From Yuri:
While writing your essay for The Latehomecomer, was it easy to relate
your experiences to Yang and her family? Why or why not?
From Terry:
At the refugee camp the author's father is said to have met some other women there
for the issue of "giving birth to sons," and he brings his daughter.
The author doesn't give us full explaination and details regarding the issue brought
up; does it mean the truth is unknown or she just doesn't want it to be publicized?
It was not as easy to relate and here is why.
ReplyDeleteGrowing up in my home country and having plenty to eat sound like the things everyone takes for granted but for Yang it was not like that.
So when it came to feelings expressed on my paper about hardships outside of moving to a new neighborhood or coping with a family death, I was nothing but lost at sea.
Yes, I have a lot of feelings that are related to the author's. We both left our country to survive on a new land and we both had grandmas passed away back home while we were too far away from see them the last time of our lives.
ReplyDeleteYes, I actually had an easy time relating my experiences with with Yang and her family's experience. Though I did not face the same hardships as Yang and her family did before coming to the US, I could relate to their transition life after immigrating here. I had similar events of having to change lifestyle at about the same age, welcoming a new member to the family and simply setting long term goals of succeeding in a new country
ReplyDeleteIt was not easy to relate, there were things that I felt would be easy to relate to. However when it came time to write about it, I found that I had a completely different idea than how it was supposed to be written.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you mean the full explanation and details regarding the issue brought up? In the book she states that it was in their culture that if a wife could not give sons, the husband was to remarry and have sons with the new wife. I don't think it has anything to do with not wanting it to be publicized because it is their culture and their story.
I feel that there was enough explanation on the issue. The father was concerned about having sons and after waiting for a very long time he decided to take a look around. But I think Yang presents this issue with even a little bit of humor. Even though the father was "looking" at other women, he usually look Yang along with him; as she said that he couldn't have been that serious if he took his child along on his search. I think Yang just wrote what she saw and how she felt about.
ReplyDeletestrangly enough... i felt like i could relate a lot to the story personaly, and through my family. some of the things like immigrating to a new country was part of my grandmothers history, and slowly making a good life was part of my moms life, and being between 2 different worlds within my family is part of my life. although some of the experiences were different, it was neat to see someone that came from a different part of the world share similarities in a sense.
ReplyDeleteFor me it was easy to relate because my mother and father basically went through the same situations coming over to America.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Jeremy had to say. In a lot of Asian cultures back then, the male gender was preferred more and I don't think she could of gone more in dept with that subject.
MY experiences was not very similar to her, I am a first generation Chinese American. I born here but I received part of my education in HongKong, which I only had the language barrier problem. She has her family to suppirt her and live together. But I am here alone, only some relatives, I have to take care everything in my live, my parents only give me money to survie. Thus my situation is similar to the international students more. All i can think of with Yang's was the Language, and the inspiration from an English teacher.
ReplyDeleteAlong the line there was similarity in my experiences compare to her because my mom came here in order for me to have a better future ahead of me. In the process of raising me, she did not mention once about my "biological" father until i turn twelve so once my grandpa and grandma from my "biological" father pass away, i felt lost because i did not feel anything even though we were suppose to be connected by blood. Then in line of education and language, we somewhat had the same experience.
ReplyDeleteThe issue with her father meeting other women was not an important to her therefore there was no need to publicized it or have it known. He did what he has to as the duty being a man and a son who has to carry the family line and also has someone to lead him home when he is dead. HE was one of the rare in their culture to have think the way he did.
I can relate to Yang's story in a way that coming here in this country is pretty hard to adjust especially you will be dealing with different people of different culture's and beliefs. Also coming from different country at the beginning i experienced mistreatment when i had my first job interview because of my accent and the way i speak english.
ReplyDeleteI could very much relate to Yang's experience. Even though i was born here in the U.S, the experiences that she describes are very similar to mine. Growing up, my siblings and I were the translators and the hopes and dreams of our parents. We both struggled to make our parents proud. My parents also spoke of how life was in their country, and how being in America is a new start for the kids.
ReplyDeleteit was pretty easy to relate to yang's experience because I pretty much went through almost the same thing in my journey to america.
ReplyDeleteWhile I was doing the essay it was pretty hard to relate my story to her story because most of the things that she has been through I never been through it.
ReplyDeleteWhile i was doing the essay it was hard to relate to yang's experience. I was born in a good family. I never worry about the food or anything. However, in yang's family, she needs to worry about many things like food, war. She needs learn the new things in order to living for a new place. I have never experienced that.
ReplyDeleteIt was a little bit hard to relate the experiences of the Hmong people to the ones from my family. Because my culture didn't go through all these things such as war, killings, immigration etc. So it was harder to find a relationship between two totally different cultures.
ReplyDeleteI really didn't relate to the writer too much at all when I was relating myself I was really picking up a lot of her social life and her family life which weren't too much different since Asian culture is similar.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Yang, the stories of her father marrying another women in order to get a son stopped after her mother said that she would leave him. Her mother said she can understand why he's doing it but she also have a choice to leave him behind. I think because of this Yang's father decided not to get remarried and plus more things happened so the topic of getting a son slowly died out.
ReplyDeleteI can relate myself to some of the things that the author had to go through when she moved here in the US. I think there are certain things common in all the immigrants.
ReplyDeleteit was not difficult to relate it to myself; her vivid writing and all the details makes it quite interesting to know about Hmong people.
ReplyDeleteNot really easy, but the situations are pretty much what most immigrants have to go through, so it is not something so strange or unfamiliar.
ReplyDelete