Editor’s note: This story was written by a high school student in Northwest Asian Weekly Foundation’s Summer Youth Leadership Program. This story is part of a special back-to-school issue.
By Francis Yuen
SYLP STUDENT
Fancis Yuen
From the moment they see you to the moment you open your mouth, it allows another person to form a first impression. When I walk into a room, people see that I am Asian. It is human nature and the first thing anyone would see.
When I open my mouth and speak, most people would notice a slight accent in my speech, and I would tell them that I am from Hong Kong and I came to America during my freshman year of high school.
Now, the hard part begins. As the conversation carries on, I would try to tell some jokes or try to tell stories about my trip to New York. Unfortunately, my punchlines don’t always work. I asked myself, “I tell stories and I pull jokes the same way as I did back in Asia, why didn’t it work?”
After months of hardships and struggles, I finally reached an answer. It is because of the different cultures. Americans have a different sense of humor than people in Hong Kong. They have a different way of socializing. We even walk differently.
For example, the three major topics I discuss with my friends back in Hong Kong are school work, games, and manga. Instead, people here talk about sports, their weekends, and their after-school activities. In Asia, it is all about going to different tutoring classes and maybe a few piano lessons in between.
After two years of being here, I feel that I have bonded the American and the Chinese culture within me. I used to think that the two cultures were like oil and water, but as I progressed to being more open and outgoing, everything worked out perfectly. ♦