day to day that are very, very traditional. But then at the same time, while they're eating their traditional foods and in that area of traditional landmarks, you will just see everyone sitting on their phones, like in their face, you know, just, you know, on social media.

And that's where I see kind of like the old and the new, very visual of that. But what I do also see, you know, as a teacher as well, the education in China is a very complicated, interesting topic because, and I want him to get into it, but I just want to give a little background before you get into your experiences hands-on.

is that as a teacher, as a foreigner, even in international schools or bilingual schools, there is a challenge of integrating modern thinking, international thought process of questioning things. Although it's been improving in some ways, I just want to point out that during the pandemic, the government started shutting down the influences of the international world. And that included the education.

and where the government would come in to make sure that certain books were implemented and other books were taken out and reintroducing some more traditional ways of doing things. So can you share a little bit more of this interesting topic about the education in China? I mean, what a lot of, again, the stereotypes and sort of in a positive way, the stereotypes about China is they're very studious, they're studying, studying, studying and getting the top grades and everything. But show really what it's like.

Xin, Guest (29:15)
This is the reality. I finished all my educational period in China. It has pros and cons. The process kind of offers a nine-year free educational system. It's compulsive. Compulsive, right? Compulsive, yeah, it's a compulsory. One candidate is 12 years, including the high school. China ended it up in junior high school.

Debra, Host (29:32)
compulsory.

Xin, Guest (29:45)
And the other, the other, ⁓ the other process, the other process is a positive thing. The cost of the study in China is relatively low than, than Western countries. ⁓ especially in, in the university phase, even you went to, you go to the top university like Tsinghua or Peking university.

have to spend in US dollars, is in the top of 100 US dollars, which is unimaginable in for American students. Unimaginable. Yeah, unimaginable for American students. this is too big to measure positivity for China's educational system. But we do, like I said, it's the reality, the stereotypes and the reality. We have to study and aesthetic study.

But we have no choice. We have this large population. The fairest system is through the examination. So the exam process in China is really excessive. This is the most critical point. The reason why I brought my kids

out of the China. So it's not only the torture, it's not only the torture for the kids, but also the torture for the parents. We have no choice.

Debra, Host (31:23)
Can you explain from the parents perspective of the torture?

Xin, Guest (31:27)
Yeah, you know, my oldest son finished the first grade and the first half of the second grade in China. And every day he has to write homework until 9 to 10 PM every day. But while he finishes homework, we have to company buy him sites. We have different subjects. Every subject has its own homework to do. I'm not judging. It's not right.

but because it's method to strengthen your knowledge required, right? But it took over a lot of the time for their outdoor sports, their entertainment, or their development, you know, this excessive pandemic process.

The second thing is, you know, we are all exam oriented. So during the course, are lacking the creativity and critical thinking. The creativity and critical thinking. it's also lacking the individualized education. Yeah. While in Canada, maybe also in the United States.

You have different programs for different kids. can choose whatever you want. Maybe the second language is art, science, STEM, right? STEM. But in China, for most of the schools, just that you have a general curriculum. You have to finish that, all of them, and reach a high grade to be enrolled to the next level. So this is the only...

target for the kind of students.

Debra, Host(33:27)
That's where I think we are definitely in agreement that like the arts meaning allowing kids to have an imagination and allowing them to develop creatively and  using both parts of the brain and you know connecting them, allowing them to share an opinion openly ⁓ or ask the teacher why or how. Where lot of times the students in general in China, the traditional way of teaching is you just follow the teacher. Yeah. And you just go, mm.

Xin, Guest (33:56)

Yeah, the very important in Chinese in China. can't say it's nothing because not that people in China in China. They have left way more way less work stuff than Western countries. Yeah, they just finished what their teachers told them to do.

Debra, Host (34:22)
Right. I want you to be real. Like, you did leave the country because you didn't agree with the education, you know, that's a part of it. And there are consequences to not modernizing education where we have the research and evidence to show there are modern ways of educating that, you know, nurture A, B, and C, what you already mentioned.

or even more alternative. people, some kids go home school now, or some kids just go and do things. Like they try new things and then they kind of focus their education on a specific area of education because they know that's the direction, their future. But Chinese government really is staying very rigid and traditional with education, which I believe is hurting the future.

But I can understand from a government's perspective of it being a control for the people. Education, keep it so they know just enough, but not too much to think about, you know, a bigger picture on things. And, you know, like, I just would, I felt so limited as a teacher because we go there to hopefully give a little bit of this, but we're not really supported by it. And the parents...

like us there, but in a nutshell, they know, as you said, that the exams are the most important anyway.

Xin, Guest (35:55)
I agree about what you said. It's not very encouraging for the students in China to criticize.

Debra, Host (36:07)
Yeah.

Xin, Guest (36:08)
and questioning what they got from textbooks or they got from the teachers because it has a deeper logic from the government.

Debra, Host (36:22)
But I'm just talking about the concept that there's reasons why China, let's just be real, the reason why China modernized, you know, as you say, the infrastructure, industries, business, you know, technology, it's because of money. You know, it's about money and power. But education is outside of that. Keeping the traditional ways is very much separate from the modernization of China.

It's there, there's a clean, you know, wall, I think, between the two of them. And I'm just saying as a foreigner, you can really feel it, especially when you're integrated into the education system, because you're talking with these kids and you're talking with the Chinese staff and you you see how things function, you know, how things function in an ⁓ education environment versus

what's happening with the infrastructure of trains and buses and cars and all of that other stuff. I'm just saying to me, it's very compartmentalized. Everything is in its own, but it's not mainstreamed into each other. I of course don't want to put Xin on the spot too much because again, Xin is going through an immigration process right now and some other things. I want people to understand the pressure of what the everyday Chinese do have.

The other thing I just want to bring up is that there's only a small percentage of Chinese, a very small percentage. I believe if I'm not mistaken, four to six percent or maybe a little more that actually get the higher education because there's also a limited amount of universities and things like that. That majority of Chinese aren't higher educated.

Xin, Host (38:07)
⁓ Yes, and now, you know, the government is encouraging people, encouraging kids to attend vocational schools because the competitiveness of ⁓ the from junior high school to high school is exceptional high. know, so the government is trying to develop vocational education.

to give more opportunity for ⁓ the kids who are willing to do some practice for their career. before we were told to join the high school and go to university is the mainstream, it's the major way to achieve.

to make your dream come true also and to reach your goal. But now they're encouraging people to go to vocational studies too. as another option, that brings up another reality, what you're talking about, but the high educational rate is not that high enough.

Debra, Host (39:29)
So even though you guys are growing in leaps and bounds, as you said, you there's only a limited amount of opportunities in certain fields from what I understand based on my conversations with my students that like work in economics or in banks or things like that, that, you know, the door opening, even if you have a education, there might not be an opportunity for them. In addition, it depends on which university you go to. And if you get a same degree in the other school.

is better than that person will get considered more like, you know, rather than seeing who would be the best person for the job. It's really the resume still, you know, their credentials are, you know, this, that and the other. So the pressure in China is still very high. though Shin, even though Shin, would have to say, you know, because I lived in South Korea also, I still feel I'm just like as an outsider, I still feel that.

South Korea's pressure is still higher than I felt in China. ⁓ Yeah, there, I've just felt there was ⁓ another layer of pressure and things that just ⁓ were over the top. But again, I'm seeing it from an outsider perspective. I'm not deescalating the pressures of China.

I'm just saying I've been in pressure cooking societies like these two and it's really what the lengths of what the parents will do for their kids is unlike any other in China and South Korea.

Xin, Guest(41:14)
Yeah, the parents almost devote everything they have to give the kids. China and South Korea are East Asians. We share some kind of different, some kind of same culture. So that makes sense, know. ⁓

Debra, Host (41:36)
⁓ you know, it's, you know, the thing is the, that the pros of, you know, edu like having an education in China, like that concept is a really great one. One of which I have to be honest with you, America doesn't have any more. And I'm talking about the parents as well. Like I'm just saying the parents in China, you know, they're very invested in their kids education. ⁓ but not.

So in America, how is it in Canada in comparison to China versus America in your opinion on the investment of the parents and the education?

Xin, Guest (42:19)
⁓ From my discover, I think in Canada, they share some common with Chinese parents. They're pretty family oriented. They invested a lot for their kids. In Canada, their national sport is hockey. They started maybe just at six or seven years old. They started to play in the hockey and the parents took them to the training even at 5 a.m. in the morning into the hockey. They finished hockey then go back to school.

They put a lot of effort to educate their kids. this thing is sometimes influenced by the parents themselves. Some parents are really promising to their kids. Their devotion is definitely high, but some are not that family oriented. So that might be a little different. But from my observation...

Debra, Host (43:17)
of it. Can you share about that? Where? What do mean by less family oriented? Tell me about that. Are they more individualistic? You mean they staying like they're not getting married or what?

Xin, Guest (43:28)
No, no, no. Sometimes the parents are more focused on buying themselves than their kids. So they might not be putting that much resources to their kids. But most of the Chinese parents, they give everything and they almost give everything. Even their kids have grown up to never be to gather things from their parents.

Debra, Host (43:56)
Can you share an example, like just more specific? Because this is interesting to me because I see this in many cultures, but how do you, how do the parents, as you say, invest in themselves more or focus on themselves more in Canada? Like, for example, what, what do you mean by that?

Xin, Guest (44:13)
Let me take an example. ⁓ Just a few months ago, we received a group email from the principal of the elementary school. The principal said it's no longer acceptable to accept the absent application for the students for some other reason. So know, sometimes the kids...

The parents don't care too much about their kids' schoolwork. So they just taking them to everywhere. Even in school weeks, they just taking them outside to do some non-important things. Yeah, so the principal emphasized that this is not acceptable. It's absent. Yeah. Sometimes they just... My son came home and told me, today...

Today Connor is not going to school. He's not going to school about some non-important things. Yeah.

Debra, Host (45:22)
Is that become a little challenging to be a parent that is wanting the opposite? When your, when your kids see something else, are they feeling like they're missing out on something? does your, does your oldest son say, can we take a day?

Xin, Guest (45:41)
Even my son has, you know, in Canada, they don't have homework and then grade, until grade five, think, even, ⁓ you know, they came to a new environment, they have their language barrier, they have lot of new things to learn. So even they come back from school, they still have some certain amount of work to do rather than most of it.

His buddy doesn't have to do anything, doesn't have to do anything, just playing all the time, playing and playing.

Debra, Host (46:11)

your new life ⁓ journey in China, in sorry, in Canada now for two or three years, third year now. Now that you mentioned that you really wanted your kids to have a different kind of education, a more modern education with creativity, freedom. How would you consider the journey for your kids so far with school? Meaning are you satisfied with?

Xin, Guest (46:23)
Yeah, and it's the third year.

Debra, Host (46:41)
the way the school is handling these goals for your kids. How do you feel things are going with your kids in progress with their English and other things?

Xin, Guest (46:55)
Yeah, I'm pretty satisfied. From the language level, they can understand most of the things. And they're playing with other buddies with no problem. they can even say no stopping sentences and other phrases at school. Especially for my younger son, because he became kind of even...

lower end so acceptance level is better than the other one. The other thing is what I'm more satisfied about the personality. You've met my two songs before, know, they're both sides so introverted, right? But now they're totally different because unlike in China, we live in a flat or an apartment, right? Going back home.

Going back home is no other way to interact with other kids. But here in this community, ⁓ they can just play with other kids. A few meters away, our ⁓ front door is the playground. Every day, when the weather is permitting, a lot of the kids are playing there. They just knock on...

Knocked on the door, the door to door. Do you play? Do you want to play? Do you want to play like this thing? So it's a good interaction with other kids. So I'm really, I'm really satisfied with it. Yeah.

Debra, Host (48:30)
You said that your kids don't really have homework. How do you feel about that? Because your upbringing was homework, homework, homework. Are you thinking, are my kids really learning? Like, are you having like this left head, right head kind of thinking of, is this date or not?

Xin, Guest (48:44)
You know, even before last year, I was wondering what you guys are every day at the school because they don't have any textbooks. They don't have any homework to bring back home. But you know, they have to open houses every year. Then the parents were invited to the school to have a name person chat with their teacher, homeroom teacher.

and he would tell what they have accomplished during the school year. What was the most honest? They did a lot. They really did a lot. They changed my mind. ⁓ I'm like, you really did a lot of things in school. I was wondering, you just playing in school everyday.

Debra, Host (49:38)
No, I've never talked to a Canadian regarding the education system, like at all. So you were really giving me insight, even in comparison to the border of Canada and America, you know, the education and Canada seems to be much more progressive in their approach than, than America where they still have homework and stuff like that, that I know of. And very test oriented in America. Yeah.

Xin, Guest (50:08)
They have the entire life but for homework, no more than 20 minutes. They're catered to not to assign us. So every day they just come back home with nothing.

Debra, Host (50:24)

It's  night and day China and Canada

Xin, Guest (50:28)
Yeah, I'm still a little bit worried about does that really make sense? Does that really work in the future? Right? Yeah, but we will see. And another thing is in Canada, have plenty of field trips. They're going to different places. So I come to them with different field trips. Yeah, they went to the fisheries habitat to learn how to fish, how to conserve.

make a conserve of the fish habitat yeah this kind of thing it's very vivid it's very practical yeah it's all like what they have

Debra, Host (51:06)
That's what I always talk about, hands-on experience, immersing into a place. The best way to learn is by doing. So they're going out and doing things. They're learning things by not just a video on a screen in a classroom. They're going out and having an organic experience. Brilliant. I love that. In modern societies, most kids are learning through social media or YouTube or in the classroom on

a screen, you're not really learning how to practically do anything if you're not doing it yourself. The fact that we're bringing back the real experience is vital, I think, for the future generations that they have to be involved in life in order to know ⁓ what it's truly like. Thanks for tuning into part one of From the Great Wall to the Great North. In part two.

We will be going further into how to jump over that wall and to start following your dreams. Please go to the description for my links to like, follow, subscribe, and share with a friend who might need a wake up call. Until next time, bye bye.