| 作者 |
 To bring this up for further discussion. |
 |
ceo/cfo
[博客]
[个人文集]
头衔: 海归中将
声望: 院士
性别: 
加入时间: 2004/11/05
文章: 12941
海归分: 491638
|
|
|
作者：ceo/cfo 在 海归商务 发贴, 来自【海归网】 http://www.haiguinet.com
"People who do not have pride in their culture and
heritage will not earn respect from others. " I am 300% with you on this!! This is so true ba<x>sed on my two-decade experience in America. With no exception the native speakers here respect me for that. No matter how hard you try, you cannot change the color of your skin, eyes, and the hair. So you might as well keep your "uniqueness," which sometimes makes you stand out, either for good or for bad. When my ABC child once asked me why the first question everyone asked him was where you from, since he was the only Asian child at his school at that time. I advised him to answer the question with another question:" Oh, ya, I know where my parents came from; do you know for sure where your grandparents were originally from?" Most of kids don't know!! We try to let our kid to remember our roots and be proud of our background no matter where he goes or stays. Therefore we only speak Chinese at home and his verbal Chinese is better than mine. One time I was curious that when my kid has a dream, does he speak English or Chinese during his dreams? He told me when he dreamed about his parents, he spoke Chinese; when he dreamed his classmates or friends (all whites), he spoke English! As a businessman from time to time I was challenged with the question: what is my nationality? Without any hesitation I told everyone the United States of America is my country; Shanghai, China is my nativetown! I was born in China, but I have chosen America to be my country, period. , for better or for worse, that is my own choice, my free will.
Over the years I have noticed some American Chinese families from Taiwan, HK, and the mainland China don't speak Chinese at all to their children. The drawback is for one, the children may not be able to appreciate the Chinese culture/foods/business opportunities in China; for two, some children speak English with their parents' accents, with HK or Shanghai, or Taiwan 口音, even they were born here.  Here is the ZT from a young man talking about his Chinese background:
Like I said, I probably qualify as 1.5 generation ABC. Mainland-born, I came to the United States in the mid '80s, when I was 10 years old. I ended up in a community that was almost uni????ly white, finding myself enrolled in an elementary school that consisted of 3 Asian kids, armed with an English vocabulary of about five words.
I would say I was a pretty smart kid back in China, and read/wrote extensively even for my young age. In about 24 months, I had read every Chinese work of fiction available in the local university library from cover to cover. Like many others immersed in a new language, I also found myself soaking up English like a sponge. I was natively fluent in English by the end of 6th grade, and was passing practice TOEFL tests with flying colors.
In almost every way, I was totally isolated from the Chinese language. Of course it was the language that we spoke at home... but in my pearly-white community, there was no such thing as weekend/afternoon Chinese school. The only Chinese newspapers available were of course in traditional text, and never found the interest needed to conquer them. Oh, and as starving scholars in the late '80s, my parents couldn't possibly imagine the luxury of vacationing in China.
My only other exposure to Chinese were occasional movies with the local Chinese scholar's association. (My mother did try to force me into writing a diary in Chinese: I managed it for two days, but every page was stained with my frustrated tears.)
I won't bother you guys with the story of my otherwise very common (American) childhood; I'll just skip to the conclusion. By the time I entered college, while I still spoke/understood putonghua with my family without any difficulty... I could maybe read 20 characters (yi er san shang xia huo shuai, and my own name). I never spoke putonghua with anyone outside of my family, and I swore to myself that I'd *never* date a girl that wasn't white.
My English was superb. I scored a 790 on the SAT verbals, a 800 on the GRE verbals, and a 99% on the GMAT verbals. I was articulate, well-written, and invited to write a column for a national magazine. For those who believe that your US-born kids should be as "American" as possible... I'm pretty sure I could be your poster child.
But you see, things change. With maturity and age, I changed. I came to regret my inability to read/write Chinese with a passion. After college, I started returning to China on an annual basis to see family; I was humiliated that I couldn't figure out which door was the entrance and which door was the exit. I began to have more Chinese-speaking friends, and I was frustrated that they could read text that I didn't have access to. I felt ashamed that I couldn't email my mom or other China-based family members in Chinese. I couldn't even walk into a Chinese restaurant and order my favorite dishes off of the menu.
5 years ago, I made a commitment that I was going to change this aspect of my life. Starting with a vocabulary of fewer than 20 characters, I forced myself to learn. The tools we have available today are amazing; I tried to make use of all of them. I used online dictionaries to read Chinese newspapers; I forced myself into Chinese chat-rooms; I ultimately spent a few months at a Chinese university program.
I for one am very proud that my Chinese has finally improved dramatically. I can read Chinese newspapers and basic Chinese texts. I can read everything on chat boards similar to this one, even though any replies I write in Chinese will be slow... tortured... awkward. I can email my relatives. I can order in a restaurant! I can conduct business in China; I currently sit on the board for a VC-funded technology company based in Beijing, and I have a number of other projects as well.
As some of you might know, there are two general schools of thought when it comes to American "society". One school of thought holds that the United States is a "melting pot": new immigrants are destined to lose their uniqueness and eventually dissolve into the mainstream. A second school of thought describes the United States as a "salad bowl"; we might be mixed up in the same environment, but we don't necessarily lose the unique elements of our heritage that defines who we are. I'm very proud of the Chinese-ness that I've managed to preserve, even with all of my deficiencies. I think it has served me very well professionally and personally, and I expect that will continue to be true as I grow older.
I'm a new father this year, and this has forced me to question yet again my relationship with China and being Chinese. My conclusion is that no one growing up in the United States needs to worry about being "un-American"; your children will fall into the mainstream far more easily than you could possibly imagine. It's the Chinese part of their souls that will be harder to preserve. I happen to think I'm a stronger person for being comfortable and familiar with both sides of my identity.
My parents are not at all political, but they taught me to love Chinese food, culture, landscapes, family. I wouldn't want a life where that unique inheritance was thrown away. I want to embrace all of that fully, and I believe knowledge Chinese language is a key aspect of doing all of the above.
So, in conclusion... I will make sure that my daughter learns Chinese. It may be difficult, as some out there seem to argue... but in about 10 years, forcing my daughter to do *anything* will be difficult. It won't stop me from trying. It's my responsibility as a parent to make sure my children are *prepared* for a future they don't understand yet. I can't force them to use Chinese as adults, but it's well within my powers to make sure they learn Chinese as children.
Today, I'm very, very grateful to my parents for having helped me maintain ties to China.
作者：ceo/cfo 在 海归商务 发贴, 来自【海归网】 http://www.haiguinet.com
|
|
|
| 返回顶端 |
|
 |
|
-
 To bring this up for further discussion. -- ceo/cfo - (8094 Byte) 2006-12-02 周六, 01:03 (1302 reads)
|
|
|
|
您不能在本论坛发表新主题, 不能回复主题, 不能编辑自己的文章, 不能删除自己的文章, 不能发表投票, 您 不可以 发表活动帖子在本论坛, 不能添加附件不能下载文件, |
|
|
