From Quanyi Yang:
What did you learn from Kao Kalia Yang's story and do you have
similar experience with Kao Kalia Yang?
From Ana Marie Dequinia:
What is the interesting part of the story do you think as a student that tells
something about your own racial or ethnic background in relation to the said
story.
I learn a lot from Kao Kalia Yang's story. I learn about the war, the love, immigration, etc... I was born in Vietnam when the war already ended , so I don't really knew about the war but I guess the war in Thai should be similar to the war in my country.
ReplyDeleteYang's story further proves that if there is hope and determination, anything is possible. She did not do well with school in the beginning but she got better and went to a good college. Through her stories, I learn to appreciated and be more patience with my own grandma, my grandma may not be as nice as her grandma to the end but at least she is there for me.
ReplyDeleteI learned about the importance of holding onto one's culture and the amount of influence it has on decisions. I do not have similar experiences, I never had to go through the hardships she had to.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure I understand the second question. The idea of holding onto one's culture through war and poverty was interesting to me. It showed that my grandparents who had to escape war themselves held onto their own culture to pass it onto me.
I can relate to Yang's story of remaining close to family, which includes my immediate family as well as my aunts, uncles, and cousins. I can also relate to the family "meetings" her family has as my family does something similar as a way for everyone to help each other out no matter the degree of the issue. I realize that most Asian families remain very tight-knit throughout their lifetime compared to some of my other friends who tend to stray away from their parents or family members. It comes down to a matter of culture and values. For example, it is normal for Asian adult children that they take in their parents when they are elderly.
ReplyDeleteI didn't really learn anything that I wasn't aware of already but it was a pleasant reminder of my grandmother's and mother's story stories of how they came to America. Actually I did learn something, I learned that thanks to Kao Kalia Yang, the story of her people will be told for generations to come and it's up to people like her and us to remember and pass down similar stories to our kids and our kid's kids. That it is important to be knowledgeable of one's culture and that we should always hold onto that.
ReplyDeleteI learned that my race isn't the only one that went through all this war, but many different race did. I had a pretty similar experience when I was young. my mom still talks about our experience.
ReplyDeleteI've learned that many races been through her experience to come to America. I've also learned that if our parents been though the same experiences that Kalia been through to come to America we should make living in America worth going through all that trouble.
ReplyDeleteI learned to cherish our elders and their stories. My grandpa and his siblings have the most amazing stories from their childhood and internment camps, but I never take enough time to sit with them and hear their stories. This novel inspires me to take time and cherish my grandparents and relatives.
ReplyDeleteI've learned that every culture is way different one from the other. And many people and families have gone through so many things that we have no idea. We don't know of what has been through the person that is sitted next to us
ReplyDeleteMy family's history is very much similar to Kao Kalia Yang. My parents were "boat people" who escaped Vietnam and settled on a refugee camp in Indonesia. life was very hard, we didn't have nice clothes to wear and we couldn't eat three meals a day. As I was reading the Latehomecomer, I was reminded of those difficult times our family went through and it didn't make me sad. Instead it brought back happy memories of our whole family living together, even though it was hard we had each other. What I learned is that in times of hardship as long as you have your family, you can overcome anything.
ReplyDeleteI thought the interesting part of the story was the haunted section 8 house. It was freaky and it reminded me of the times we lived in the refugee camps. Whenever we went to church we would always cross a bridge. I remember one time it was dark one night and my brother and I were on our way home from church. As we crossed the bridge we saw a girl in a white dress with long black hair and long red fingernails in the woods. My brother and I got so scared we started running, but I was young at that time and couldn't run as fast as my brother. So he put me on his back, I held on tight and we ran all the way home.
ReplyDeleteI think I learned alot from Yang's life story specially when she moved here in the US. She described how she had the go through difficulties without knowing alot of English. Those are somethings that I had to face as well.
ReplyDelete