https://padlet.com/vqchan1/93nyy7bcvjyqk4o5 Interviewed in Cantonese and Translated to English en-us 2021-11-28 18:32:45 UTC 2025-09-30 14:32:20 UTC hello@padlet.com vqchan1 https://padlet.com/vqchan1/93nyy7bcvjyqk4o5/wish/1916522895 I grew up in the Kowloon area of Hong Kong.  My parents raised me and my younger brother with my 5 older adopted siblings, and we all spoke Cantonese with each other at home.  Everybody else around me in the community also spoke Cantonese, but a lot of people also knew how to speak Mandarin.  Sometimes, when we would go to the wealthier cities on the elementary school field trip, I got to see many mostly white immigrants who had come to Hong Kong because we were still a British colony back then.  I didn't have any particularly strong feelings, but I was very excited to see the city and travel away from home for a day because my family was very poor and I wouldn't be able to travel around otherwise.  Despite being a British colony, not many of my family members could speak any English at all, probably because they didn't go through school to learn.  They would traditionally get a job to support the family in middle school or high school.

In school, we would learn English because we were a British colony.  I was really, really bad at English, and I think that fear made me want to speak it less, which in turn it even harder for me to grasp the language.  However, I also was poor at Chinese composition.  I just don't think languages are my strong suit.  Instead, I was really good at math, since the numbers just made sense in my head and I was fast at it.  I remember my classmates would be so confused as to how a problem worked, and I wouldn't comprehend how they didn't understand.]]> 2021-11-28 18:47:39 UTC https://padlet.com/vqchan1/93nyy7bcvjyqk4o5/wish/1916522895 vqchan1 https://padlet.com/vqchan1/93nyy7bcvjyqk4o5/wish/1916524166 I moved here to California when I was 19.  Nobody else in my family came with me, since my younger brother later chose to study abroad in Canada instead.  Actually, I wasn't really scared as much as excited, since I was able to finally have freedom that I hadn't been able to experience with my family back at home.  I would be always too scared to ask my dad to stay over at a friend's place, and would have to go straight home after school to either do homework or chores.  However, in America, I was able to choose my own routines and daily life choices.  I moved here alone, but there was a family friend connection here who found me a place to rent.  

My English was still very bad, so throughout college at Cal Poly Pomona, I mostly made friends who were also from Hong Kong.  We would mostly speak Cantonese with each other.  I think by having this group of friends at the time, we were able to form a supporting, relatable community and help each other in classes or talk about celebrities or other events happening at home in Hong Kong.  It made me feel less like I didn't belong, even though I was far from family in a country where I couldn't fluently speak the language.


]]> 2021-11-28 18:49:21 UTC https://padlet.com/vqchan1/93nyy7bcvjyqk4o5/wish/1916524166 vqchan1 https://padlet.com/vqchan1/93nyy7bcvjyqk4o5/wish/1916540595 If we're talking about education, most of my older siblings did not go to college, and only some graduated high school.  Instead, they chose to find jobs in order to make money to support the rest of the family, including me since I was 11 years younger compared to the next oldest.  My oldest brother  opened up a keychain ring making factory, and a lot of us helped out there whenever we were free.  I remember the boyfriend of my third oldest sister at the time was working in the factory, and he got some chemicals in his eye which left him blinded in one eye ever since.  However, by the time I was out of high school, my oldest brother had saved up enough money to afford for me to go to college in the States.  I have always been grateful for him giving me this opportunity, which has led me to this wonderful life I'm living right now.  When I was in the states though, I would always be too guilty to buy anything excessive, so much so that I felt really bad whenever I had to buy pads since I felt that they were extra and also because back at home we didn't have all these nice things.  I would have to use stacked tissues and hope nothing leaked whenever I was on my period at home.

That is related to the male-centric culture my family followed in Hong Kong. My younger brother always got the most love out of all of us, and my dad openly favored him over me even though we were both the youngest. As a result, I think he grew up very spoiled and continues to be a very stuck up person even today, all because our parents and extended family showed favoritism. I also remember being a little envious, but that was how things were back then, so it couldn't be helped. I'm very glad that things aren't like that in America when I came here.]]> 2021-11-28 19:10:51 UTC https://padlet.com/vqchan1/93nyy7bcvjyqk4o5/wish/1916540595 vqchan1 https://padlet.com/vqchan1/93nyy7bcvjyqk4o5/wish/1916550882 In terms of my culture helping me in some way, I am really grateful to my oldest brother in paying for my living and college expenses.  Additionally, because I was indebted to my family for allowing me to study overseas, I would always have to send my report cards home at the end of a semester.  I would always stress about my grades and try to keep them as high as possible in order to show my family that I was grateful and using their money well.

In terms of how language affected my educational experience, I think one of the reasons I like math over all other subjects is because it doesn't really require words, just simply numbers.  Since I was bad at English, I would feel so confused in my college bio classes because all the words are so LONG and their parts are so SIMILAR.  I get headaches thinking about biology and their terminology, since simply understanding the processes wasn't enough for passing tests, I also had to know the English terms.  I would have flashcards to try to memorize all the words, without even understanding them since they were just so difficult for me.

Similarly, history was also a subject I was bad at, since most of it was name and place memorization.  I was already bad at Chinese history, and American history was even more boring for me because the names and places weren't ones I recognized.  This class was also pure memorization for me, without any deeper comprehension.

However, I was really good at math and would help my friends study since I was able to explain my ideas and processes to them in Cantonese. They often still didn't understand it, and I would be puzzled as to why they didn't understand this simple math logic. Since math only consists of numbers and logic, it was easier for me than the complicated writing, bio, or history courses.]]> 2021-11-28 19:25:36 UTC https://padlet.com/vqchan1/93nyy7bcvjyqk4o5/wish/1916550882 vqchan1 https://padlet.com/vqchan1/93nyy7bcvjyqk4o5/wish/1916552022 Well, right now I still consider myself a Hong Kongese.  Since the rest of my family is still in Hong Kong, every day I listen to Hong Kong news and events, and converse about them with my sisters on the texting app Signal.  Though I have made connections here in California, mostly through your (me, her daughter) school friends' moms, I feel closest to my family back in Hong Kong.  We used to return there every summer until your school work got busy and you started needing to swim and take summer school.  However, now, with the state of things in Hong Kong and the CCP taking over so many aspects of Hong Kong life, I don't even want to go back.  I still keep in contact with all my siblings and family back there, but I just don't want to go there myself and put myself through outrage.  In fact, some of my siblings are thinking of taking their families and emigrating out of Hong Kong, and I strongly support them for the future of their grandchildren.

I think after COVID-19 though, many more people have started pinning blame on people who look Asian. Sometimes I hear about the stories on the news and get a little scared, for example if someone ran up to you and started attacking you, what actions could you possibly take to get out of that situation? Or even avoid that situation in the first place? That's why I feel we have to be extra careful in public spaces now, it doesn't even matter if it's a crowded area or not.]]> 2021-11-28 19:27:05 UTC https://padlet.com/vqchan1/93nyy7bcvjyqk4o5/wish/1916552022 vqchan1 https://padlet.com/vqchan1/93nyy7bcvjyqk4o5/wish/1916557453 I didn't really care about my heritage when I first came to America, since America is so diverse to begin with.  The biggest issue for me was being too embarrassed to speak because of my poor English, which I still sometimes feel now.  In college, since I mostly hung out with classmates who were also from Hong Kong, I didn't really feel like my Hong Kong culture was anything out of the norm.  Back then I don't think anybody really cared, since everybody was from different backgrounds and places anyways.

]]> 2021-11-28 19:34:26 UTC https://padlet.com/vqchan1/93nyy7bcvjyqk4o5/wish/1916557453 vqchan1 https://padlet.com/vqchan1/93nyy7bcvjyqk4o5/wish/1916568798 When I was a kid in elementary and middle school, we would have to line up every morning to go into class.  The teacher would stand by the door and greet us, then inspect our uniforms and other personal upkeep things such as nails or hair.  If our hair was too long, we would have to cut it to the standard length.  If our nails were too long, the teachers would have a ruler ready to hit our palms with, then we would have to get them cut to length by the next morning.  They also would use rulers to hit our palms if we didn't turn in homework, or if we misbehaved.

I know they don't do that anymore in Hong Kong, but some other aspects I think they could try to improve is to facilitate discussion more.  I remember when I was helping out in your   classroom in elementary school, the teacher would always say things and all the kids would repeat it or discuss it.  You guys would ask a lot of questions too.  In Hong Kong, at least when I was still in school there, the teacher would just teach and I would just write down what they said.  

Additionally, this isn't specific to teachers, but to the education system in general; in Hong Kong, because there were only 2 universities when I was growing up, the competition was very very fierce.  Thus, the kids would be pushed very hard by their parents often to the point that they would be very miserable.  Even though I wasn't a competitive kid nor did my parents expect me to compete with others, they still pushed me very hard to the point where I genuinely hate the time I spent in school in middle and elementary school and the long hours of homework I would have to do late into the night.  When you went to elementary school here in California, you had little to no homework.  

Even though there are more universities now in Hong Kong and the competition is less fierce in that aspect, it is still very competitive. Your cousins take so many tutoring lessons and extracurriculars after school in order to keep up with their peers, since now colleges are starting to look at extracurriculars in addition to raw entrance exam scores like in the past. ]]> 2021-11-28 19:50:19 UTC https://padlet.com/vqchan1/93nyy7bcvjyqk4o5/wish/1916568798 vqchan1 https://padlet.com/vqchan1/93nyy7bcvjyqk4o5/wish/1916570966 I think in America, the school system is not as rigorous nor stressful as the one in Hong Kong. For example, all your cousins in Hong Kong were one or two years above you in math when you were in elementary and middle school. However, one thing I noticed between the time I was in college here and the college system now is that it has gotten a lot more competitive. I remember I didn't need any extracurriculars to get into university; the main limiting factor was the cost rather than the applications process. I think some advice I would give is to learn more about different parts of the world, since maybe the curriculum is super focused on America and kids aren't as exposed to what is happening outside of their country.]]> 2021-11-28 19:53:34 UTC https://padlet.com/vqchan1/93nyy7bcvjyqk4o5/wish/1916570966