Blog for 10/27

From Fang Chun: Do you think it is a good idea for the US government to compensate certain minority groups who were treated unequally in the past? Why or why not?

From Heesook Park: Why did Carlos decide to go to Imperial Valley?

From Brian Vo: Were the white men jealous of the Filipinos that married caucasian women?

From Danielle Wong: Have you ever been racially discriminated against?

Blog for 10/25, America is in the Heart

From Joseph Choe:  Why did Alfred stop Allos (Reader 67)?

From Joshua Wang: What did you think of Olivia's presentation?

From Susan Nguyen: How would you feel if you had to go door to door to find a job?

From Sarah Wong: Why did they take Estevan in (Reader 61)?

From Brian Ly: "I will never let them touch me with their filthy hands!  I will never let them make a domestic animal out of me" (Reader 63)!  What does he mean by a domestic animal?

October 13 - October 18

From Brian Truong: How do you feel about the quiz?

From James McDonald: How is Lynda Barry an Asian American author?

From Erick Tran: How does Li-Young Lee's approach in telling his poems affect your take on it?

From Patrick Pham: How would the new quiz experiment help us learn, or not learn?

"The sickness took away the strength of one of Dawb's legs, as well as her obedience. I know that high on her thigh there is a scar, a curve on her skin like the face of a silent moon--a sad, hidden moon. She played outside after dark. She stopped listening to my parents. Whenever we passed the small noodle shop on the red dirt road that cut across the camp, she would ask for food. I never asked, because I knew that if my parents bought Dawb noodles, they would buy me a bowl, too." (pg 60)

In the last sentence "I never asked, because i knew that if my parents bought Dawb noodles, they would buy me a bowl , too ." Does Kao Kalia Yang sound selfish of herself?

The Latehomecomer (continued)

From Christine Hirose:

"My father's voice, usually deep and even, sounded strange to my ears.  In English, his voice lost its strength.  The steadiness was gone; it was quiet and hesitant.  Did all Hmong voices lose the strength of their voices in English?  I hoped not.  I noticed that the people, even the women, were taller than my father.  In the camps, he had been a good height for a man.  In that hallway, he said the words again and again and the people didn't seem to notice he was speaking to them.  We stood there trying." (118)

What was your experience like speaking another language (in the USA or travels)?  How did it make you feel? (Voice)

The Latehomecomer, Parts I, II and III

From Shon Mordo:

"We are so fortunate to be young, new lives opening before us, they believed.  And yet the life in school that opened before me made me feel old in a world that was struggling to be young.  A silence grew inside of me because I couldn't say that it was sometimes sad to be Hmong, even in America." (151)

Compare Kao Kalia Yang's experiences with immigration to the US with her grandmother's experiences.

From Brian Truong, in reference to Part II, pages 84-85:

How would you feel about your father looking for another wife?

From Vivian Ng, in reference to page 36, the scene of crossing the river:

Why didn't the brothers give money to Yang's father?

From Patrick Bacungan:

"I was feeling a strong push to reinvent myself.  Without my realizing, by the time high school began, I had a feeling in the pit of my stomach that I had been on simmer for too long" (197).

Why did Kao want to suddenly reinvent herself?  What was she describing when she talked about the pit in her stomach?

From Sherwin Mendoza:

What makes education hard for Kao Kalia Yang?

The Latehomecomer, Part I (continued)

From Christina Dao:

"When they reached the compound, they noticed the wire fence, as tall as two men standing on each other's shoulders.  They were told to get out of the bus and enter the gates.  My family hesitated before the entrance; they had escaped from one country and had not expected to be captives in the next.  My father's feet stilled.  A Thai soldier punched him and he fell to the ground.  The man kicked him.  My father got up as fast as he could.  Not to hit the man back, but because he did not want my mother and grandmother to see him on the ground.  My father looked at the man and did nothing." (44)

Why did he punch him?

From Christen Kinsman:

"On March 5, 1979, in the early morning hours, my mother gave birth to my sister Dawb, the Hmong word for white.  To have pale skin in a life lived outside was a valuable quality then, a sign of beauty in a culture dominated by sun-tarnished skin.  An aunt said that Dawb would be a good name for a little girl who was born beautiful in an enemy camp.  It did not cross any of their minds that dawb was also the color of surrender.  If anyone had remembered that white was the color of the flag that had danced in my grandmother's hands, maybe my sister would have received a name that she would have liked better.  When Dawb was born, my mother did not receive the friend she had wanted, but someone who needed her love desperately." (30)

What does this passage say about what colors mean?

From Joshua Bendanillo:

"An expression on one man's face is the memory my mother and father both carry, even twenty-five years after the fact: it was only a look, but it said that we were not human, too poor to walk on the earth.  It was in that image of that Thai man with his red-and-white turban wrapped around his head, looking at them making their way into his country, that my mother and father learned what it meant to be poor, to be without a home or clothing to hide in." (43)

What was the significance of that glance at that moment that they realized they were poor?  The power behind a look or glance?