Tien Phan

Written Task 1

Part 1: Language in Cultural Context

RationaleFor this written task, I decided to write a blog about the struggle of a person

being an American-born Vietnamese. The blogger would talk about how her

grandparents come to visit and make her speak Vietnamese all day and all night. Also,

I wanted to let the readers feel her frustration and irritation of having to speak

Vietnamese constantly, and her responsibility of keeping the Vietnamese blood

running through generations and such. I got my idea for the blog from the lessons we

did in class for the unit of Language in Cultural Context: Race, Gender, and Culture.

We read through different texts like “Viva Spanglish” and “American-born Chinese”;

the two texts discuss the stereotypes society cast on individuals and expect them to

speak perfect Spanish or do things that a typical Chinese would do. Also, we watched

videos of Margaret Cho talking about how she feels when people expect her to speak

perfect Korean. I was inspired by the idea of being the first generation of Americans

when parents moved and such so I wanted to explore on this notion of feeling the

pressure the first generation would get from the old generations to keep the ancestral

roots and heritage going from this generation to another. Therefore, I decided to write

my blog with a voice of a teenage girl because teenagers are annoyed constantly and

are stubborn all the time. They just want to have fun so they don’t want to be tied

down to any responsibility. My audience is fellow teenagers who are first generation

Americans born of immigrant parents. The purpose of this task would be for the

blogger to express her feelings about the pressure her family puts on her with regard

to language and culture, as well as keeping up with the cultural norms.

Word Count: 300

Tien Phan

Written Task 1

Part 1: Language in Cultural Context

Written Task 1

LIFE OF A BI-CULTURAL KID

September 4, 2014: D DAY-30 MINUTES!!

Hellooooo,

If you’ve been following my blog, you’d have known that today is the date my

grandparents fly from Vietnam to visit me. Just thinking of it gives me the chills and

anxiety. If anyone of you were American-born Vietnamese, you’d understand me

when I say my grandparents are the most traditional and strictest Vietnamese people

out there. They make me speak Vietnamese all day and all night, talk to them in

perfect Vietnamese everyday so that I won’t “lose my culture and ancestral roots”,

blah blah blah. Our conversation would be like this:

“Chao Ong Ba, con moi di hoc ve!” (Hi grands, I just got home!)

“Chau moi ve day a, vao day ke chuyen Ong ba nghe nao,” granny’d say. (You just

got home! Come here and tell me how’s your day!)

“Uhm…chau di hoc binh thuong…h-hom nay chao hoc toan, tieng Anh va cac mon

khac…” (*stuttering* my day was fine. Today I studied Math, English and other stuff)

And so on with the normal conversation a grandchild would have with her

grand’rents.

Guys, you have to know this. I, literally, translated straight from English to

Vietnamese. Sometimes, I think I have a language-translating machine in my head.

No joke, guys! Not to be arrogant or seem off to be a smarty-pants, but I can use this

machine 24/7/365. It often comes to help but sometimes, when I’m in an awkward

situation, like the speaker’s talking in Vietnamese way too fast, my machine would go

haywire and my face is like a blank placard. Then, I would look like a puppet that

can’t give any emotions and just look dumb. I seriously wanted to bury myself down a

hole to hide from all the shame. I wish you guys would be there to take a picture of

me. It’s freaking hilarious! I know my friends would be rolling on the floor, laughing

their a**es off whenever they see me talking to an adult in Vietnamese. I know you

guys would because y’all’re my friends, of course ;)

Oh, I think I hear my parents calling me to get in the car so we can go the airport.

Dun, dun, dun! Farewell guys, I’m off to pick up my grandparents… Hope they

would be at least pleasant of my decent Vietnamese accent. Fingers crossed!

See you guys later xoxo

Becks

September 11, 2014:

Hi guys,

I’m so so sorry for my absence this week. Like, honestly, I wish I could have talked to

you guys sooner and tell you guys about my endeavor in TRYING to speak

Vietnamese to my grands. Notice the word “trying” is capitalized. You see, I do put

my utmost efforts into it. But, you guys, you know what? Not everyone was pleased

with my attempt INCLUDING MY GRANDPARENTS. To be honest, I feel like

I’m the only who ever gave a damn about speaking Vietnamese and keeping to my

“ancestral roots”. My other cousins would mix English into their sentence, they would

act like they are true Americans, and no adults would say anything about it. But,

whenever I talk, all eyes are on me. LITERALLY, NO JOKES! All tens of hundreds

pair of eyes in the room are on me. It’s like I’m giving a speech whenever I open my

mouth. It’s so irritating, honestly! After the get-together, I asked my mom why they’d

do that and I said that I felt victimized by the pressure everyone put on me as the

oldest kid in the room. My mom would give me a general saying, like every other

time, that because I’m the oldest kid, I have to keep traditional customs and the

cultural norms of the family. I mean, just because I’m the oldest kid, it doesn’t mean

that I have to be the perfect kid. Arghhh!!! So frustrating honestly.

In addition to that, you obviously would know those kinds of looks that make you feel

pity of yourself and you’ve let down everyone’s expectations. Exactly, those kinds! I

think if for every look I’ve got I would get $1 in return, I can buy myself a machine

that would kill them off for every time they look at me like that. But then again, that

would only happen in fantasy world so dreams would still be dream of course.

Hahahahahaha… I probably sound like a mad scientist right now… I need to let off

some steam, guys! I promise I’ll be back very soon :D

Toodles,

Beckster

September 18, 2014

Hellooooo my loveliest readers,

Today would be the last day my grands are staying here because tomorrow, they will

leave to fly back to VN. Yassss!!!! I should not be happy like this, and I actually do

feel guilty a bit but you know what, I don’t. If you were living with me, you would

feel the awkward atmosphere between my grands and I. You’d have probably cut it

with a knife haha. Honestly, I feel like my Vietnamese could have improved by now

but sometimes, I can’t help it to slip back into my American side. I do apologize for

not being able to keep up with my Vietnamese side but I’ve been living in America

for my entire life and I do try to speak in Vietnamese with my parents every day.

Honestly though, it’s very frustrating sometimes that I can’t express to my grands

what I actually want to say in English, since I have to speak to them in Vietnamese. If

I even said anything in English, I’d have to do house chore for that day. Like, one

time, I translated the phrase “get it out of the way” into “cho ra khoi duong”

(meaning: get out of the house, LOL) while talking to my mom. So, she thought I was

being rude and you’d probably know what happened next. HELP!!

Now, I have to go do chores

Ciao,

Becks

Word Count: 953

Tien Phan

Written Task 1

Part 1: Language in Cultural Context

Works cited

Gonzalez, Lilly. "Viva Spanglish!" Texas Monthly. N.p., Oct. 2001. Web. 29 Apr.

2014. <http://www.texasmonthly.com/story/viva-spanglish>.

Yang, Gene L. "American Born Chinese : Gene Luen Yang." Gene Luen Yang

Humble Comics. First Second Books, 2006. Web. 29 Apr. 2014.

<http://geneyang.com/american-born-chinese>.