Post Mortem Discussion #1

In Phuc Tran’s ted talk called Grammar, Identity, and the Dark Side of the Subjunctive Phuc Tran as a bilingual person tells people the power of language, its not only a way of communicating but it can completely alter your idea of the world, certain language lack things others have and it can completely change how things are taken. “Within this idea of would have should have there’s a pandora's box of hope and regret, Growing up in Pennsylvania as a Vietnamese refugee, I often thought about what would have happened if my family hadn’t escaped Saigon in 1975. (Phuc Tran)

"Out of Nowhere" by Maria Padian is a novel about a high school soccer team in Maine that faces issues of racism and cultural differences when a group of Somali refugees joins the team. In the book's first third, the reader is introduced to the main characters, including Tom, a white player who struggles to accept the new players, and Saeed, a talented Somali player with a reserved personality. As the team works to overcome their differences and work together on the field, tensions begin to rise off the field, leading to a confrontation between Tom and Saeed, when Tom begins to feel threatened by Saeed due to the language barrier, which threatens to tear the team apart. However, getting past this, Tom learns that Saeed is impressively good at soccer and will be a vital asset to the team. He even helps Saeed with the paperwork needed to join the team, learning more about Saeed's family and home life in the process. As the soccer season progresses, the team starts winning, and Saeed becomes a valuable player. The group of friends also navigates typical teenage issues, such as romance and academic stress. Meanwhile, the town faces tensions and protests when a local businessman proposes to build a mosque, and some residents expressed anti-Muslim sentiments. Saeed and his family become targets of harassment, which ultimately leads to an act of violence.  "Just around the time a bunch of Muslims took out the Twin Towers. A bunch of Somali Muslims started seriously secondary-migrating here. There had been a few of them in town for years but this was different. Every day in school you saw more of them in the guidance office, these black kids who barely spoke English.” (Padian 15) Saeed was very lucky to be with his family, having his sister who is rather fluent in English and can help assimilate him to the customs and traditions that come with the new world he's moved to. Meeting and befriending Tom was a connection Saeed may not have known he needed but had he not met Tom he probably would not have gotten the support he needed Tom was helpful to sway other people's opinions on Somalis because he got to know Saeed which is beneficial to Saeed and his family and other immigrants like him.

In “Out of Nowhere” Saeed struggles with assimilating because he is not fluent in English, which makes it very difficult for him to communicate with his team, friends, and teachers. Phuc Tran clearly highlights just how different the world can be for different people when they speak different languages and how difficult it can be for someone like his father to assimilate when the language he speaks is so different it changes his outlook on life and how he lives it. I think that Americans should put in their best effort to learn the differences in language and be more understanding of refugees trying their best to succeed in this new world.

In Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez’s TedTalk, “What's missing from the American immigrant narrative”, she discusses there are different types of immigrants, ones that succeed and ones that do not and the sacrifices that immigrants make are in vain if they don’t succeed in America. She wanted to teach us and show us the difficulties that immigrated people have to go through to be successful in the American standard. Elizabeth makes a good point of, “in which it seemed to celebrate one type of immigrant while villainizing the other.”(Gutierrez). Not all immigrants come from the same background but all should be celebrated and viewed at the same level. Successful immigrants are praised upon and are looked up to. While immigrants who aren’t as successful get stereotyped, hated on, and hate crimed. 

In Bich Minh Nguyen's memoir, Stealing Buddha’s Dinner, she also speaks about the difference between successful and unsuccessful immigrants. The one Vietnamese market near Bich’s town is owned by a Vietnamese man named Thanh, and from his description he seems to be turning into a white rich man, “Thanh wanted to be the don of the community. Balding, shaped like a white man, he wore Hawaiian print shirts and flip-flops year-round. His protruding belly was the physical symbol of his success.” (Nguyen, 46). Thanh can eat lots and lots of food due to his wealthy stature, which brings him a big gut. He is loved by many people in the area due to him being rich and able to bring their native foods to America, but if he didn’t have that ability he would be a nobody just like the thousands of Vietnamese refugees that came to Coon Rapids, Michigan. 

America can do a lot more to help refugees assimilate to the American way of life. Such as, learning centers, programs, housing and job opportunities. As time goes on, it only seems to show that rich and successful refugees and immigrants can have access to those luxuries because in the eyes of the government, only they matter. 

In the TED Talk, What does it mean to be a refugee? made by, Benedetta Berti and Evelien Borgman in this ted talk they talked about what happens when refugees leave home. Why they have to leave. A vast majority of these refugees are mainly childeren due to sexual reasons, and abusive aspects. 

"That persecution may be due to their race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion, and is often related to war and violence. Today, roughly half the world's refugees are children, some of them unaccompanied by an adult, a situation that makes them especially vulnerable to child labor or sexual exploitation" (1:06) 

In my book Natsha is from Jamacian but due to her father having a DUI they are being sent back to jamaica. When Americans get DUI not many conciquences happen. Us americans can make things better for imagrants by welcoming they into our contry by making it easier for them to become legal instead of making it harder to be legal and complaning about iligal imagrants. 

“Despite the fact that he was born here in America, Peter says he wants to live in Jamaica. He's always been pretty shy and has a hard time making friends. I think he imagines that Jamaica will be a paradise and that, somehow, things will be better for him there. “ (Yoon, pg3) 

In the ted talk “3 questions to ask yourself about US citizenship” Jose Antonio Vargas, an immigrant from the philippines, gives a perspective as to what it is like to be an immigrant here. He is always asked where he is from, how he got here, etc. Jose started to ask white people this, he discovered something. Firstly we are all immigrants or descendants of immigrants at one point or another, the only true non-immigrants are native americans. Second america is built off of immigrants, whether that be political, ecenomical, or infastructural immigrants built this country most of us call ourselves native to. Overtime the rules and laws have changed on immigration, just because years and years ago travel was free and there were no rules and anyone could immigrate anywhere doesn't mean that the people nowadays who try to come from different places and have to go through a much stricter system are any different. “ i asked a white person where they are from and they said im american and then said they are white, but they had no idea where their family came from, he could only say “im american””. (4:37)  We should see ourselves equal to those immigrating, the challenge of getting here was difficult enough, and most immigrants are just trying to make a better life for themselves like every one else wants too, no matter race, religion, ethnicity, color, or any other physical defining factors. Because at one point we were all immigrants and we should look into our own history too.

In my book “Indivisible'' by Danel Aleman, Mateo is the son of two immigrant parents who illegally, and secretly/quietly moved here to give their kids a better life and oppurtunity than they themselves had growing up. Mateo doesn't want to let all of his parents' efforts and has very high aspirations, he dreams of making it as an actor and being able to provide for his whole family. He and hsi best friend Adam attend an audition that many many people are also auditioning for, the line is very long. Mateo is standing in line thinking he has a shot just like his friend Adam until someone standing in line next to him says “I dont think they’re looking to cast an ethnic actor for this role anyway.” (Aleman 4) whatever little confidence Mateo had was diminished after this. But it also opened Mateos' eyes, not everyone sees him as equal. One thing I believe all of us can do in order to help immigrants into our culture, is to simply not jump to conclusions, not judge them because the very fact that they are an immigrant, see them as equal. They are here trying to better their life, just like how we all are, we were just fortunate enough to be born here and not have to worry about the challenges of getting here.

In the ted talk "Why children of immigrants experience guilt---and strategies to cope" Sahaj Kaur Kohli, an mental health therapist in training and the founder of 'Brown Girl Therapy'. Brown Girl Therapy is a community to help allow children of immigrants to speak on their mental health. She started this because she realized most children of immigrants do have guilt,guilt about many different things. Different cultures have different standards which are very different from the majority of the US having white culture. These children struggle with the guilt of feeling like they aren't making their parents proud and being in a country where these other kids are free and can choose what they want to do maybe could make immigrant children want that freedom. "Many children of immigrants feel chronic sense of guilt for letting their parents down, for not being enough, for being too American, for seeming ungrateful."(0:56) Being a child of immigrant parents can be a lot and if we could be more understanding and not think of immigrant children as just smart and never fail. 

In my novel, Love Hate & Other Filters by Samira Ahmed, Maya has been struggling with her parents and with kids at her school. Maya's mother is an immigrant from India and raised Maya in America with the Indian-Muslim culture. When Maya was working at the book store and helping one of her classmates he had told her that he only saw her as a smart person. Maya was struggling with her parents and them wanting her to stay close to home go to college to be a lawyer and get married. She didn't want to do that at all and when she finally told her parents her mother had said they gave her to much freedom. "'Do you really feel that different here?' 'I am different. I mean, literally; we're the only Indian Muslim family in town.' Phil taps his pencil against his cheek. 'I never thought of it that way. To me, you've always been the girl who knows the right answers.'"(Ahmed,40) 

Grammar identity and the dark side of the subjunctive by Phuc Tran

This ted talk is about certain things that the English language uses that others don't and the barriers they create. “Because he is a non native speaker of English he didn't quite grasp all the nuances of the subjunctive” ( Tran )

Out of Nowhere by Maria Padian is about a high school boy named Tom who likes to play soccer. During this time a bunch of Somalians become friends with tom that aren't assimilated yet and have many problems communicating and expressing themselves as they are not familiar with the U.S “norm” yet.

“She dumb-ass” (Padian 148)

I believe that if we correct the things the Immigrants say in a nice way, we could ease the settlement of the Immigrants. some things that the immigrants say may not be properly grammatical but if we do not correct the statements then its kinda of a cue to the Immigrants that they said it the right way. this could lead to bad habits or even make a situation worse. If we correct them and or tell them that they said the right thing it could ease the settlement and make them feel less tense about speaking proper English. Like in my book when Saeed says "she dumb-ass" Tom and his friends explain to him that he said the phrase wrong and that could help build confidence in the future because he now knows the right way to phrase things.

in the ted talk Grammar, Identity, and the Dark Side of the Subjunctive the speaker Phuc Tran talked about how he learned what it was like not to understand English slang and meanings. His dad was someone in his life that didn't understand subjunctives. He learned both sides of Vietnam and American ways of culture. "What he hears in Vietnamese is ‘ dad i wont be teaching next year"(5:49) in this that dad didn't understand that what the son was trying to say was he was taking a year off his dad couldn't understand it didn't make sense to him.

In the book girl in translation by Jean Kwokso Kim has moved to New York with her mother to start a new life and get a fresh start during this time Kim has had trouble making friends and with simple things like how we speak how they act in the classroom and other things. She went from the top of her class in Hong Kong to barely knowing how to speak the language and having trouble understanding what is going on in the classroom since she cant always understand.”“Can’t you speak English? They said that you did.” This Came out as a kind of grumbled whine. ”(pg 29) in this the teacher tried to ask why she was late due to Kim now knowing English very well. She was not able to make out what he was saying and couldn't understand, causing her to make a fool out of herself on her first day.

In her Ted Talk, "The danger of a single story.", Chimimanda Adichie explains through the perspective of an African coming to the U.S. She explains through personal response that simply reading or hearing about something can drastically impact one's view of something. She explains that the stereotypes she has been experiencing, she is also guilty of. “My roommate had a single story of Africa: a single story of catastrophe. In this single story, there was no possibility of Africans being similar to her in any way, no possibility of feelings more complex than pity, no possibility of a connection as human equals.” (4:37, Adichie)

In the book Americanah by Chimimanda Adiche, A Nigerian woman by the name of, Ifemelu, moves to the U.S. for her education. Americanah refers back to Ifemelus home and the past and people that she left behind. This book shows the the discoveries of racial discrimination and stereotypes that Ifemelu finds in the U.S. While showing Ifemlu in the U.S. tne person from her home is her first love, Obinze, who becomes a very successful property developer is discussed as well. While Obinize is gaining succes in the growing democratic country of Nigeria, Ifemelu is gaining succes in America with her blog about race. When ifemelu returns to Nigeria she discovers this old love and they revive their relationship and discover their newly found identities and share their previous experiences. ″When you make the choice to come to America, you become black.” (pg.273, Adichie)

The connection between Chimimandas speech and my book Americanah is the impact of stereotypes, especially racial and cultural sterotypes. They both touch on how one story or picture can affect one's view on something greatly. Not only do they just connect through stereotypes, they connect through their African descent and the experiences that come with being a “Black Person” in America.

In my book call me American Abdi grew up in Somalia when the civil war was just starting to happen.
He loved the American soldiers because he would watch war movies and his mom told him that those soldiers were the people from the movies he was watching he instantly fell in love with them. Abdi would talk to them and spend his whole day watching them. Abdi would eventually have to move multiple times and eventually end up at a refugee camp. Abdi found this radio station called Voice of America and they talked about life in America he know after listening to this wants to live in America. After going through the struggle of getting to America and getting a green card he notices that not everyone is friendly and kind as the radio station said it was people avoided him and said rude comments and just treated him differently.

the ted talk I am using is "don't feel sorry for refuges" this ted talk is about a gay immigrant coming to America and starting a refugee school soccer team. The ted talk also talks about the troubles of coming to America as an immigrant and that is hard in it self but also being gay and an immigrant you get neglected and people feel sorry for you to the point were they belittle you.

There is alot of things that we could do as Americans to welcome immigrants. “Kindhearted people who felt sorry for me offered to pay rent or buy me a meal or a suit for my new interview." (mufleh 5:36).

In the TED Talk, Jose Antonio Vargas shares his personal experience as an undocumented immigrant and highlights the importance of understanding the complexities and contradictions of the US immigration system. He encourages people to recognize the contributions of immigrants and to redefine citizenship in a way that values all individuals, regardless of their immigration status. "Immigrants are, in essence, the new Americans. They're the people who, out of choice or circumstance, had to reinvent themselves and, in the process, reinvent the country." (Vargas)

In the book, "The Surprising Power of a Good Dumpling", author Wai Chim tells the story of a Chinese immigrant family and their struggles to adjust to life in Australia. Through the family's experiences, the book explores themes of cultural identity, family dynamics, and the challenges of assimilating to a new country. "I wanted to fit in. To be a good Australian daughter. But to Mum, that meant being a good Chinese daughter too. It was like trying to find the perfect balance in a recipe that never quite came out right." (Chim)

Both the TED Talk and the book offer insights into the immigrant experience, highlighting the challenges faced by immigrants as they navigate a new culture and a different way of life. They also emphasize the importance of recognizing and valuing the contributions of immigrants and acknowledging the complexities of immigration policy. Americans can help ease immigrants into their culture by being more open-minded, empathetic, and inclusive, and by recognizing the valuable contributions that immigrants make to society.

In Elizabeth Gutierrez's Ted Talk, she recounts overhearing her parents discussing financial troubles, which led her to study finance out of fear of not being able to afford rent. This personal experience serves as a foundation for her main point: immigrants often face predetermined narratives or stereotypes. The first narrative is that of the worker immigrant, where immigrants are seen as taking jobs away from Americans. The speaker questions why America would want workers but then be confused when people from other nations come seeking jobs and wanting to contribute to American society. A quote that shows this is, "…The first is the idea of the immigrant worker. You know, people that come to the US in search of jobs as laborers, or field workers, dishwashers. You know, things that we might consider low-wage jobs but the immigrants?..it's kind of like America wanted workers, but then, they got confused when we got people instead.“ (1:57- 2:47). She goes on to explain that the way the world views immigrants affects more than the way in which they live, it affects the laws that affect their lives as well. “ But the ways in which the world sees immigrants, it affects more than just the narratives in which they live. It also impacts the ways laws and systems can affect communities, families and individuals. I know this firsthand, because these laws and systems, well, they broke up my family, and they led my parents to return to Mexico. And at 15, my eight-year-old brother and I, we found ourselves alone and without the guidance that our parents had always provided us with. Despite being American citizens, we both felt defeated by what we had always known to be the land of opportunity.“ (6:01). 

In Girl in Translation, Kimberly In Girl in Translation, written by Jean Kwok, the main characters include Kimberly and her mother as well as the rest of her family that reside within America. The author focuses on Kimberly’s hardships and her issues with not just assimilation, but generally trying to better herself as a person and student in order to provide the world for her and her mother so they can eventually escape their cruel reality. A lot happens in her journey, including a lot of misinterpretations from Americans. One thing that stood out is Kimberly's stubbornness in not letting anyone know about her job and their situation because she knew that if anyone found out, their lives would be ruined and they could end up homeless and no one would try and help them stay off the streets due to the fact that they're from another country and were illegally working. For example, “On the rare occasions when I was invited somewhere, I made excuses without even trying to ask Ma for permission. I kept a deliberate distance from the other girls because I knew it would inevitably lead to an invitation to their house, and I wouldn’t be able to go. I already snuck off once in a while to see Annette; I couldn’t fit anyone else in” (chapter 10, pg 206-207). Kimberly's mom explains that if she accepts an invitation to someone's house, then they'll eventually want to go to their house and then their truth will be revealed. 

In short, the fact that immigrants are bombarded with this narrative that points to them being job stealers, and then they have to hide their truths and their struggles from the surrounding culture around them that they're trying to fit into, affects their lives to the point that they question whether they made the right choice to escape their motherland covered in war or other bad and dangerous situations and to go to a place that they hope will save them is more than cruel. To fix this, Americans need to be more understanding and empathetic and need to open their eyes to the struggles immigrants experience. The effects of support from an American are made clear in Girl in Translation, specifically when Kimberly becomes friends with Annette. For example, “She thought it was neat that I came from somewhere that wasn’t America. She wanted to learn Chinese words, especially insults…her tones…were so off that I barely understood what she was saying. No other Chinese would be able to understand herm which was a good thing” (chapter 3, pg 57). This quote shows that Annette makes Kimberly feel good about being Chinese and being different, something she wanted to keep and protect all for herself because she didn't want anyone else being able to ruin it. The support Kimberly received from Annette helped Kim be able to academically achieve as she felt she wasn't alone and had something to fight for when she saw how Annette lived vs how she lived, and this led to her eventually getting a scholarship and becoming a surgeon. In conclusion, all immigrants need is a little understanding, a little empathy, and a little kindness in order for them to rationally see their goals and be able to go for them. Hammering them down with these stereotypes and narratives and complete ignorance and or arrogance makes them feel hopeless and stuck, causing their determination and motivation to dissipate within seconds. This ruins lives, and ruining a life of another human being should never happen.  

My book (Private Label by kelly yang) is about two Chinese immigrants who moved two California. One is Serene who is quite popular and has a father figure she doesn't really know and the other is Lian who is picked on for his name and is pressured to be successful by his mother. Serene’s mother, however, has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, which causes her to search for answers on who her father was and why he never came. Lian’s mother tries to make him study and such but he has other plans, which leads him to create a Chinese club to make his transcript look “Better”, but uses it to do what he dreams of doing. They both meet when Serene brings a picture of her father and mother while her mother was pregnant with serene, wanting to know what the Chinese writing meant in the back of the photo.

the ted talk (A safe pathway to Resettlement for Immigrants and Refugees by Becca Heller) is a ted talk that explains how Becca Heller is part of an organization called IRAP, an organization that uses American law to make going into the U.S. More or less better than ever. She saw the flaws of families going to the U.S. to seek refuge and essentially help them enter the u.s. faster.

“Functional rights-based legal systems help everybody.” (Becca Heller)

"Chinese club... Most people take a flyer and toss it straight into recycling." (Yang 53)

I personally think we as Americans should learn the culture to have an understanding of what the immigrant may find offensive or what we do may be offensive to them. we as people should not walk straight into a party that we don't know about without having an idea what the theme is or what to dress like because you would look weird. So if we make the party something that has more diversity, we can infer that the person who is naive and diving straight in will have an easier time being comfortable! (I did an analogy because this is all I can think of.)

In Phuc Tran's ted talk called "Grammar, Identity, and the Dark Side of the Subjunctive", he starts off talking about grammar and how it's a tool. He goes on to subjunctive and why his father doesn't understand or grasp it. His father doesn't understand it because it's not a part of his language. There are no 'woulds', 'coulds', or should' which is commonly used in English and not in Vietnamese. "The subjective comprises of all the nuances of non-fact, possibility, potentiality, and counterfactuality" (Tran). The subjunctive allows up to look into the future or past and find possibilities or what "could have" happened. Vietnamese lives in the present while English can live in the past, present, and future. Because of this subjunctive, Phuc learns that you can use it look view the world at different perspectives. 

When Kimberly Chang and her mother leave Hong Kong in hopes of a better life in America, they are met with the run-down, crime ridden Brooklyn, New York. Kimberly’s Aunt Paula found them an extremely neglected apartment and a labor intensive job at her factory where they got paid 1.5 cents per skirt. Ma has a very hard time with English which makes it difficult for her to communicate with others; Kimberly has to be a translator. Kimberly is very bright and smart.After doing so well in public school, the principal gave her a full scholarship to Harrison Prep. She's ends up falling in love with a boy named Matt, which was later broken off due to the long distance with Kimberly going to Yale. While she faces the language barriers, bullying, near hypothermia in her apartment, she grows up to be a Pediatric Cardiac surgeon. 

These two relate to language and how specific language and cause specific language barriers. Because of this, so much is blocked or lost. Americans can help immigrants ease into our culture by providing English education. We need to ask them questions instead of assume. We need to educate immigrants and Americans about our culture and their culture, come together and recognize that immigrants do not need to be assimilated into our culture perfectly and that it is okay to make mistakes.