Analysis Of Girl In Translation By Jean Kwok

The book Who Moved My Cheese is about change and how it can affect how you are in life. Some people take changes hard while others just go with the flow. Some are ready for a change when the time comes and others want things to never change.

Many writers tend to rely on personal experience as a focus for their prose. Whether that experience is of moving to unfamiliar territory, facing fears, or reaching specific milestones, it becomes easier for the writer to connect with the story if he or she uses his or her own background as a fundamental basis for the work. Jean Kwok is among the authors who use their cultural background along with personal growth and experience to give more meaning to their stories. Born in Hong Kong and immigrated to America at a young age, Kwok uses elements of her Chinese background in her coming of age novels, “Girl in Translation” and “Mambo in Chinatown” to bring to light the many struggles faced by Chinese immigrants in the process of assimilation,

Pride often times play a big role in one's ability to make decisions and it can impact how confident an individual is in the decisions they make. To elaborate, lack of pride can lead an individual to become hesitant in the their decision making, especially when the decision is life changing. However, having excessive pride in one’s decisions does not necessarily mean those decisions are ideal. Sometimes, it causes an individual to make decisions without realizing the consequence they can put themselves and others into. Furthermore, Ins Choi’s play “Kim’s Convenience” follows the story of a Korean family who owns a convenience store in the suburbs of Toronto, Canada.

I believe that, events in a person's life changes who they are. In The Good Earth, by Pearl S. Buck, the character Wang Lung changes throughout his life. Wang Lung starts as a hardworking man in the beginning, as his life goes on he starts to lose his interest in the land, than gains interest in the land. He’d changed as a person thought his life, but not always in a good way.

This journal entry allowed me to understand Kim better because it allowed me to hear her perspective of her culture as well as how she viewed herself with in it. The media plays a big role in how certain populations are portrayed. Being an African American I can understand how frustrating it can be to see your race degraded and stereotyped daily by the media. It saddened me to hear at such a young age she wanted to become instantly Americanized. I understand the obstacles and the pressures she faced in school because of her identity. I instantly thought back to my grade school experience and how the foreign students were treated by students as well as teachers. I began to empathize with Kim during this interview.

Kim has seen Vietnam in flames, been in a communist re-education camp and moved to Canada, where her parents have very little money as they work minimum wage jobs. With the help of her parents, she is given opportunities and is able to pick out the positive things in life. She is able to reflect upon the hardships her parents faced such as being put in a communist camp and having to lose everything and move to Canada. Despite being very uncomfortable and not understanding a thing the teacher or other are saying, she is able to find happiness in the little things many people would skip over or take for granted. Her negative

     During this period of concord, the grandmother believes she can “help her [Sophie’s] Chinese side fight against her wild side.” (166). She does this by teaching Sophie good habits such as not eating food with her hands, not playing with garbage cans, and not hitting anyone (166). The grandmother continues to spank Sophie despite knowing that Natalie disapproves of this method of discipline. Clearly, the sixty-eight-year-old grandmother has been forced to rely on her own ethnic experience, which is that of a Chinese immigrant, to control her

As Kim grows he realizes that him and his family are suffering and starving without eating. For his family he sacrifices getting beat to get leftover food. He knows it is important to keep them alive, so he will go through any pain for him and his family to survive. After terrible deaths of their family members Ma has to do her best to keep her children alive. In order to do that separation has to occur. Ma has to make many sacrifices for her children. She wants them to live on with their lives. Ma told her children they had to split apart and go in different directions. For her children’s sake she wanted them to leave her and find somewhere new to start a new life. Ma told them when they find a place to tell them they were orphans. “I don’t want you here.” (Ung, 116). Loung did not understand why Ma had forced them to leave but Ma is saving her life. “If we stay together, we’ll die together.” (Ung. 116). Ma makes sacrifices so her children are safe and not killed by the horrible Khmer Rouge. “One day three soldiers come to the village and tell the new people gathered at the town square that the Angkar needs every teenage male and female to leave tomorrow for Kong Cha Lat, a teen work camp. ‘Everyone has to honor and sacrifice for Angkar!’ the soldiers yell. ‘Anyone who refuses Angkar’s request is an enemy and will be destroyed!” (Ung, 73). The oldest daughter Keav was forced to go to a work camp and sacrificed her life, so no one in the family got abused. These

Suzy’s inability to find her identity reinforces itself in her ineptitude in keeping a steady job. She provides a list of her previous occupations, none of which lasted more than a matter of months. Intriguingly, the one job that she has stuck with is that of an interpreter. Despite her detachment to either American or Korean culture, she willingly delves into a job where she is forced to see and feel the different aspects of both cultures through language. What appeals to her is the fact that, “Both sides need her desperately, but she in fact, belongs to neither” (15). She finds safety in limbo, without the weights of cultural formalities and responsibilities looming over her. However, she does feel sympathy for the Koreans because she

Everyone goes through changes throughout their lives whether it’s a physical change,or maybe a change in their appearance,or a change in perspective. We have all experienced change at some point in our lives.

In “Lost in Translation,” Lera Boroditsky writes to people within businesses or people who are wanting to invest in companies that work with other countries. The audience for her article is for designated for people who are interested in reading The Wall Street Journal, but within The Wall Street Journal it is directed mainly towards people that run a business. Boroditsky wrote this to express that language is important no matter what. She shares with the reader her views on the matter because her research has helped her realize that language has a big effect on people. Telling people about her research is beneficial and gives people an inside scoop on what happens around the world. Lera Boroditsky demonstrates her credibility to her

A mother should set an example for her children, but Tan’s mother constantly rejects America in front of her daughter. By rejecting America or any other culture in front of her children, she is showing them that they should be closed-minded. She also acts differently in front of other African Americans, Caucasians, and races in general. This creates a double life she has to live in and deal with. “My mother graciously thanked the unknown benefactor saying “Too good. Cost too much.” ” (Tan, 1989/2008, p. 737). She sees Chinese people as though they are on a higher status than Americans.

Female slave narratives appealed to women by emphasizing the female issues of slavery such as sexual abuse and motherhood. Harriet Jacobs tries to appeal to the Northern white women using the emotions of being a mother, Christianity, and the sanctity of marriage. In the story, Jacobs compares what it is like to endure New Year’s Day as a black slave to the celebrations that white slave owners and their families partake in. To black slaves, this is the day mother’s would lose their children at the auction block to new slave owners. She uses this as a tactic to describe the pain and heartache a mother feels when separated from her children, in hopes that her audience will feel sympathetic. Jacobs also uses the sexual harassment in the book as

Kim’s hidden characteristics were that she was the first in her family to graduate from high school, and she was told that people from the lower level never make it to the higher level (University of Phoenix, My Place, p. 1. Kim now has a master’s degree in educational media and technology from Eastern Michigan University. Kim’s observable characteristics are she has a unique accent which stems from her moves across the country every year, she has a French look and shiny blue eyes, she likes to laugh and smile, and tries to live her life in a positive way. Kim likes to socialize, but also like to spend time by herself in order to meditate and breathe (University of Phoenix, My Place, p. 1. Even though there were two very different looking girls and a male, with her hidden characteristics I was not able to pick her out.

As people grow up, there are special places that remain in the memories. These places become a safe haven when life becomes too rough to handle. All the bad qualities of this place disappear in their minds so that only a perfect world exists. This is a place where everything is right and everyday troubles do not exist. In the novel Lost in Translation by Ewa Hoffman, she describes this paradise of sorts as her hometown of Cracow, Poland.