There's More To The ABC
By Tiffany Lee, Staff Writer

A few weeks ago, before I would head to the A/P/A Department for a student summit, I stopped at the bookstore to pick up the last book I needed for this semester’s classes. Sadly, I had about an hour to kill so I figured I’d roam over to the Reference section to check out the foreign language books. I ended up buying this Cantonese/English pocket dictionary, which I plan on putting to good use. Fortunately, it’s written in "Yale Romanization," because there’s no way I could read the characters.

It’s sad how little I know. I can understand it pretty well listening-wise, but ask me to speak? You’ll have to give me a couple of seconds to search for the words I’ll need to answer you. Sometimes I wish my parents had sent me to Chinese school when I was younger, so that maybe I’d know more than I do. A lot of my friends who’ve gone to Chinese school tell me they’ve forgotten everything, but maybe I could have retained some of it. On the other hand, I don’t even know if there was a school that taught Cantonese in my area that I could have gone to. Come to think of it, out of the nine or so Chinese kids at my high school, the only other person who "knew" Cantonese was my cousin. Her grasp of the language is even less than mine. Everyone else spoke Mandarin. Countless times, random Cantonese people have come up to me in the street or subway, asking me for directions or whatnot. I’m able to help them, but I wish I could just shoot out a response fluently, and fool them into thinking I’m not the ABC (American Born Chinese) that I really am.

I remember having these neighbors across the street from me - a Chinese family, whose little kids I taught piano to. The parents were really nice people, but the one thing that I couldn’t forget was how the father felt it was more important that his children learned Mandarin first, before English. As important as I feel it is to know your native tongue, I think that becoming fluent in the "official" language of the country in which you reside should be a priority. Here in the U.S., it seems that having an accent, particularly an Asian one, is a bad thing, and is often made fun of. Meanwhile, accents, like British and Australian ones, sound "cool." And unfortunately, that's just the way it is. So I guess that means if you can avoid developing an accent, you should?

Back to my story though - the son was like six years old, and he was still having trouble with a lot of words that he should have already known. I really don’t get his father’s reasoning, especially with this possibly being a hindrance for his son, but I guess if you’re a traditionalist or don’t want to lose the "Chinese-ness"... For me, my first word as a baby was apparently in Chinese, but after that, I grew up learning English as my primary language. I learned some Cantonese here and there, more for phrases where there are really no such words for in English. My family’s definitely very Americanized and friends are surprised when they find out I speak English with my parents at home.

But then I realize that although speaking fluent English is important, and so is keeping my culture and heritage. There’s no reason why I should sacrifice one language for the other, because one of the best things about living in this country is that we’re not just a melting pot of people, but of languages too. The more languages under your belt, the better off you’ll be. Unfortunately, I find that a lot of Asian Americans are reluctant to embrace their language, their culture. Some frankly don’t even acknowledge it, and that’s something I just can’t understand. Certainly there are things about the Chinese culture and history that I’m not proud of, but what culture doesn’t have something shady about it? It wasn’t until coming to college that I really took notice of my cultural background and developed this urge to get involved with it. Growing up in a mainly white town, there never really was much emphasis on the Chinese culture, or even the Asian one in general. What better time to learn than now? At a school where Asians cannot be considered a “minority,” there are so many groups, clubs, and even an A/P/A Studies program that can at least help you obtain some knowledge.

Someone once told me, “It's wonderful that you love soaking up and learning about your cultural background (it's unfortunate that not all Asian-Americans are as eager to explore their heritage as you), but be careful not to let "being Chinese" and "being Asian" become so much a part of your identity that you essentially lose yourself in it. Speaking as someone who's been there and made a mountain of mistakes along the way, it's important to keep in mind that as we grow older and wiser, and the many facets of our personalities mature, we needn't be so critical nor so quick to conceal and dismiss the characteristics that make us "less Asian" simply because people who are "more Asian" than us might find those traits or ideals unfavorable. One group might label you a “twinkie,” and the next might think you're “too” Asian... you shouldn't feel pressured to change or justify your ways in order to feel like you're meeting either group's so-called standards. Be proud of the person looking back at you in the mirror, because in the end, YOUR opinion is the only one that should matter to her.”