Reflection about “Achieving Community”
In this article, Suresh Canagarajah, who is from Pennsylvania State University, introduces an experience that he encounters in Toronto. As he is washing his SUV, he speaks Tamil with the young attendant who appears as a Sri Lankan Tamil. However, the attendant replies him in English, even though he understands Tamil and replies in English. His behavior puzzles the author and wonders why he refuses to speak Tamil. His friends and acquaintances in Toronto tells him that immigrants want to show their privileged caste by saying they have already forgetting their mother language and dissociate with their original culture.
This phenomenon recalls me same experience in my life. After I came to university to study, I found that ABCs (America born Chinese) in class did not speak Chinese at all, even though they heard Chinese conversation. So at first, I didn’t recognize that they are Chinese and thought that they do not understand Chinese. However, as I asked them question in English, one of ABCs replied me that he can speak in Chinese and we can communicate in Chinese. I wondered why they didn’t show their identity at first, so that we can bond together and help each other as Chinese. After read the article, I understand that they as the second generation living in America, they do not have much bond and emotion to mother country which they may not have seen before. So in their mind, they recognize America as their only mother country that rise them up. That is reasonable for them to neglect the identity as Chinese. The difference between them and Americans are that they can understand and speak Chinese. So may be they are not happy for people calling them Chinese.
After reading this article, I learn to consider from the perspective of immigrants. Although their parents or grandparents from another country, they are recently growing up in America, which they consider their motherland. They are happy to be ABCs, so they want to be considered as Americans, not Chinese. We should respect what they are used to be.
