Tuesday, September 20, 2011

The Relative Advantages of Learning my Language by Amy Choi




1. The author opens the story with an anecdote. What is the anecdote and what effect does it have on the reader? It shows that her grandfather is very into the Chinese side of his life but the next generation care very little about it
2. What is the author’s view of the Chinese language in the 2nd paragraph? She thought it was unnecessary as everything else was in English as they were in Australia.
3. What is symbolic about the house that the Grandfather mistakes for his own? What does it say about the assimilation of his family into Australian culture? What does it say about his understanding of Australian culture? What is ironic about the inhabitants of this house? It was the exact same as there so it shows that he was losing his mind that there type of culture all had the same houses and stuff it was very basic they were from a different culture.
4. What does the death of her grandfather inspire the author to do? It makes her speak Chinese again and think more about her culture.
5. Why is she motivated to know Chinese? What is it she wants to ensure she is able to, regretting that she couldn’t do it with her grandfather?  As she wants to respect her grandfather and talk about her culture and life.
The author makes us consider what it really means about understanding someone's language? What basic human skill/ability is the author highlighting that cuts across all cultures?  The basic thing that all humans have is the ability to communicate this gives everyone the ability to communicate and share experiences.

 Describe a time when you were at fault for not communicating with someone because of your own selfishness or lack of compassion. When someone is disabled or with some genetic mutation I have avoided them as the situation is hard to speak about as they put pressure on the human mind.

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