week 2 assignment #1

Chapter Reflection: "The Girl Who Wouldn't Sing" from text Tongue Tied. 

What are your thoughts of Kit Yuen Quan?

Why did she not want to identify with her culture or feel as though she didn't "fit in"?

What are your thoughts of Kit Yuen Quan?

    I hate to say, but I assumed she would spend her life pursuing the peace and balance in her heart.  Frankly speaking, I totally identified her feelings since I also struggled my English progress. In the past two and a half years when I lived in Otisville, NY, I did like the way people enjoyed the life and the concept people imparted to their children, let alone the more creative and humane education. But due to the language barrier, it's difficult for me to make real friends there. People are nice, that's for sure, but being a single mom there had already consumed most of my time and deprived my chance to reach out my neighbors. On the other hand, I could sense the weird air when I did some dumb thing in the community owing to lacking knowledge of the culture. The most common thing was my passing by could turn their merrily chatting into the uneasy poses. 

     Now, I came back to Taiwan, basically, there's nothing to complain, but the rigid teaching, low salary always push me to ponder my family's future. People are friendly here, and it's the second safest country in the world, But the conflict between two major politic parties imposes lots of obstacles for young people. The lowest birth rate stimulates parents to spoil their children more than ever. On account of these factors, I felt frustrated to anticipate my kids would gain the good education and cooperate with people here.

     Staying America without other relatives' support is another issue if I consider immigration. So my friends always comfort me that accompanying children in the US for their education, and retiring in Taiwan to enjoy the best health insurance is the best arrangements for me. But somehow, I knew I still need to find the point to balance my life. 

Why did she not want to identify with culture or feel as though she didn't "fit in"?

   In my opinion, it's very complicated. As the story mentioned, her parents long for providing the family better option and even projected their un-fulfill dream upon her and her brother, at this point she might recognize that her own culture was not good enough. In the school, losing communication skill maybe forced her unknowingly to treat her culture or language as low-class or ashamed products. She strived hard to keep up with the native speakers and definitely lost confidence in her own culture.