Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Points of comparison between your educational experience and Yang's experience
Please write in the comments below comparisons and contrasts between your own educational experiences and Yang's educational experiences. Keep in mind that educational experiences refer to both formal (school) education and informal education (from friends, family, media, and other sources that give us information about the world and how we live in the world). Please provide page number citations in parentheses when you refer to The Latehomecomer.
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I can relate to some of Yang’s experiences in school, for instance her apprehension about being on welfare and being signed up for free lunches while in school. I never wanted to be seen in the free lunch line while in middle school. In elementary school I didn't mind as much. I was also a quiet student throughout my early years of education, even though English was my first language unlike Yang. I guess I was just a shy kid. Teachers didn't seem to encourage kids to talk during class anyway, especially during lectures, so I just stayed quiet most of the time. Speech was probably an important part of Yang’s transition to an English speaking society, which is why it was probably such an issue for her teachers. I wasn't encouraged to further my education (like Yang was) by my family after high school, preferring that I hurry up and find a job. Here I am in college trying to learn the skills to have a more enriching future like Kao and Dawb Yang wanted, "We wanted to make the life journey of our family worth something" (pg 198). So do I!
ReplyDeleteThe Hmong people struggled from the eyes of a little girl was very similar to the struggle I had to face in my educational life. (On page 3) "Those who were still only struggling with their lives saw guns at them." That part reminded me of a time in where I was treated very poorly. When I was in my fifth year and final year of elementary school, I had a teacher that would take me to a different room to called me very awful names, just because I was in RSP (Resource Specialist Program) due to my speech delay in my earlier years, while the rest of the class were having fun at recess. After a while of this cruelty, I had enough of it, so I fought back by doing well, and excelling in school and then it felt so good, that was my revenge. (On page 4) "For many years, the Hmong inside the little girl fell into silence. And then one day, the little girl grew up into a young woman." These two lines showed me that I must honor the great and powerful person I have become.
ReplyDeleteThe Hmong people struggled in their homeland but in America they found success, and their American dream, they were even able to buy their own home and full filled their Dreams. (In page 195) quote "It would be our first piece of America, the first home we would buy with the money our parents earned." This line confirms my thought that life can give you hardships but when you work hard, there is always a way to make it better and become a success. (In page 194) the house looked like a real antique, but for the Yang family it was an incredible deal of only $36,500 dollars. These few lines reminded me that everybody has a dream of success and being able to buy your first own home or being able to graduate from the college of their dreams, is only part of an individual measure of success in life. My personal dream in life is to graduate from Stanford University, also be able to publish my real life stories book and own the rosy pink house over looking the ocean in Acapulco Mexico.
In many ways I can relate to Yang's experience, and in others I can't. One way I can relate to Yang is how she and her family lived in the enemy camp and how the parents would cry at night very quietly. Well I was not in the same situation but my family was very poor when I was younger and didn't have money to eat some days or didn't know if we would be living in the same place due to our lack of money. My mother was often by herself so she cried many nights but stood strong in front of my brothers and sisters. This has taught me a lesson that education is very important to support a family. In yang's case this was something they had to go through (Yang 29). Another way I relate to Yang is how close she was to her grandmother through everything. Her grandmother knew a lot and many people were able to come to her in a time of need. My grandmother was always there for her grandchildren when we needed her the most. Especially when we had no money we would go to her for it instead of go to our mother because we knew how much she struggled with it. My grandmother did not have an education but seemed like she did because of how smart she was about life and how to help others when they were sick (yang 68-69). Lastly, Yang had to learn the english language which is not so easy to most. She often did not speak in school and was very quiet. "I listened as my teachers diagnosed my biggest problem in school: my silence" (Yang 147). I can relate because I was very quiet as I grew up. Although Yang was talkative at home and quiet at school, I was quiet in both environments. I knew many answers to questions, knew how to talk english, understood what everyone said, but I did not talk much. This became a problem both inside of school and out and made everyone think that I had a disability. As I got older I became more comfortable and started to talk to those around me.
ReplyDeleteYang's educational experiences and my educational experiences differed in a myriad of ways. I'm not saying that I did not encounter any obstacles academically, but I grew up in a very fortunate community where safety, wealth and family all coexisted.
ReplyDeleteFirst, I was born in California; being exposed to English as my first language. Not to mention, both my parents were already fluent too. In contrast, Yang states that she, "had to go to an English as a Second Language closet..." (Yang 160). Unlike me, Yang had to deal with a language barrier and difficulty adjusting to American school systems. Yang says, "English was hard on my tongue. I was learning the meanings of words and how to write them, but my voice sounded different to me in English" (Yang 145).
Secondly, my family never touched welfare. I am so blessed to have to not worry about financial issues. From the bottom of my heart, I appreciate everything that my parents have done for me to allow my family to be at its state now. Yang says that her, "welfare check arrived in our mailbox near the first of the month. We were a family of four, so we got $605 a month. Rent was $250..." (135). To me, these numbers don't mean anything to me. I don't even fully understand how all these numbers work. I am simply too spoiled. One big difference in education that I wanted to point out was that I am lucky enough to have access to private tutoring on top of the great education that I receive. Yang's family was too poor to afford tutoring, let alone live.
One informal educational difference is the aspect of family. After reading majority of this book, it is obvious that the aspect of family is an essential motif that constructs this book. In other words, this book revolves significantly around family, love and bond. Now, I'm not saying that I do not love my family or appreciate what they do for me. It's just that I can clearly see that I am not as close or share the same level of intimacy with my family. Yang honors family to the utmost extent. I on the other hand take it for granted. She probably could have a heart to heart conversation with her sister, while it would be a bit awkward to have one with my brother. This example can be shown when Dawb immediately stands up for Yang when the boy pushed her to the ground. "I didn't see Dawb run up. All I saw was the boy on the ground, flat on his back...Why are you so mean to my sister?" (140).
Perhaps a slight similarity that Yang and I share is the fact that we both understand a little bit of what its like to be working. This is a stretch. Both their parents are very very hard working in a sense that they need to stay alive. My motivation to work was not so much about making money but about work experience for future job opportunities. Nevertheless, we both are employed in some way.
I feel as if I am not allowed to associate myself with her story. Our lives are strange to each other. My grandparents had been the ones who could relate her story. They were the ones who worked hard to secure a little chunk of the US to call home. My parents and my cousins' parents were born here, but they could relate to her story. They suffered a similar language barrier, since they learned Japanese at home and had to learn English when they went to school. What they experienced are abstract to me, concepts, history, ideas, anecdotes for when I ask about their lives.
ReplyDeleteThere's also a definite feeling of privilege. My family seemed to be a different kind of poor, one that could not compare to how she had to live in the camps, then on welfare, and even past that. I feel like relating my life to hers would be inappropriate, to say the least.
The main thing that continued to come up while reading was that I don't really know much about my family's history. I know very little about my own parents lives when they were growing up, and even less about my grand parents. With simple math I realized that my parents had me and my brother when they were in their mid thirties, and my parents had finished growing up, unlike in the memoir, The Latehomecomer, where her parents were experiencing and learning new things at the same time as their daughters.
ReplyDeleteI went to a private preschool, and public elementary school that was predominately English speaking and English was the only language that I knew. I did not experience diversity until high school. I had a very nice head start by going to preschool and did not run into any real problems learning until I put the procrastination wall in my own way.
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ReplyDeleteI have so much to relate with Yang and yet nothing to relate at all. I would say i'm truly blessed with a well-to-do family and lifestyle and that's why i cannot relate to her and yet my experiences have been similar in nature, but definitely not as harsh as hers. I have been moving around different countries and cities throughout my life, so i can well relate to their experiences of being the 'newcomers' and how heartbreaking the feeling of nonacceptance can be, at the same time, we were never the 'refugees'. Similarly, again I am new to the United states and living the first generation immigration right now. I can completely relate to the 'trying to fit-in' experience, the learning of a new culture, new food (Yang, 109). Somehow, unlike her, English as a language was never a barrier for me; rather it has been the only way i could connect with people, understand them and their culture. Fluency with the English language is something I owe completely to good schooling throughout my life. Due to being in different places, i received a good mix of convent schooling, a strict Hindu school, an academically-oriented school, international schools and some more. What was common between all of them was good teachers and the medium of instruction being English. At the same time, i can only be thankful that my experiences have only been positive. However, my immigration experience has just begin and I will probably relate more as time goes on.
ReplyDeleteIn comparing Yang's educational experience to my own I realized that probably the most important learning experiences happen outside the formal education system. It appears to me that Yang's early life in the refugee camp and the experience of transitioning to America were the major influences that shaped her future. She probably had more wisdom about life at age 7 than I did at 27! In elementary school I befriended a new student who was Korean. His family had just moved from South Korea to here and my friend was just learning to speak English. He became good friends with my other good close friend at the time but I remember experiencing sort of a barrier eventually once we got closer to high school. It was feelings that although we were good friends, because of the language and racial differences we were never really excepted by the rest of his family or allowed to become closer friends with them.[p140] I remember my friend had pressure to be more like his older brothers but he wanted to be more like us! Overall the big contrast between my experiences and Yang's would be like night and day as far as having to cope with learning to live here as well as to do well in school and get to college. She pretty much had a huge level of distraction to contend with not mention having to help raise a family while her parents worked. These were distractions that I didn't have to contend with and made my school experiences easy going. I also missed out on the life experience of raising siblings and the tight family bonds that creates.
ReplyDeleteI can relate to some of Yang's expieriences and in others I can't. Spanish was my first laguange and learning enlglish wasn't easy for me. "English was hard on my tongue. I was learning the meanings of words and how to write them, but my voice sounded different to me in English"(145). I never had anybody to teach me english at home, my dad knew some english but not so much to teach me. I started learning this second language around 2nd grade but still needed help purnouncing correctly. Another expierience I can relate to was financially. When I entered middle school I remember I started recieving free lunch. My father was receiving his monthly unemployment check in the mail. He berly had work so we were always struggling with not having enough money for us. I sometimes cried because I didn't get what I wanted,maybe I was still to young to understand what was going on. I also remember my parents saying there wasn't enough money for rent. Thank God those hard times are over.I learned a lot from seeing my parents struggle for us.They only want the best for their children.
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ReplyDeleteThe Latehomecomer is an inspiring book. How the Yang’s families escaped from the jungles and arrived at Thailand’s refugee camps was really touching. The human beings have unbelievable strong surviving instincts. But later on, their experience of striving for fitting in American life was encouraging. No matter how poor we are, we need to have dreams, which will enable us to go through tough situations. There are many ways I can relate my educational experience in between Yang’s.
DeleteThe first common thing is that we were told the importance of education from our families. Yang’s family put their hope on education. “Someday maybe we can do better. We all knew he was referring to education…” (P196). Yang’s parents were expecting their kids grew up and became educated, and their life would be better. My parents believed education too and thought getting educated was our chance to do well in this world.
Second, there are some similarities for our language experience as immigrants to America. I am still working on adjustments to my life in American especially my English. I can totally imagine how hard it would be for a person knowing no English at all in a new country. I knew some English and came here as an adult. Yang was only six years old when she came to this country. She was silent and timid to speak English at the beginning. It took her awhile to walk out from her deep inside and try to fit in the American life.
But comparing our high school experience, Yang was luckier than I was. Yang met a good teacher and in a way it helped her to be a writer. “In high school, this changed. I met a teacher who changed the way I saw myself in education. Her name was Mrs. Gallentin, and she opened up a possibility that I was special. ……” (P198); “I thought I was good at math and science, but Mrs. Gallentin said that I had talent for literature. …… In the course of a semester, she opened up a real possibility that I could excel in high school and college because they were all about good reading and good writing.” (P201) Writing is a basic skill in our lives. It’s important for everyone even that you are not a writer. I remember in my high school that no matter how hard I tried, I could not please my Chinese teacher and got good grades on my essays. I gave up after becoming frustrated. Fortunately, after many years’ practice at work and learning from De Anza College, my writing skills have improved. Though I am not planning to be a writer or I am not talented to be a writer as Yang, I hope I can get rid of my fears on writing through this class.
As the world that Kao Kalia Yang where she was born and raised up in was different with mine, I can say that we have many differences in our educational experiences, both formal and informal. The differences are that I have acquired my formal and informal education at my option and capability, and so through ease. On the other hand, we are familiar in the sense that we both value our family history and we kind of learned the same basic things.
ReplyDeleteI was born in Indonesia, and during the time I was born and grew up, my country was quite stable and the economy is getting better, so my parents can enroll me in international school to learn english and interact with people from other countries just because they are capable and they believe that those kinds of education are important for my successful career in the future. Meanwhile, Kao Kalia Yang was sort of forced to learn english for her survival, and it is not at her own choice (when she was in the transition camp, she just had to go through these classes, or else she would have less chance of surviving in the US). During my childhood, it was also easy to obtain information: my parents would try to answer all of my curious questions at their best, and there are teachers around the schools who would help me. The surroundings are very supportive of learning kids. Meanwhile, Kao Kalia Yang had to go through quite a 'dark' childhood, because the place where she was initially born in (the camp) was quite gloomy, as she noted, "Ban Vinai Refugee Camp was a place where kids kept secrets and adults stayed inside themselves." (pg. 55)
However, we both had similarities in terms that we are of Asian heritage. Maybe it was unwritten in Asian families that we have to honor our family, and hence we had to learn our family background to really honor our family. As we can see from the book, she knew really well about her family background through other family members' testimonies. I also knew my family background from my parents, grandparents, and other relatives. It is an unwritten rule, perhaps, but in family gatherings, I can feel the sense that it is a duty to learn about those kind of things. Also, we both learn English in our school during the early years.
Similar to Yang and her family, my parents and I are first generation Chinese-American immigrants. I came to the US when I was 5 and, like the author, started kindergarten in an English learners' program in addition to regular school to strengthen my language skills. However, the circumstances and perceptions of my experience differ greatly from what Yang writes in her book. I endured none of the racism, alienation, and conflict that were typical of her first experiences in American schools. Furthermore, my parents' circumstances before immigrating to this country were completely different from those of the Yang family. Both my parents came from educated, stable, and relatively well-off backgrounds. For us, money was not "something we would always think about in America" (119) as it was for Yang's family. Because of all this, my education and especially assimilation into the American culture was not as difficult as it was for Yang. The integration into this society all just kind of came naturally for me.
ReplyDeleteDespite some of the differences in our educational experience as immigrants, I think there are some things I learned from my parents that resound, I would think, amongst all first-generation immigrants. The most important of these is the value of hard work, dedication, and ambition. Even though my parents did not have to work several menial jobs to put food on the table like Yang's parents did, they have instilled these values in me through their example.
-Kevin Xie
I can relate my experiences with Kao's experience in many ways, yet I have many experiences that opposite from hers as well. I came to United States to go school. I did not prepared well in English as the language used in United States. I got difficulty in learning English, adapting to the culture and the food, and the education expectation from our parents.
ReplyDeleteFirstly, I came to United States on summer 2010. I came here on summer because I have to improve my English. I took ESL classes since i did not speak and listen English fluently. So I can relate my experience with Yang's experience. "I had to go to an English as a Second Language closet..." (Yang 160). Besides, I also can relate my experience in adapting to the cuisine here. When I first came here, I was not really like to eat the foods here. It is totally different kind of food compared to Indonesian cuisine. So I found this similar experience with Yang's as she stated about new kinds of food.(Yang pg. 2). And the most important thing that I can relate with mine is that our parents expect us to do well in school. In the book she mentioned, "My parents knew that Dawb had been good at school in Ban Vinai Refugee Camp and Phanat Nikhom Transition Camp to America. They had one strong learner. They were confident that I would do well, too.(pg. 139). My parents also push me to do well in school and sometimes compared with my other friends who do very well in school. However, I can say that I come from a fortunate family, which do not meet with economic problems. I was not born with bad economic situation and with war happened. So I can differ that experience with hers about the economic issues there. While Yang was born in the refugee camp, which is not very lucky for her.
As an International student in America, I had moved out from my home country and tried to adapt to the new environment to live here. That included taking in new lifestyles of the citizens, getting to know the four different seasons there were, and getting used to the food here, too. I believe Yang had also went through some learnings in order to settle down in America when she migrated there, such as learning new words, and new food. However, there were several differences in which my educational experiences differ from hers. One of which was that the reasons we moved to America were completely different. Mine was that I wanted to pursue a higher degree of education and that it was my decision to move while it was not Yang's decision to move out from her home country, it was the government's. She and her family were forced to move out, only because they were no longer wanted there.
ReplyDeleteBoth Yang and I were both from Asia, thus the difficulties we encountered when we first came to the United States were similar. Nonetheless, I noticed that Yang had never been exposed to the cultures and the customs of the United States before she moved there while I had been to America a few times before I really moved in and that was why I had a rough idea of what it would be like to live there, unlike her. As a result, I believe that she had to adapt to the new environment in a harder way than I did. The way I saw it was that the learning environment that Yang had to go through was not very supportive at all. When she was younger, she had to go through an hardships that put her under great pressure. She did not enjoy school at all, she always felt sleepy when she was at school. From the book the Latehomecomer, Yang said "I wondered what a person did in school. I was sleepy. I did not want to carry the book or the pencil." (page 97) When I was younger, I used to like school as I saw school as the place where I can play and hang around with my friends.
Before I moved in to the U.S., I had been exposed to the English language as my former school taught the language to its students. On the other hand, Yang had never learned the language before, thus she had a hard time communicating with the people in the U.S. Communication is one of the most vital component in order to survive in an environment, when you cannot interact with the people around you, whom you live around everyday, you cannot expect someone to actually like and enjoy living there. There were also bullies in the school where she went to, and there was none in mine.
Then there were cases where the cousins of Yang were turning into the "bad" cousins. Yang referred the "bad" cousins as those cousins who had friends and went out with them and had started speaking English at home, and sometimes when they were angry with their parents, they would go into their rooms and slam the doors and say that their lives were horrible and that they wished they hadn't been born. (page 170) I had never have cousins who told me that they hated their lives so much they wished they had never been born. The sufferings that Yang's family had to go through was so frustratingly terrible that it made life seemed so bad to them.
(Allen Han)
ReplyDeleteTo be quite honest, when I first picked up this book, I rolled my eyes after reading about ten pages because I found the writing itself pedestrian and the topic at hand trite. An Asian-American immigrant experience? (Hah!)
As for my personal experience with parents who immigrated from outside the USA, here is a brief summary: as a child, I grew up full of respect for my parents and our culture, before going to college and learning to think critically. Since then, I've realized that my parents are a product of a repressive and orthodox culture, and that they themselves have spent at least the last decade in an unhappy marriage. And as for the those lauded archetypal qualities supposedly inculcated (as conventionally supposed) by East-Asian culture? Chauvinism, repression, and unquestioning obedience to elders? No thanks, I'll pass.
That was the mental baggage I brought to this book, and if it hadn't been assigned reading, I would have never made it past page forty. In the course of reading, however, I gradually came to a new appreciation for both the similarities and differences between me and the author, and more intriguingly, the similarities and differences of our immigrant cultures themselves. Fully exploring these differences would probably not require an effort as voluminous as Kao Kalia Yang's, but the thought of attempting even a slightly more modest effort for the purposes of completing a term paper fills me with at least a modicum of respect for the kind of can-do attitude that got this book written and published. Certainly, my own efforts would not read as smoothly and cleanly as the author's spare but expressive prose; and really, compared to Yang's tale of forced diaspora in the face of the brutality of wars of nationalism in the previous century, the story of a repressed Chinese boy who grew up in suburbia sheltered from the realities of life would be far, far more trite than any similar accusations I could direct towards Yang's story.
The most moving passage in last week's reading assignment came towards the end, when the author talks about love on page 199. The paragraph beginning with "It took me all night long" reduced me to tears.
My personal experiences differ in a few ways, while some can be loosely related to the young Yang's experience. While my family did not have any language barrier, I have always found myself being of a more shy nature when around people, even those whom I was close to. This, a lot of times led to eventual alienation in the classroom setting because I would not appear outgoing. This always made it more difficult to make friends and to communicate with my teachers, because without some initiative, you make very little progress. My love to learn never died, it was just hindered by my own insecurity of speaking publicly in general, much like Yang. [147]
ReplyDeleteInside the home, one of the few real educational experiences I encountered every day was the value of holding your tongue. I've always grown up with a sharp tongue when I needed it, but found that the satisfaction was not worth trouble. This being the relationship I had with my parents, I was not encouraged much with education or secular work, for I was seen as an independent. Education never came across as a valued pursuit in my mom's household, while my dad's perhaps over emphasized it's importance. I found my middle ground in how much I loved to learn, but not when it seemed like I had to. Unfortunately, Yang does not have that luxury to decide and views education as the one essential goal for any sort of gain. [196]
In Kao Kalia Yang's video interview she speaks of how she has been approached so many Hmong immigrants whose struggles and stories of personal survival are so similar to her own that she could not have written "The Latehomecomer" in the style of an individual memoir. She says that it isn't her own story she is telling, but the story of her entire culture and even the struggle of the human condition itself. Yang's honest account of her parents life torn apart by war through her early years in the Ban Vinai Refugee Camp and her education in the United States communicates an intimate feeling that I'm by her side through every step and every thought. But I pull back and look at my life compared to hers and the objective differences between our experiences is staggering, impossible to comprehend at one level. Through the eyes of Yang's hardships I have had nothing but affluence and opportunity.
ReplyDeleteMy family has never had much money. Ever since I was a child I have overheard the purposefully lowered voices of my parents talking through the money problem, always audible through the walls of our small home. Together we had times where we lived with hunger and worn out clothes, but in the end I never feared that we might not make it through to the next year or even day. Living in the suburbs of the East Bay is nowhere near the jungles of Laos. The ways in which I have struggled are so removed from those of the Hmong, but still I feel a personal connection to Yang's account of her childhood. In truth, no life is ever met with the same hardships as another. But this sense of connection, of collective perseverance and of the shared human condition comes from the way each of us grows into our own responsibilities because of them. In the end I cannot honestly compare my education to Yang's in any way than the overarching sentiment that we have risen to our feet one more time than we have fallen down.
After I read some of the pages of Latehomecomer, I have been thinking the reason of the book title. Does she go back to Thai after she grew up? However, she said Hmong had no homes that I feel so bad when I read this book.
ReplyDeleteBoth Young and I are from Asian countries, but lucky enough I was born in a peaceful district without wars. But as we are immigrants, we share the same feeling that feeling lonely and helpless in a foreign country. It's not easy to learn a second language. However, it's interesting that we both like writing better than speaking because it takes no voice.(149)
On the other hand, Young came to American when she was a child, but I came here when I was 18 years old and finished my high school in China.I have been in the U.S.A. for three years but I just have taken courses for one year and a half. The most frustrating thing for me is language---English.Though I learned English when I was in China, it didn't help much with my reading,speaking and writing. but I still have a better environment compared with Young's that she had to learn everything when she came to the U.S.(139).As I can't communicate with native speakers well, I was always laughed even by Chinese, which was embarrassed like Young's feeling (141). Fortunately, I learned more by working and schooling.
（Additiion）
DeleteI felt heart divided like Young(203). I was struggled to be Chinese or American. How I should perform? How to reduce accent? Sometimes my friends joked if I was being an American,and I was hesitated to reply. As time passes, I just let it goes without thinking too much.
Compared with Young, she was found her talent of writing(200), but honestly I haven't known what I am really good at. However, I do have things that I want to learn more. It's about animation production. Even though I don't major in it (for some reasons) now, someday I will study it and complete my dream.
Chinese high schools don't have celebrations for graduation. So, I don't have much cheerful monments shared with my familiy when I grudated from high school. Like most Asian countries, Chinese education system is inflexible that every students are stressful because of the once-a-life examination. Though the system sucks, I have good memory with my classmates who studied together, fought for good universities together. I am not in China and I am not with friends,but the experience is unforgottable.
After reading the Latehomecomer and it brings to the life the differences that people go through compared to my own. Comparing Kaos formal education to my own there are actually quite a bit of similarities. A major similarity is the basic concepts of what are taught in school: reading, writing, and arithmetic. Fortunately, while I was going to school my parents were able to work and provide for the family, unlike Kaos family. Kaos parents also had to attend school that would either advance them in the work force or just to become more socially accepted, which is what they felt they needed to do. The contrasts between Kao and I are mainly brought out when looking at the informal ways that we are taught. Kao grew up in the mountains and refugee camps until she came to America. The lessons that she was taught growing up are completely different of my own. I was not forced to struggle through much during my childhood unlike Kao whose family had to survive in the jungle and from a military who was sent out to kill any Hmong people.
ReplyDeleteI am unsure how to put my thoughts into words but I will try my best here.
ReplyDeleteHer story is one that is very alien to me, from the top of my head the only common ground I can find is that both our parents struggled when starting a new life in America. I didn't have a close relationship to my family like Kao did though, so I'm unsure just exactly how great their struggle was when adjusting to a new world. My parents only stressed the importance of an education briefly with me, my grades were declining though and I think they kind of just gave up on me. So I don't have that same connection Kao does with her family, where her father would stress the importance of education to her all the time. Its backwards I feel, how I started great in school but declined and Kao had a rough start but then started to do well.
After several years from my high school graduation(which I barely passed, practically a drop out) I have come to realize the importance of education which is why I am going back to college now.
Growing up in Sweden, I almost never thought about money at all. There was always food on the table, we could go on vacations during summer, we went to the movies when we felt like it and so forth. I do not mean that my family was rich, just that money never was an issue. Where I come from, the social services are very accessible to the general population. For example, the healthcare is almost free of charge and if you are unemployed there is no need to panic. It is very unlikely that you are going to get kicked out on the street for not being able to pay rent, if you need help from the government you will get it. In the "Latehomecomer", Yang is talking about being embarrassed when she and her sister have to eat the free school lunch. That to me is very hard to relate to since everyone in Sweden eat the same, free lunch everyday. Education is not a luxury and in school there is no hiearchy that come from who has money and who does not. I guess I am very lucky that I did not have to worry about these things when I was a child growing up. I can imagine it being very stressful. A child should be able to just be a child and not worry about "grown up-stuff".
ReplyDeleteAnother part in the Latehomecomer that caught my attention was when the Yang family had their big family meetings. The children had to stand up in front of the grown ups and promise: "I will try my best in school" (page 173) and Kao is writing "and so the pressure built" (page 171). The children had a lot of pressure from their parents who wanted them to be very successful in school and career wise, for the sake of the family. I can definitely relate to feeling the pressure to be a good student, a good sister and daughter and to please everyone. This is a feeling I am still struggling with, being 23 years old.
Your request for an example of how an essay should look got me thinking. And that made me remember, I have a collection of essays, a book of them. When I got home I took a look at it and I am flooded with ideas. So I recommend you give this a try. The collection I have is one of the "The Best American Series" and the title is "The Best American Essays of the Century" it is a collection of excellent material spanning the entire century. I'm not positive but am pretty sure that the essay, in its current form, is an original American art form. I'm sure the De Anza library has a copy or something very similar. I hope your experience here in America is as nice a your home country of Sweden sounds. Good reading and keep helping me, by asking good questions, please!
DeleteI am mistaken, an essay is not an American art form; though we seem to have adopted it. Essay is a term just over 400 years old.From the French essai, meaning "attempt," the term was coined by the sixteenth-century French writer Montaigne to name the new literary form he just invented.(Jo Ray McCuen, From Idea to Essay, 2001, pg.12).
DeleteThis will be the second time I've posted this. This posting of assignments is all new to me. When I started middle school at Peterson Junior High the school district, in its infinite wisdom, thought it would be a good idea to bus in "disadvantaged" students from East San Jose, Alviso, and from all over Santa Clara County. These groups "clicked up" in gangs and perpetrated violence on whoever they could. I stood out as the tallest kid in the school and was out of fashion with my long hair and bell bottoms. I was a natural-born peace-loving nature child. Much like Kalia's description of her young precocious self, in comparison to her sister(). This, unfortunately, only made me an easy target for the gangs, that the school literally locked me in with. I was attacked often. Kalia didn't expound on the violence that goes on in confinement, but it was there. Anyway, as a result, I stopped going to school. The school didn't even call my parents to let them know I wasn't attending. And as both my parents had to work, I spent much of my time alone or getting into trouble. At home, alone, I could read the books and follow my natural inquisitiveness, school was hell. Nobody asked me what the problem was, or why aren't you going to class? Unlike Kalia, and her ability to draw on her Grandmother for guidance, I found myself alone. Another thing that stands out to me is the way the Yang family promoted education as the end-all-be-all in regard to success in life. My family taught me to have respect for education, but never insisted that I pursue more than the ability to gather knowledge. This way, when I need, I can go to the library and learn what I need to, when I need it. Obviously, there are some drawbacks to this way of thinking. But it has served me pretty well. The main drawback is I'm not even aware of what is missing in my education. I see very quickly my writing skills have suffered, while my skill in oratory has grown.
ReplyDeleteI cannot relate to Kao's formal educational experience very much. However one major part of Kao's childhood and informal education comes from her family. She has learned very much about her past and most of the close relatives around her. When I was much younger my grandfather traced my family's lineage all the way back to Germany and Ireland. He actually came to the point where he connected us to Daniel Boone (an early western explorer). But it doesn't stop there as of now my educational experience is not still in motion. While I learn a lot at school I learn a lot more at work. I work for both of my Grandfathers from separate sides. They are best friends and share an office. Both of them are engineers and I am an informal apprentice. I do whatever they tell me but I always make sure I know why I am doing it to replicate in the future. Although Kao was not working for her family. She learned a lot from her family, and that is how we are similar.
ReplyDeleteBeing a little less stressed now that I have my reading done, I have time to contemplate. First I'll comment on my lack of page numbers for referencing in my blog; I should have read the question before I started reading, I would practically have to reread the entire book, and I just do not have the time. Some similarities Kalia and I share are the utter lack of interest in early school; and I also would fail to participate, and continually fell asleep in class. I would wake up at the end of class with my face numb and covered with slobber, hilarious now that I think about it. Just like Kalia, as soon as I would leave the classroom I would have plenty of energy. There was nothing in my power I could do to stay engaged. I suppose today they would want to drug me. I see this as a big problem in our current society that the "officials" seem to think a kid should want to sit in class all day, rather than catching frogs or some other noble pursuit. Then we are all mystified when our children grow up with drug problems.
ReplyDeleteWhile reading through the Latehomecomer, I was able to empathize with Yang, but to tell you the truth, I had no context to relate to her experiences with. The area I grew up in taught its students for standardized tests, and while I can say now that I didn't actually learn much there, I did fairly well in school as a child. One part that really caught my attention, however, was early in Yang's classes (page 146-7) where she countered her teachers' opinions with their own: " My handwriting was sloppy because wanted to make it beautiful to look at, not easy to read... I saw no point on coloring: the pictures were already drawn and our coloring was not helping very much anyway." This reminded me of my own counters to my classes. I similarly got poor marks in penmanship because I could either write so others could read it or so I could read; naturally, I'd write so I could read it. Yang's narrative describes how, early on, the teachers could not assess her understanding of English because, while she could understand and write well, her natural quiet meant that she would rarely speak more than the bare minimum. I understand this part of things because I strove to be invisible as a youth, so I could complete my needed tasks and not be singled out for trouble or notice.
ReplyDeleteWhile Yang's parents told her that a formal education was the cornerstone of her making a life for herself in America, she expressed the invisible non-scholastic education she got from her family: the value of family and watching out for each other (as noted by how she and Dawb helped each other in early classes, p 145): "She learned what I'd always known: if one of us got somehting, so would the other." This important lesson was demonstrated over and over, not just between siblings, but within the entire family.
My educational experiences create for me an arsenal of the knowledge I gained in order to live a life that would be denied me without it. I went out into the world with the good fortune of having the ability to learn quickly and effectively. Being a fast learner I took in information and made an education composed of my experiences. When I was a boy I lived in the part of town that you don’t drive through and if you do you drive through quickly with your doors locked and never at night. There I learned to survive in a poor family constantly working to not succumb to the hardships on living in poverty. The rule that runs the streets where I grew up was; do what you have to do to survive. I learned to get by on the minimum and not become acquainted with submitting to wants but instead on making needs into reality. I grew to discipline myself and sacrifice myself going without to allow those that had a greater need in my family to satisfy their needs first. I learned to make friends with the bad situations I faced, finding joy in the fact that my life could have meaning in being able to endure pain and harden myself. Today, my strength comes from the character I continue to build by challenging myself to be a person that is good. I am happy that I can look in the mirror and not have shame in the person that stares back at me. There is no textbook way to grow strong, I only know the way that I learned and a way that worked for me. I have to be good and inspire good in others. I do not feel the truth in religion, but evolution ideas have more of the ring of truth to me. Though I do not know if real faith exists in me, I see the truth in the good religion brings to those that are lost and need a way to light the path out of the suffering for their families and themselves. I smile on the inside when I see the good in people and encourage people to be good to one another. My education is one that has given me a way out bad situations I have to face and I use what I know and truths in my life to bring good to myself and those close to me.
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