Trying To Fit In

3 Pages 810 Words

Adapting to a new country is really hard. You need to learn the new country’s language and culture in order to integrate into its citizenship. In the essay “The Struggle to Be an All-American Girl,” Elizabeth Wong describes her tough experience of trying to fit in while her mother is trying to remind her that she has Chinese roots and she should not forget about them. For example, she is forced to go to a Chinese school in order to learn her family’s language. However, she does not believe Chinese is the language that is going to help her to fit in the crowd. Besides, people at Chinatown always congratulate her for being a young lady who speaks English. This, gave her more enthusiasm to become an “All-American Girl”. At last, she finally reaches her main goal by being allowed to stop attending the Chinese school, however, she still not happy.
Although my experience did not involve attending any school, I had a similar experience that relates to the author’s. When I was a child my mom would buy me as many books as she could so I would not forget to speak Spanish. First, Wong says that she is forced by her mother to do things that she did not want to do, “everyday at 5 p.m. instead of playing with friends, [her] brother and [she] [had] to go to a Chinese school”(114). As the author I was also lectured by my mother every time she had an opportunity to do it. I must admit that it was really hard for her to keep me on track due to the fact that at school I did not use the language. Moreover, I did not believe I needed to learn Spanish because we were in America. Likewise, Wong believes that Chinese is not the language she needs in order to succeed, “Nancy Drew, [her] favorite book heroine, never spoke Chinese” (115).
Diaz 2
Unlike the author, I remember I used to argue with my parents about why it was so important to them that I learn Spanish. In fact, I remember my parents telling me that just because I liv...