Exercise #1 on Paraphrase and Summary
After reading Elizabeth Wong’s short autobiographical essay, consider these passages as samples taken from a critical response to her writing. Decide whether each one is an accurate and appropriate use of the source.
1. I think that Elizabeth Wong’s attitude toward her heritage is deplorable (30-31). She and her brother both hated going to Chinese school and felt embarrassed by the language spoken by Chinese relatives. The children were fanatical about speaking only proper English. Wong is really glad when she gets a cultural divorce and no longer has to study Chinese (30-31).
2. Elizabeth Wong describes how she recognized the principal of her school “as a maniac, a repressed child murderer,” which is pretty shocking (30). What were the people who ran the school and her parents thinking of? How could they entrust their children to someone like that?
3. As a child, Elizabeth Wong prefers her American school--where she learns math and science and reads books by American and English authors, such as Louisa May Alcott and Anna Sewell-- to the Chinese school. She also prefers the rhythm and sounds of the French language to those of Chinese, or at least Chinese as her grandmother speaks it (Wong 30-31).
4. One reason that she didn’t want to speak Chinese is because she thinks she’ll seem crazy to Americans. And she seems to mostly take the point of view of Americans. But she also claims that even the people who were Chinese encouraged her when she spoke English quickly because they thought she’d do well in the world outside Chinatown (31).
5. Children of immigrant parents often learn the language of their new home country much faster and more thoroughly than their parents do; parents and older relatives may never learn another language at all. These children sometimes feel ashamed of their families and of their parents’ culture, not considering it part of their own culture too (Wong 30).
6. Elizabeth Wong’s brother behaved horribly toward his mother, treating her cruelly and blaming her when he tripped over his own tongue. He should have shown more respect for her. And instead of passively accepting his criticism, she should have punished him severely (31).
7. Wong says that she finally achieved a sense of identity that was not Chinese but “multicultural,” eating other ethnic foods and celebrating other ethnic holidays more often than traditional Chinese ones. She feels that “I am one of you and not one of them” (31).
8. Children in Chinese schools in Los Angeles are taught politeness, such as kowtowing to teachers, as well as how to write and speak the Chinese language. But these schools may not be effective in keeping the traditional Chinese culture alive in America.
Works Cited
Elizabeth Wong. “The Struggle to Be an All-American Girl.” Ed. Stephen Reid. The Prentice Hall Guide for College Writers. UpperSaddleRiver, N.J: Pearson Hall, 2008. 30-31.