Junchen Liu

English 11000
Instructor Lisa Diomande
Critical Analysis Essay

Every year, there are large numbers of immigrants from all corners of the world
pouring into U.S to go after their American dream of achieving a better life. But
sometimes the reality is somewhat different from what is expected. As is often the
case, once the immigrants arrived at this land of freedom, they found them-self facing
many obstacles which make the American dream seems to be far away from them.
One of the biggest obstacles, is the language barrier, that has influenced and
discouraged many new immigrants. And its been affecting the identities of many
immigrant children. In the article The Girl Who Wouldnt Sing written by Kit Yuen
Quan, Quan tells about her personal experiences as a immigrant from Hong Kong to
America, and in details she describes about the language problems she has came to
deal with and how she gradually come to realize and accept her identity when she
looks back on her experience with the language. This paper will review Kit Yuen
Quans story as well as her main point.
Quan begins the paragraph by telling the readers her problem of communication
using the new language which is English that she has to learned as a result of been an
immigrant from another country. With fine details and vivid description, Quan talks
about her inner conflicts that occur every times when she has to talk in English, and
by doing it, the readers are allowed to be put in the same position where the author is
in and identify them-self with the author. According to Quan all of a sudden as I
scramble for words,I freeze and am unable to think clearly, minutes pass as I struggle

to retrieve my thought until I finally manage to say sometime. But it never come close
to expressing what i mean. by writing this, the Quans main purpose is to show how
English has becoming an obstacles to her and how it impacts her. She points out that
she is unable to have an coherent thought and correctly expresses what she wants to
say because of her language problem, and this problem of language inevitably has an
impact on shaping her identity. And then Quan goes on further to show how language
influences her everyday life, changes the way how she acts. She continuously uses her
feeling and emotions to back up and illustrate her struggles with the language
problems. One of the example that Quan illustrating how language affecting her
everyday life and impacting her behaviors is by showing her school life. According to
her, in art class, I was so traumatized that I couldnt be creative. While other kids
moved about freely in school, seeming to flow from one activity to the next, I was
disoriented, out of step, feeling hopelessly behind. She stressed the fact how
language affects her school life by separating her world from other childrens worlds,
so she is unable to be in part of the other childrens activity and to follow up with the
class progress. This reflects her been excluded as an outsider as a result of her
problem of the language, and therefore, she is forced to be more and more quiet and
withdrawn because of her not been able to communicates in English.
One of the events that Quan describes calls for special attention: One kid in
Quans class kick her on the butt during a game, but the Quan can not do anything
because she is not able to speak English. In addition to that, she even thinks that is
part of the game. This incident shows how language barrier can become a problem to

childrens development, and how children with language barrier can end up facing
discrimination and bullying in the school. The children with language barrier, with less
English proficiency tended to suffer from discrimination which will have a severe
impact on shaping their identity. This can be shown in the article Children of
Immigrants by Richard Schauffler from the CCNY library website, According to Schauffler, 66
percent of Vietnamese children, of whom report being discriminated against. These

children have the highest grade-point average of all group in the study, despite one of
the lowest level of English language proficiency in the study.(web, CCNY library)
Because of their inability to communicate fluently in English, many children have
been discriminated against in U.S.
Quan also mentioned another point about her losing her Chinese ability while
gaining her English ability, according to the Quan up until a year ago, I could only
recognized some of the Chinese characters on store signs, restaurant menus and
Chinese newspapers on Stockton or Powell streets that is, while going through the
process of trying to overcome the barrier of English, many children, in the mean
while, are losing their original native language. And this loss of their native language
causes a shift of their identities from their original culture to their new culture.
According to the article Children of Immigrants by Schauffler, Richard, the author
wrote the real problem for these children,....., is the loss of proficiency in their
parents native languages. Most immigrant children appear to be rapidly converting to
English monolingualism.,Monolinguaism means only speak one language. Similarly,
the author of The Girl Who Wouldnt Sing also going through a similar

experiences as most of the second generation immigrant children did, however, Quan
later realizes the importance of her native language, she calls it her first love.
According to the her, but I always felt a tingle of excitement whenever I recognized
a word or knew its sound, like oil sizzling in a work just waiting for something to
fry. Therefore, the main purpose of Quan writing this is to show that she begins to
embrace her own culture and stop trying to fitting in another culture exhaustingly.
Quan also tells about her relationship with her parents, and she explains how
language has lead to her conflict with her parents. According to Quan I felt smothered
by their traditional values of how a Chinese should behave and this was reason
enough not to learn more Chinese, gradually language came to represent our two or
more opposing sets of values. because of the struggles that Quan went through in
school as a result of her language barrier and the high expectation that Quans parents
placed on her, all of these cause her to develop a dislike toward Chinese language.
According to the article Parental Autonomy Support And Ethnic Culture
Identification

Among

Second-Generation

Immigrant

by

Abad,

Neetus.

Acculturation refers to changes in belief, values, and behavior that occur when
members of cultural minority have repeated contact with environment.(Web, CCNY
library) Quan, in the article The Girl Who Wouldnt Sing, also going through
similar kind of experiences like the acculturation. She gradually gave up on her
Chinese identity and value. But later Quan regains her interests in Chinese after she
realizes her useless efforts of trying to fit in the new environment, according to her I
have to let myself grieve over the loss of my native language and all the years wasted

in the classrooms staring into space or dozing off when I was feeling depressed and
hopeless.
Therefore, from what has been discussed above, it can be concluded from the
discussion that the problem of languages for new immigrants and how it impacts their
identity is clearly shown by Kit Yuen Quan in her article The Girl Who Wouldnt
Sing. She does a good job on explaining the issues by using her own personal
experiences and by making appeal to the readers.

Workcited

Abad, Neetu S., and Kennon M. Sheldon. "Parental Autonomy Support And Ethnic Culture
Identification Among Second-Generation Immigrants." Journal Of Family Psychology 22.4
(2008): 652-657. Academic Search Complete. Web. 30 Mar. 2015.
Schauffler, Richard. "Children Of Immigrants." National Forum 74.3 (1994): 37. Academic
Search Complete. Web. 30 Mar. 2015.