Question 1 of 1: what makes a memoir?
Name - _____ ______
School-> __ __

Author Note:
This assignment is being turned in on (DATE __/__/__) for ( Teacher-> ___ ____ online Comp 1 Course.

* Which memoir did you select?
I selected "The Good Immigrant Student" by Bich Minh Nguyen. * What is the theme of the memoir you selected?
The theme of the memoir was, how she is a foreign student feeling like an outsider. * Based on the author's biography provided in the textbook, how do you think their background influenced the memoir you read?
Bich Minh Vguyen felt alone, scared and she stated several times invisible. She was a Vietnam refugee who escaped when the war came to an end. She felt like an outsider trying to get by without drawing much attention to herself. She lacked social ability as a child and learned through her differences of being observant, quiet and listening. * Have you experienced something similar to what the author reflected on in their memoir? How did it affect you?
Although we are much different I also found myself fearful of being called on, asked to speak or read out load in class. Partake in presentations or anything which included me standing in front of a class room and judged by my peers. It affected me in which I felt people would laugh at my inability to read fluently, how people would judge me, how I would be observed while giving speeches in front of class while my face would turned a shade of red and a change to my voice as if the words I were trying to speak didn’t want to come out, worried that I would pass out. I would forget what I initially stood up to speak about and became more concerned that I didn’t look like a complete idiot in fear of the worst.
Not only did it affect me in class but it affected me in my athletics. I was a lead player in most of my sporting teams, catcher and pitcher in baseball, point guard in basketball which forced me to lead the teams I played on. Football I was a wide receiver because I was fast and one play sticks out in my mind like it was yesterday. Coach called a time out, we all huddled up and coach said, “Alright fella’s, were going to go on two, the play is to Toth, down and out.” My mind was racing; I was lined up against an old friend from the neighborhood I grew up in, “Brandon Roe”. There was a split in school districts through the neighborhoods in which we lived. Some kids went to L’Anse Creuse Central and other kids went to L’Anse Creuse North, I attended Central and I wanted to burn him so badly I could taste it.
There was only a minute left on the clock and we needed a touchdown to win, this play weighed heavily on the team. The quarter back yells “Blue 32, Blue 32, ready, set, hit and I shot off the line into my play the coach had called. I ran the entire course and looked back about 10 seconds later to see everyone standing their laughing that it took so long for me to realize I didn’t go on two like the coach had asked. I looked to the side lines to see the coach talking to himself and hanging his head down, I felt so ashamed and embarrassed while Brandon Roe even laughed and said, “Way to go Toth”. All these types of setbacks regardless if it were sport related or academic restrained me from being the outgoing person I desired in fear of embarrassment. I can relate to the author because she wanted to just get by invisibly so that nobody would point a finger and crush her feelings. * Five most important details in the memoir that stood out to me: 1) The author writes about the neighborhood in her local area near the schools and also gives an approximate year which the story unfolds. It makes the story easy to comprehend while she paints a picture of the setting where the events take place. 2) The author talks about her relationship with her sister, I felt it was good to know she had support of a sibling so that she wasn’t in a new world with nobody to relate too. 3) The author speaks about her academic ability in so many scenarios such as winning a spelling bee, leaving the bilingual classes because it was her native language she didn’t know, being in a school called Spectrum for the gifted and talented, it encouraged individual work which I believe gave her the opportunity to excel on a personal level, Getting all the gold stars possible in her third grade class while being subjected to prejudice but didn’t mention that in her writing, I think she wanted you to see it for yourself without complaining about it as it showed her character as a person. 4) The author speaks about the crossover of her confidence from the special school she attended called Spectrum. She says “I believe that I figured out how to stop disappearing, how to talk and answer, even speak up, after several years in Spectrum. I believe she had overcome an immense amount of setbacks and challenges in her younger years and as a reader I was very glad to hear she was molding into a more confident individual. 5) Towards the end of the memoir she talked about changes being made, not only in her life but in her family’s life such as a move to a more upstanding neighbor hood. While I think this part of the memoir makes me touch back to when she was riding on the bus and didn’t get off at her stop, she stayed on the bus and got to see where everyone came from. From rags to riches the foundation in which we grow has a big part in who we are today. No matter where you come from or what designer label you wear, we all get dressed, we all share in common behavior. Some people find luxury a sign of self worth and if you take that away from them they feel stripped of their humanity. She says in her writing “The rich kids were the same as they were anywhere in America.” * What makes this Memoir so good that it serves as an example in your Textbook?

I enjoyed it because I went to school with exchange students, Bosnian, Chinese and some other. As I read the memoir it took me back to when I was a student amongst these classmates. As she was silent so were they, and this memoir shed some light on what she went through or what any foreign student may experience and give reason to why they acted the way they did, very quietly.

* What is one characteristic of the memoir you selected that you would like to incorporate into your own writing? Think about various elements like the organization, the detail, or even the title.

Her writing was very easy to read, she painted a picture in my head while going through the memoir in description of her surroundings. I would like to incorporate such writing skills in my story’s to grab the reader’s attention and give them a clear understanding on what it is I’m going through. Keeping them interested and wanting to continue reading also plays a huge factor in how you express yourself, make it interesting, not only talk about one situation but incorporate similes to describe or give comparison.

I apologize for the length, I found myself very interested in the assignment.