A reflection of my own experiences - Stereotypes

The stereotype that Asians are generally good at maths and/or science is an image that comes along with being Asian and something that I challenged during my final years of high school. Until year 10, maths and science is a part of the compulsory curriculum and the subjects that I dreaded each lesson but something that I couldn’t escape. Each passing year my results would get worse and I found myself in the bottom ranked class in both subjects. Interestingly, at least half of the class was made up of girls very similar to me- Asians. I remember my Australian and European friends would always make comments like “What are all you Asians doing in here?” or “Isn’t maths your second language?”  

As soon as I progressed into our final senior years, I took up subjects that did not involve numbers or the periodic table. When I was asked my final subjects, I would answer English, History Extension, Modern History, Ancient History and Studies of Religion and the immediate response would be, “they aren’t very Asian subjects!” or “they are such low scaling subjects”. My parents doubted my decisions and when I complained about the countless essays, they would always say, “you wouldn’t be complaining if you listened to me when I told you to take up maths!”.

Throughout my final year in high school, the reality of my subject choice became such a burden to the point that I felt pressured to perform exceptionally better than most of the other girls as I had to ‘make up’ for not choosing the subjects I was expected to choose.

This whole matter made me wonder, how did Asians become associated with being good at maths? Why is it that generally all Asians are expected to excel with things related to formulas and numbers? The only reason that I could possibly think of was the fact that we weren’t “white-Australians” and the misconception that for all of us, English is our second language?

Similarly to me, my best friend, an Australian born Chinese also dropped maths and science but obtained exceptional results in English all throughout year 12. Coming from a background where both her parents spoke very limited English and never receiving any form of English tutoring outside of school , she was one of the 3 ‘non-white’ students topping the grade. Close friends that came from a non-Asian background always seemed to be amazed that considering her background she would be performing so well. How could an Asian be doing so well in English? It didn’t make sense to a lot of people…

However, eventually I realised that stereotypes shouldn’t define who I am or anyone else based on their culture or my physical appearance. If I was to follow what everyone expected or wanted me to do, then I believe that I wouldn’t have been able to achieve the results I received. I strongly believe that stereotypes aren’t made to be permanent but rather a factor that can be challenged and changed.