Hello, my name is ThucDan, I am 11 years old and I am a surreal killer. HA, you believed me, heh heh, Im crazy 🙂 I am offended right now, this girl in my class (that shall be unnamed for her own protection) called me Chinese. Heres what happened: We went to math class and we all learned about equations and expressions, well, I already learned all about that from my amazing uncle (just thought I’d mention that :)) and so I got all the answers correct. So the teacher complimented me and the girl that shall be unnamed for her own protection said, She smart because she’s Chinese! I’m usually ok when somebody says something like that but this time, I’ve already told the class a couple of hundreds times that I am not Chinese. Then, the same day, in history class, We were learning about China (worst. lesson. ever.) Then, we came to a stop, trying to find out how to pronounce a Chinese name. Of course, Everybody had to make a big deal out of it. So somebody asked the teacher and he said, Sorry guys, I’m not Chinese so I wouldn’t know. As soon as those words left his mouth, I knew for a fact that someone had to speak up. The girl that shall be unnamed for her own protection looked at me and said, ThucDan, you’re Chinese, how do you say it. Then somebody that I will call stupid said, She’s not Chinese, she’s Asian! How am I friends with these people! The world may never know 🙂
Not Chinese but Asian? hahaha, funny Thucdan!
Actually, what you are seeing is a repeat of what I had seen, your parents had seen when we first came to America. Nothing new there. The only surprise is that in this globalized world, I thought things like that would happen less because people are more aware of the difference between different cultures and people.
In any case, instead of anger, you should simply feel more confident of yourself that you are a more prepared citizen of this globalized world because you are more aware of the different cultures and countries than your classmates.
I am really glad our hours learning together are paying off
Me too! And as for the fact that you think that I should feel confident instead of angry, that isnt a state standard, and if it was, may i be the only one that shall pass the sixth grade. Also, no, this has been happening more and more st this school. Im pretty sure that Me and Thuclam are the only Asians at this school, we are like the ticket they have been waiting for, a ticket to ask some body if theyre Chinese. WERIDOS (i qualify as a werido too)
actually, if somebody mistake you for a Chinese, that shouldn’t be an offense at all. That is actually cool because Chinese people have a very very long civilization and rich cultural heritage that, for me at least, I could feel proud to be a part of!
But I understand that we want people know who we are and not simply lump us all together. Worse, when they think we are Chinese, often times they have project some stereotypes on us as well.
Having said that, I have to mention this too: I see lots of people, including us Vietnamese people, often lump all the Spanish people south of the US border into one group: Mexicans! But that’s wrong because there are dozens of countries in south and central America who speak Spanish! Now, how’s that for a little more perspective? 😀