Migration Story
"The story happened in the small town in China, the town called Taishan. In 1966, china had a huge event that happened, The Cultural Revolution. Many people died in this revolution and many people move to Hong Kong or other countries that year. My friend, Kwokman Wong was born on December 21, 1966, in China. He was the third child in his family. He had two sisters and one little brother. His life was started with trouble. His parents were a landlord in the city, but in the revolution, Landlords needed to return their land to the villagers. Therefore, he became a poor man when he was born. When he was seven, his father died because of this revolution. Then his mother moved to Hong Kong and his sister got married to an American Chinese. He pulled out the visa on his passport that year and showed that he flew from Shanghai to San Francisco on November 19, 1981. At that time, the China-US flights were opened less than a year, when they needed to fly to Paris and then transfer to the United States. He said that he remembered that President Reagan had just come to power at the beginning of the year. There was a bit of twist and turns in China-US relations. He always worried that the deterioration of relations between the two countries would affect their journey. Fortunately, subsequent developments have proved that this fear is superfluous. That was the first time in his life. He knew that this was a one-way trip. He couldn’t return."
Essay 2:
"According to statistics, there are 244 million people immigrated to another country in 2015. The number is increasing in these years, and the most immigrant pick is the U.S. Why do they want to immigrate to other countries? Some of the immigrants are refugees, they don’t have a choice, but some of them are normal people, they don’t suffer war issues in their country. Maybe they just want to get a better life or want to run away from the problems in their country. However, the truth is not as simple as it seems, they still have lots of difficulties when they immigrate to another country. For example, housing, money, education, and career. People who immigrated to another country need to have money to support their lives, so they need to get a job to earn money. If they need to have better lives, they need to get a nice job, but the premise is that they have to have a good education. Therefore, Education is one of the biggest problems they need to overcome. Nevertheless, studying in other countries is no small task, it needs to face lots of difficulties. The immigrant student’s education barriers have the language barrier, culture barrier, communication barrier. First of all, the language barrier is one of the difficulties in the immigrant Student’s education barrier. Before immigration, immigrant students and their parents were optimistic that learning a language was easy in a society that speaks other languages. When they went abroad to study for a while, many immigrant students found that this was not the case, and language learning was not that simple. Progressing language skills will take lots of time. Language always is a big problem for immigrant students because some of the students are over 12 years old, they cannot learn the language as faster as the children. They need to spend more time on it. Also, immigrant students and international students face the same problems. If they want to graduate from a good university, they need to understand what the teacher is saying. Hence, learning the local language is the first thing to study in other countries. Some students always spend lots of time studying the local language, in which the country they immigrate to, in the language school. They want to avoid problems when they study in school. For example, “Some students indicated in our survey that the language barrier is one of their greatest challenges. It can be difficult to understand people when they talk at a fast pace. Language can also be a challenge for teaching, research, and writing assignments.” (Gisler, Stefanie, et al, page 2). However, some of the students might think they can handle their education to use their language, but it is wrong. If you don’t use the local language well, you will miss some important points while the teacher is teaching. Also, it is difficult to keep up with the teacher's progress. Most immigrant students hope to attend their dream university as soon as possible, but they are often blocked from the university because of the lack of language level. Long-term stay in language schools not only consumes a large number of tuition fees, but also wastes a lot of time, and wears out the spirit and courage of immigrant students. Therefore, learning the local language and passing the language class as soon as possible is the common wish of many immigrant students. There have some programs to support immigrant students, like the ESL program in the U.S. For instance, “Initiating conversations about transnationalism and segmented assimilation in ESL classrooms can help immigrants understand the larger consequences of small choices, such as who to talk to and where to live.” (Char, page 4). Consequently, the language barrier is one of the difficulties in the immigrant student’s education barrier."
Community Call to Action:
Chinese immigration to the United States as a group began in 1848. At first, the main motivation for coming to the United States was the gold rush. Later, they built railways, worked as farmers, or opened restaurants and laundry. Most of these first Chinese were farmers from Guangdong and Fujian. They were single young laborers who did not speak English and had to live in Chinatown. They have been exploited and bullied by white people, and some Chinese have also been looted. There are indeed great differences in Chinese and American cultural values. Chinese traditional culture pays attention to the image and interests of groups. American culture respects individual choices and pays attention to their own interests. Chinese culture emphasizes the elders are the most important and American culture respects equality. Because of these cultural differences, many immigrant Chinese will experience cultural shock. Many immigrant worries about the language problem, so they are locked in the room, addicted to the Internet, and contact with friends in the country to reduce loneliness, thus wasting a good opportunity to learn through the outside world and quickly improve the level of foreign languages. Immigrant want to integrate into the socialization of local students more quickly. They can learn with them, increase friendships in the group collaborations and discussions, and learn more about local students' learning styles and habits, thus enhancing local language self-expression and conversation. On the other hand, it is a good way to increase friendship by participating in local sports or cultural activities. However, they need to overcome those challenges for getting a good education. It is no small task for them, but if they persevere in working hard, they will succeed.
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