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English 100 T/TH 8-10:20
Essay 1
Moving To Another Country Many children of immigrants parents feel they identify with Americans at some point in their life. In the article, “The Good Daughter,” by Caroline Hwang a child of Korean immigrants describes how she feels displaced from the only country she knows and how she is forced to do what her parents want her to do even if she wants to do something different. In her article, Hwang said, “When my parents boarded the plane, they knew they were embarking on a rough trip. I do not think they imagined the rocks in the path of their daughter.” This means that on many occasions parents try to give their children a better life by moving to a new country, which they feel has more opportunities; however, at the same time, parents do not realize what their children are going be confronted with in the new country. I agree with Hwang that first generations in the United States have to deal with many obstacles especially feeling alienated from their home country and feeling obligated to fulfill their parents’ expectations. Some children of immigrants may feel they do not fully belong in their country. Hwang said, “They do not see that I straddle two cultures, nor that I feel displaced in the only country I know.” This explains that Hwang does not feel as if she belongs to a community and much less to the country she is living on. When I moved from Mexico to Santa Barbara and started high school, I did not know any English at all and that made me feel excluded as if I did not belong here. One day, when I was in my soccer class, the teacher made groups of people and had us discuss about how the team could communicate better. In my group, there were three Americans and me; for a few minutes I felt I had fit in the group. But when they would not even let me talk, I realized I did not feel included and little by little they completely forgot I was part of the group. There are many children that are born in different countries or move to a different countries and have two cultures, everyday they have to live their life feeling like they do not belong to a community or even to the only country they know. When immigrants of the Unites States have children, some of them try to raise their children as American. According to Hwang, “To my parents, I am all American, and the sacrifices they made in leaving Korea -including my mispronounced name- pale in comparison to the opportunities those sacrifices gave me.” I agree with what Hwang says due to that many times, parents try to give their kids what they can not afford in their own country, so when they come here, they want their children to be successful as many Americans are. When I was fourteen years old, my parents moved to Santa Barbara and obviously, I had to come with them. My parents told me that I would have more opportunities and that the education of the United States for exceeded that of Mexico. They also said that this country was completely different from Mexico, so they tried to help me by teaching me how many people in the United States are raised and typically act. In some ways my parents began to raise me like an American adolescent, in ways such as enrolling me in sports inside and outside the school. I dislike it at first because I was not interested in spending my free time in sports, but it ended up teaching me how to act like an American. Just like Hwang and I, there are many children that come from other countries as well as well as children in here and their parents try to teach them the way life is here in the United States. In addition, many children derived from parents from other countries feel that they are obligated to do what their parents expect them to do whenever they grow up. Thus, these kids feel that their parents made a big change just for them and the children do not want to disconcert their family. In the article, Hwang commented, “I know that many of my friends had to choose between pleasing their parents and being true to themselves. It tore me up inside to suppress my dream.” On many occasions, children study a major that they do not truly want to study, but they end up studying that major because they do not want to let down their parents; unfortunately Hwang was one of them. When I was seventeen years old, one year before I graduated from high school, my parents talked to me about what they thought would be best for me to study. They said that really good careers were Doctor or Lawyer; I did not give an answer about what I wanted to study that day. However, while I was at school the next day, I thought that maybe that becoming a doctor or lawyer was something I have to study because I did not want them to get upset with or disconcert them. Studying these types of careers would most likely take me eight to ten years, and I did not want to attend college for that long. After all I talked to my parents, and I told them that I would love to become a doctor or even a lawyer, but it would take me many years to achieve either one of these careers, so I decided to study Nursing. Many times parents need to understand what their adolescents want to pursue as career. It is about what their child wants to do for the rest of her life, not about what the parents want their children to do or study.
Upon reading the article, “The Good Daughter,” I realize many children of immigrants have to struggle with a culture where they feel displaced and uncomfortable. Thus, these children feel obligated to chase careers they do not necessary want. Some of these kids feel they do not know a community where they can fit in due to that in some occasions they only know the United States and may never have been to the country where they come from.

Work Cited
Hwang, Caroline. “The Good Daughter.” Between Worlds. Ed. Susan Bachman and
Melinda Barth. 6th ed. New York: Longman,2001. 12-15

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