IB Language and Literature SL: Written Task

Tien Phan Written Task 1 Part 1: Language in Cultural Context

Rationale For this written task, I decided to write a blog about the struggle of a person  being an American-born Vietnamese. The blogger would talk about about how her grandparents come to visit and make her speak Vi etnamese all day and all night. Also, I wanted to let the readers feel her frustration and irritation of having to speak Vietnamese constantly, and her responsibility of keeping the Vietnamese blood running through generations and such. I got my idea for the blog from the lessons we did in class for the unit of Language in Cultural Context: Race, Gender, and Culture.

We read through different texts like “Viva Spanglish” and “American- born  born Chinese”; the two texts discuss the stereotypes society cast on individuals and expect them to speak perfect Spanish or do things that a t ypical Chinese would do. Also, we watched videos of Margaret Cho talking about how she feels when people expect her to speak  perfect Korean. I was inspired by the idea of being the first generation of Americans when parents moved and such so I wanted to explore on this notion of feeling the  pressure the first generation would get from the old generations to keep the ancestral roots and heritage going from this generation to another. Therefore, I de cided to write my blog with a voice of a teenage girl because teenagers are annoyed constantly and

are stubborn all the time. They just want to have fun so they don’t want to be tied down to any responsibility. My audience is fellow teenagers who are first generation Americans born of immigrant parents. The purpose of this task would be for the  blogger to express her feelings about the pressure her family puts on her with regard to language and culture, as well as keeping up with the cultural norms. Word Count: 300

Tien Phan Written Task 1 Part 1: Language in Cultural Context

Written Task 1 LIFE OF A BI-CULTURAL KID September 4, 2014: D DAY-30 MINUTES!! Hellooooo,

If you’ve been following my blog, you’d have known that today is the date my grandparents fly from Vietnam to visit me. Just thinking of it gives me the chills and anxiety. If anyone of you were American-born Vietnamese, you ’d understand me when I say my grandparents are the most traditional and strictest Vietnamese people out there. They make me speak Vietnamese all day and all night, talk to them in

 perfect Vietnamese everyday so that I won’t “lose my culture and ancestral roots”,  blah blah blah. Our conversation would be like this:

“Chao Ong Ba, con moi di hoc ve!” ( Hi grands, I just got home!) “Chau moi ve day a, vao day ke chuyen Ong ba nghe nao,” granny’d say. (You just  got home! Come here and tell me how’s your day!)

“Uhm…chau di hoc binh thuong…h-hom nay chao hoc toan, tieng Anh va cac mon khac…” (*stuttering* my day was fine. Today I studied Math, English and other stuff) And so on with the normal conversation a grandchild would have with her

grand’rents. Guys, you have to know this. I, literally, translated str aight from English to Vietnamese. Sometimes, I think I have a l anguage-translating machine in my head.  No joke, guys! Not to be arrogant or seem off to be a smarty-pants, but I can use this

machine 24/7/365. It often comes to help but sometimes, when I’m in an awkward situation, like the speaker ’s talking in Vietnamese way too fast, my machine would go

haywire and my face is like a blank placard. Then, I would look like a puppet that

can’t give any emotions and just look dumb. I seriously wanted to bury myself down a hole to hide from all the shame. I wish you guys would be there to take a picture of

me. It’s freaking hilarious! I know my friends would be rolling on the floor, laughing their a**es off whenever they see me talking to an adult in Vietnamese. I know you

guys would because y’all’re my friends, of course ;) Oh, I think I hear my parents calling me to get in the car so we can go the airport.

Dun, dun, dun! Farewell guys, I’m off to pick up my grandparents… Hope they would be at least pleasant of my decent Vietnamese accent. Fingers crossed! See you guys later xoxo Becks September 11, 2014: Hi guys,

I’m so so sorry for my absence this week. Like, honestly, I wish I could have talked to you guys sooner and tell you guys about my endeavor in TRYING to speak Vietnamese to my grands.  Notice the word “trying” is capitalized. You see, I do put my utmost efforts into it. But, you guys, you know what? Not everyone was pleased with my attempt  INCLUDING MY GRANDPARENTS. To be honest, I feel like

I’m the only who ever gave a damn about speaking Vietnamese and keeping to my “ancestral roots”. My other cousins would mix English into their sentence, they would act like they are true Americans, and no adults would say anything about it. But, whenever I talk, all eyes are on me. LITERALLY, NO JOKES! All tens of hundreds

 pair of eyes in the room are on me. It’s like I’m giving a speech whenever I open my mouth. It’s so irritating, honestly! After the get-together, I asked my mom why they’d do that and I said that I felt victimized by the pressure everyone put on me as the oldest kid in the room. My mom would give me a general sa ying, like every other

time, that because I’m the oldest kid, I have to keep traditional customs and the cultural norms of the family. I mean, just because I’m the oldest kid, it doesn’t mean that I have to be the perfect kid. Arghhh!!! So frustrating honestly. In addition to that, you obviously would know those kinds of looks that make you feel

 pity of yourself and you’ve let down everyone’s expectations. Exactly, those kinds! I think if for every look I’ve got I would get $1 in return, I can buy myself a machine that would kill them off for every time they look at me like that. But then again, that would only happen in fantasy world so dreams would still be dream of course.

Hahahahahaha… I probably sound like a mad scientist right now… I need to let off some steam, guys! I promise I’ll be back very soon :D Toodles, Beckster September 18, 2014 Hellooooo my loveliest readers, Today would be the last day my grands are sta ying here because tomorrow, they will leave to fly back to VN. Yassss!!!! I should not be happy like this, and I actually do feel guilty a bit but you know what, I don’t. If you were living with me, you would feel the awkward atmosphere between my grands and I. You’d have probably cut it with a knife haha. Honestly, I feel like my Vietnamese could have improved by now

 but sometimes, I can’t help it to slip back into my American side. I do apologize for not being able to keep up with my Vietnamese side  but I’ve been living in America for my entire life and I do try to speak in Vietnamese with my parents every da y.

Honestly though, it’s very frustrating sometimes that I can’t express to my grands what I actually want to say in English, since I have to speak to them in Vietnamese. If I even said anything in English, I ’d have to do house chore for that day. Like, one

time, I translated the phrase “get it out of the way” into “cho ra khoi duong”

(meaning: get out of the house, LOL) while talking to my mom. So, she thought I was

 being rude and you’d probably know what happened next. HELP!!  Now, I have to go do chores  Ciao, Becks

Word Count: 953

Tien Phan Written Task 1 Part 1: Language in Cultural Context

Works cited Gonzalez, Lilly. "Viva Spanglish!" Texas Monthly. N.p., Oct. 2001. Web. 29 Apr. 2014. . Yang, Gene L. "American Born Chinese : Gene Luen Yang." Gene Luen Yang  Humble Comics. First Second Books, 2006. Web. 29 Apr. 2014. .