Inbox: After reading the Issue 9 spread, “Fresh Off the Boat,” Teacher Ms. Hadikusumah’s ELD 3 classes submitted two letters to Rampage on the invisible wall between newcomers and ABCs.
Life is hard enough as it is. Discrimination is one of the most difficult aspects of American reality, which makes the “roller coaster” of life even more miserable. It is a wall that separates people’s hands; it is a glass box that blocks people’s feelings, but sometimes it can be a nuclear warhead that destroys people’s relationships and hope.
In school, there are too many barriers between American born and immigrant students that undoubtedly nobody really wants. Discrimination occurs because of the many cultural, language, and behavioral differences between native born and immigrant students.
Both sides feel there are too many differences between them. One of the most common one is the language. For an example, one of my friends, Vivian, is an immigrant who’s really sociable. Although she is that active, she feels scared when she is talking to other students who were born in America.
This cold feeling occupies her thinking and heart. Maybe not all of the American born students would do that, but in Vivian’s point of view, even if one person did it, she would feel awful.
Other barriers included the culture differences. The American born students are very concerned about the way of communication. In their heart, they believe saying bad words will never be a way to communicate to their friends.
But newcomers do not really care if their friends say bad words to them, because they know that they are his friends. In American culture, saying bad words, even in a joking way, is disrespectful.
Secondly, I think the root of the bad relationship between ABC and immigrants is the ABC’s attitude toward their homeland. Actually, I think some of the ABCs always look down upon China and also Chinese people.
They don’t realize China has a rich history and culture. They don’t think the well-developed technology and modern cities are something to be proud of. They don’t think the kindness and passion of the Chinese people are admirable. No matter how long they have lived in the USA and no matter where they born and where they grew up, the fact that they are Chinese will never change.
If we have a chance to openly communicate with ABCs, we’ll know each other better and build up our friendship while improving the language.
By Elsa Wang and Cynthia Yao (ELD 3, Period 1)
Newcomers want to maintain traditions, but ABCs desire to be more Americanized. However, both groups think the other should change. Thus, cultural diffrences lead some people to form stereotypes.
Chinese is the primary language for most newcomers in Temple City High School. It is hard to learn English later in life, so I often rely on their first language, mix two languages together, and make many mistakes.
Oftentimes, newcomers have the ability to learn, but not the patience to study a new language. However, I know mastering more than one language will provide more opportunities in the future.
On the other hand, the invisible wall between the newcomers and the American-born Chinese is not only about languages. I feel that ABCs will never be real friends with me, and in fact, exploit me in some ways. I still remember when I first came to America. I felt so helpless on the first day of school.
Fortunately a kind Asian girl in my English class helped me out. She knew how to speak Mandarin, so she translated everything for me. I was really thankful for her help and friendship.
During breaks, we hung out and had fun, but one day, she said she forgot her wallet. In my country, we often pay for friends if they need to, so I paid for her. However, the next time we hung out, she forgot it again. She kept asking me for money, but she never paid me back. A few months later, I heard from the other classmates that she kept saying that I was a stingy person.
After years passed, my teacher explained to me that Americans always pay for themselves, but in our culture, we try to express thanks by giving gifts. She might have thought I was an ATM for her, but she got it wrong. Most Chinese newcomers only pay for our true friends.
Stereotyping also causes other gaps between ABCs and newcomers. I arrived in America as a freshman and my English was not that good at that time. My friends told me about a girl in one of our classes who was known to be rude to newcomers, but I did not really believe them.
After a few days, I experienced her wrath. One day after my class, I saw a backpack fall on the floor, but no one noticed. So I decided to pick it up, because I thought nobody wants their stuff being stepped on by others even if it is just accidentally. At that moment, the girl that my friends warned my about rushed over and yelled at me,“Don’t touch my backpack!” I was not sure if she was acting out towards me with a prejudice, but I decided not to worry about it much.
After a few days, though, I overheard her talking about Chinese people. She said, “That [expletive] was dumb. She probably trying to steal my stuff. The Chinese are that kind of people.” This shows that the gap between us happens because people have negative reactions towards each other.
We call America a melting pot, because we are combined here. All the problems are there, but we can solve them.
By Bobby Deng, Fiona Lin, Annie Ma and Wenhao Zhao (ELD 3, Period 3)