In Taiwan, the kids stay kids in their family until at least 18, but sometimes older. But in Germany, I was 12 when I was in Germany and my classmates were 11, I believe. No, I was 11 and my classmates were 10. But the adults are treating those 10-year-olds just like other adults. And this is a Pygmalion effect, right? Once the children are expected to keep the time, to be punctual, prinklish, to be orderly, in ordinal, and so on, they learn to be very mature. So even though the 10-year-olds are technically one year my junior, my classmates, when compared to the kids I meet in Taiwan, they seem older by at least four or five years.

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