After a nice sleep, Johnson and his family picked up all their packages and went to Baiyun International Airport. It was their first time to fly to another country. They have not been to a place that so much far away from home. Moreover, they were going to build another “home” in the U.S. Johnson chose a seat by the window, Bill sat in the middle and his mother sat by the path. On the way to America, Bill told to Johnson, “Your mother and I tried to learn English several months ago but you know, we are too old to study already. My son, you know what I mean?” “Yes, I do, dad.” “No, no you don’t.” Then, Johnson and Bill turned to silence. The plane as quiet as that they can even hear each other’s breath. Johnson turned his eyes to the window, seems he wanted to say something but stopped in the middle. After a while, Johnson broke the silence, said “What do you mean that I don’t understand? I am twenty years old already!” Bill did not answer, and they turned back to silence again. About half an hour later, Bill said: “Have some sleep, son.” Johnson kept still staring outside of the window and did not answer as well.
Johnson and his family landed on the North Carolina state. After a few weeks later, Johnson joined his first English As a Second class in Western Piedmont Community College, where he met his first ESL teacher, Amy. Amy told him about many living habits about American, the history of the America and many cultural conflicts between Chinese and American. He also met many new friends and handed out with them together to have fun. Johnson started to get used to living in the U.S. in a few weeks. On the other hand, his parents were still not able to get used to living in this strange place which simply communicated in English and Spanish only. It was the first time that Johnson realized his parents were getting older. Since Bill and his wife both were did not graduate from high school, they were nearly impossible to learn another language which is far different from Cantonese. It was no doubt that Johnson’s parents have to count on Johnson whenever they need to communicate with others. They cannot even purchase a sandwich without Johnson’s help. Johnson’s parents cannot get a driver license for several months because they were not able to follow the command of an American driving instructor and understand the American road signs. Fortunately, Bill passed the driver license test one year later. Bill could drive to work finally. However, Johnson’s mother still has not passed it today. One day, Bill and Johnson were sitting together to celebrate Johnson’s twenty-first years old belated birthday. It was a bottle of wine from Sonoma which neither the most expensive one nor the cheapest one in a supermarket. After several glasses of wine, Johnson said: “Dad, I finally understand what you mean when we were on the plane.” “Oh? Tell me then.” Bill said. “Mom and you not only gave up your life but also the rest of your life to give me another future. Am I right?” Johnson said. “But don’t worry, dad. I promise that I will not disappoint Mon and you ever.” Bill smiled “Come here, my son. Hit me again.” Johnson had never seen his father smiling like this before. Seems like all those struggling days before finally worth for Bill. It was an impressing night for Johnson.
Essay II Excerpt:
Publishers Weekly reported, “This much-anticipated, affecting story about growing up different is more than just the story of a Chinese-American childhood” (par. 1). Having a trip with their next generation to their homeland is one of the solutions for immigrants. There is no place like home. Immigrants should have a trip to their homeland with their children. One if an American born foreigner knows about their homeland, they will understand where they came from and why their parents decided to migrate before. Someone might consider that how important does a trip can be? Trips to their homeland would be useless. I met Amy, an American born Korean classmate, last semester. “I am so proud of my mother’s courage”, she said. Her mother came from Seoul, Korea, and her father was a local American. She said her mother brings her back to Seoul every two years and taught her Korean after dinner since she was a kid. So that she can speak and read Korean fluently. She sincerely respects to her mother because her mother migrated to U.S. for her husband. Amy’s grandmother told her that her grandparents were opposed to her mother’s marriage and said no longer want to see her mother again if she insist to marry her father before. However, her grandparents are fond of Amy since the first time they saw Amy. Teaching American born foreigners their mother language would strengthen the connection between generation to generation, which is an identity of them as well.
Community Call to Action:
Based on all three essays, my blog will focus on the people who were suffering from poverty and what is the American dream means to them. Reyna Grande is a voice that I am glad to exist in California. She was born in a poverty Mexican family and grew up with her strict and cruel paternal grandparents. After she migrated to the United States, she lived with her father and another woman but not her mother. Even though she grew up in that tough situation, In 1999, Grande graduated in UCSC with many honors. “At UCSC I earned my BA in creative writing and in film and video and graduated from will college honor, honors in the major, and Phi Beta Kappa,” Grande described in The Distance Between Us. (page. 319)
Same as Reyna Grande, people cannot select where they came from or which family they were living in. However, they still have a choice to get over it. American dream exists because someone was dreaming to have a house to live in and have a normal job with a normal salary to support their daily life. Poverty became a global issue in 21 century. Nearly 1/2 of the world’s population — more than 3 billion people — live on less than $2.50 a day. More than 1.3 billion live in extreme poverty — less than $1.25 a day. One billion children worldwide are living in poverty. 805 million people worldwide do not have enough food to eat. Food banks are especially important in providing food for people that can’t afford it themselves. Run a food drive outside your local grocery store so people in your community have enough to eat. More than 750 million people lack adequate access to clean drinking water. Diarrhea caused by inadequate drinking water, sanitation, and hand hygiene kills an estimated 842,000 people every year globally or approximately 2,300 people per day.
For them, the American dream means a new life to get over with poverty. I am not that long to live in America but what I understand about America in these two years is that you will never be hungry if you work hard. Basically, living in America is way easier than living in any country. For instance, a grant developing country, China. In China, many people have to work for more than 40 years to pay their housing loan if they are working as a sanitation worker. They have the lowest salary and hardest work. Moreover, A youth graduated from a 4-year university could only afford the rent of a studio with his salary. The balance between youth income and the living cost was already broken in these years. That is the reason why to have a dream in America is way more easier than in China.
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