Chang Rae Lee was born in Korea in 1965 and he immigrated to the United States three years later. Throughout his life, he was plagued by the scary fact that he was in a country that his own parents knew very little to nothing about. They actually resided in Palisades Park, New Jersey. This was a place that was mainly populated by Korean families as well as his, so most of the signs and details of the city were actually just Korean, not English. The town then made a law to have any commercial signs be comprised of at least half English writing.
Chang Rae Lee and his sister always went shopping for their mother, and this was a task that he always tried to avoid at all costs. This was mostly because he was your typical kid, and he wanted nothing but to play outside with his friends. He also learned the English language at a very young age, and adapted to the united states very well. However, his mother did not. She actually used to scold him because of his behavior and the way he used the English language.
It wasn’t until the day his mother visited the butcher shop, that she truly felt like an outsider. She double parked their car in hopes to get in and out of the butcher shop, but soon found herself waiting in a long line of people. Then, when her number was called the butcher asked her what she wanted from the meat case. Knowing very little to no English, she uttered the Korean word for oxtail “soggori” at which the butcher looked at her as if she was out of her mind, then he called the next number.
That situation frustrated Chang Rae Lee’s mother because she could not communicate what she wanted to the English speaking butcher. He thought this was justified, just because he felt that she needed to learn the language sooner rather than later. After his mother died Chang Rae Lee believed that society actually tended to be to harsh on his mother because no one saw how much she struggled with her English
No comments:
Post a Comment