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Story 1
From the Korean Beverly Hills to the LA Ghetto
This story initially popped out at me since it mentioned Los Angles specifically and since
this is an area that is near my own hometown, I was intrigued to read how Hye-Young’s
experience was immigrating from South Korea. One thing that really foreshadowed what was to
come in this story was when the author mentioned when her sister, her mother, and her were on
the plane ride over here. To her and her sister they were children and had this glorified image of
America in their heads while their mother sat next to them crying. It made me extremely curious
to find out what exactly her story would hold.
One of the things the author mentioned that was talked about in this class was the
stereotyping. This was mentioned in the story when the author wrote how teachers would
mention how she was bad at math and said how they thought Asians were very good at math.
Also, just recently how we talked about in our last discussion board about having better support
groups. Hye-Young talked about how she learned Spanish before English since her ESL classes
were majority Spanish speakers and not Korean.
This story showed voluntary vs. involuntary minority status. Mainly this is seen through
her aunt who went to medical school and immigrated as a nurse to the United States. She had
went to school already with the idea she was wanting to leave South Korea. On the other hand,
Hye-Young’s family even though out of options and filling for bankruptcy in South Korea, they
still made the choice to voluntarily immigrate to the United States.
In this particular case back in South Korea the author had her own personal tutors for
school. So, she was getting additional help on top of an already large sense of competition from
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her other classmates to succeed and do well to get into a competitive college. Here in the United
States though that opportunity was not as available. Both due probably to the family’s financial
situation and possibly the lack of Korean speaking tutors for her particular subject.
This applies to my life because as a teacher I can see how certain words can really affect
a student’s self-esteem. The story also demonstrates how we need to be more attentive and caring
towards our immigrated students. We do not know their situation on why they immigrated if they
wanted to or not or about their lives before coming here. It is a lot for any person to deal with let
alone a middle or high schooler who is already dealing with a lot. From this article and class, I
have learned a lot about how to better handle my future immigrated students.
Story 2
Mute and Invisible Mayra Nunez
I chose this story mainly because the title came out to me since I have felt this way
before. I felt reading this story I would be able to connect with how they felt a little bit. One
thing that really enraged me though while reading this is that no one in the school seemed to help
her at all. On her first day no one came to show her where her classes were or how/where to by
lunch, instead she was shooed around by two different guards before ending up in the office.
Someone from the school administration should have been there to welcome her, give her a class
schedule, school map, and told how the school is run and where to find help should she need it.
Not left to feel alone and isolated for the last 3 years of High School.
Even this was not Asian American based it still dealt with a child and the hardships she
faced immigrating to the United States and the help that was not offered to her. This also follows
in the same theme that changes need to be made in how we treat our immigrated students. We
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have seen in this class time and time again how not only Asian American immigrants are looked
down upon, stereotyped, and secluded but students of all races who immigrate to the United
States.
One topic I found that was directly relatable was when we talked about people “acting
white”. She mentioned in the story that even though she knew Spanish and knew other students
could speak Spanish as well, she said she knew they did not like too. These students were trying
to fit into this society as well and as far as they said, Americans were mainly white and spoke
English. Therefore, she did not talk to them, so she was not blamed for ruining their image.
Along the same topic she talked about how she felt she lost herself. In Mexico she was one
person and in America she was a different person. She went through identity loss while trying to
assimilate to white culture which she could never fully do.
This story was very closely related to the previous story of the Korean immigration. In
this story she spoke about how when she first went to school she did not know where to go. She
did not know any English just like the previous story and on her first day was lost, scared, and
sad. In both of the stories it talked about each girl breaking down into tears at school because
they felt lonely and had no real comfort or support at their school. Even being surrounded by
other minorities like in this story, no one lent out a helping hand to tell her where to go or how to
get lunch. They instead ignored her and treated her as different. This isolated her for the next 3
years of high school.
This story will be applied to my future classes. As a teacher I can see who the new
students are and which students are having difficulty in my class. From there I can adjust lessons
to be in their language so they can understand. Or even assign a class buddy who speaks the
same language. This would give the student an opportunity to make a new friend who they can
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communicate with and maybe even help to show them around the school. Also offering that extra
help and showing the effort being made on my side to the student would hopefully help them to
form a bond and see at least someone in the school who can help them so they know they are not
alone.
Story 3
Becoming American, Remaining Salvadorian Carlo Montiel
I chose this particular story since I was wanting to analyze the different views of
immigration from the three different backgrounds. I liked this story especially since it reminded
me of the previous story. It was similar because it was about a child who immigrated at a very
young age to the United States then went back to their home country for years and eventually
immigrated back to the States during High School. It was interesting to see the similarities and
differences between all three stories.
Once again, this story covered many topics that we have discussed in this class such as
segregation, discrimination, and where the system fails to support our minority immigrant
students. From these stories we are able to see where the system faulted for these individuals and
see how to better correct it for future students, so they do not have to walk the saw hard path as
the authors of these stories.
Most recently discussed was earlier this week about minorities falling into gangs. Early in
the story the Author talks about being in Elementary school where there were already gang
members. At such a young age it is scary to think how many young children are setting
themselves on such a destructive lifestyle that could ruin their futures. Luckily, he stayed away
from the gangs and let them steal his lunch tickets. You also see Carlo going through the Identity
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Formation model called moratorium/search sage. This is shown in the story where he has to
figure out what exactly he identifies with Hispanic or Latino. He thought he knew what he was
but upon his second immigration he really had to classify himself and find who he was. It even
mentions later in the story how even in his adult life he had wished to get rid of his accent, which
is an example of “acting white” but then decided (thanks to a teacher) that his accent was apart of
who he was.
This story unlike the other two stories showed what a stable support group can really do
for a student. In this story we saw perfect examples of a student who was paid a little extra
attention to in class. He was shown respect and made to feel important by not only his teachers
but connected with his other ESL classmates. He did not have the same lonely feeling the other
students from the previous stories had, but he was segregated against by the English only
students. This was because he had separate hardships that the other students did not have which
limited his opportunities for further connection. Such as many middle-class white citizens in high
school usually do not have to work to pay bills to survive. Unlike Carlo who could not
participate in sports or clubs due to having to work to help his mom. This goes to show that as a
teacher you never really know the hardships your students are going through.
This story really cemented my idea from the previous story about being that support for a
student. This student had not one but two teachers to help him gain confidence and made to feel
like an actual human and not invisible or ignored. I aspire to be that teacher who students can
depend on to not have them feel ignored but heard and important. I also wish to apply topics that
can connect each student and as mentioned in the story food was a great topic. Everyone loves
food and having students talk about their traditional foods and seeing similarities and differences
in what is served can really help to connect students to a common ground.