Proud of Speaking Chinese
After reading “Achieving Community,” I want to share my experience that was similar to the author’s encounter. In the article, the author told a story on an awkward acquaintance with a Sri Lankan Tamils when he assumes that the guy was Tamil and tried to talk to him within Tamil. However, the author was disappointed when the guy answered his questions in English. Later on, the author found out that the stranger was a Tamil, however, he refused to speak Tamil and reveal his identity. In fact, some of the new Tamil immigrants even claim that they had forgotten they’re Tamil after spending many years in America. This phenomenon was caused by the corruptive government and civil conflicts in their home country. And I have also encountered this situation before with Chinese people in America.
I have met some Chinese families who were the first generation immigrants to America, and they raise their child in America with English. It was shocking to me because the parent’s communication in Chinese with each other, but their children do not know any Chinese. Even when they understand Chinese, some refuse to speak the language. Some people who chose to answer your question in Chinese is because they think that they have higher status and education than others who do not know English. In this case, I fully oppose this discriminative idea. I do understand that some immigrants do not want to teach or speak Chinese because of their bad encounter with the government who drive them out of the country. However, in my opinion, culture language should be inherited to the next generation.
From my perspective, it is wise to teach the second generation Chinese and infuse them the culture because it would help to enrich their knowledge and diverse understanding of culture. Also, kids tend to learn the new language faster and easier than an adult. Therefore, raise your child in a bilingual or trilingual condition will help them easily learn two languages without suffering through the hard works in their future. I am very proud that I speak Chinese and proud to teach the youngers our culture and language.
