A Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok describes the main character Kimberly, a young girl from Hong Kong who came to America. She lives in a broken-down house filled with rats and roaches, and is often discriminated for her diversities with other students is her class.
It gets me angry when I encounter someone like Kimberly. She lacks intelligence of the world. She remained in Asia for such a long time, but it's as if she only knows about Hong Kong. She's so used to living there, and becomes bullied because of that. Especially her teacher, Mr. Bogart. At one point during her first time in class, Kimberly misunderstood what was happening during a test and Bogart assumed she was cheating.
He absolutely fails at a teacher. First, he made a first-time transfer student take a test on the very first day. What if she wasn't on track with the school's progress? She wasn't even properly introduced, like so in normal schools. Second, he didn't bother asking if she needed any help or gave her a warning - she immediately failed. But what I thought was most important was that third, she didn't bother asking the teacher for help.
If I were in Kimberly's shoes right at this moment, I would try asking him (to the best of my ability) for help. Even if I don't speak English, I'd just be like "arbl hooga shlaggn?" or saying a question so my teacher would know that I need help. But what I thought was that if I were Kimberly, I would practice my English. It didn't say that she did study at all, so I would regret not trying to improve on that.
You'd find it crude for me to be like this with these types of characters. I know that though; I don't even know if I would curse out at these teachers or sue the Board of Ed. But it makes me envious how people don't even try to do something and just stand around, yet nonetheless they are better than those who speak out. I know many of my friends that are quiet and force me to do talking when they should be the ones doing it. It's annoying. If no one knows how to speak out, no one would agree or disagree with anything.
I personally love this book and blog post so much! I loved how you reflected the book to your own thoughts and it really mixed in rather than just talking about one thing at a time. I love the way you react to these specific characters in this book; great technique. But what you lack of is talking about how Kimberly lives her life doing so much work and receiving so little. Have you ever thought of what you would do if you were in her shoes, but in this modern-day world? What would teachers say, what would friends say, in this time period? Our life right now is bouncing off of what society thinks is right; but Kimberly's life is off-balance and she doesn't care about anything except her own needs, not wants. Maybe life now would be easier even though we have so much immigration laws and policies and what not. I think that Kimberly is really a spectacular teenager trying to fit in this place that's been known as our home for years. Thank you for that spectacular blog post and keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteI personally love this book very much! This blog post is amazing; it touches every point in the book. I love your writing technique and how you really try to see things from your own shoes. But the thing is have you ever thought of seeing things from Kimberly's view in this modern world? I believe that Kimberly would've had a much better future if she had been a girl born in this world now. Think about society. Society would probably just pressure Kimberly into more trouble, so don't blame it all on her. Amazing blog post otherwise!
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