- Dale Minami
“Any Asian in this country with the intent to live here permanently is an Asian American” (Page 11).
I really like this quote because I feel like it encapsulates what it means to be an Asian American. If you intend to live here for the foreseeable future, you should be considered an Asian American.
“I feel fortunate too because I was able to grow up with a diverse group of people – African Americans, Latino Americans – that helped me to understand why diversity is so important to this country.” (Page 14).
It is important to remember how diverse this country is and how many different ethnicity groups live in this country. It is good that we as a country are so diverse because we can interact with many different groups of people and learn about other people’s culture.
- Ark Chin
“I was the only Chinese in the school system for a good number of years” (Page 17).
It is strange to think of a time where this was the case because now it seems to be a lot more common.
I liked hearing about his time in the Army and learning about ways he survived.
- Hoan Dang
It was sad reading about the time in the camps because there was no reason for these people to be put in these camps.
“My image of America was very different than what it really was. For some reason it just didn’t occur to me that it was a normal place like Vietnam.” (Page 24).
It is interesting to me about how people feel like other places are going to be so different to what they know. I do the same thing when I am traveling somewhere new, I think it is going to be this different place and not normal, but it always ends up being similar to what I know and it usually is just a normal place.
- Susim Chen
“In my mind the country is happening, everyone goes to parties all the time, wears beautiful clothes – no poverty in this country, everyone is rich. But after I came here I realized that wasn’t the case” (Page 31)
People always seem to have these ideas of what life is like based off of film and magazines when it in reality it is not true. I had these expectations of what college was going to be like and they were not what I thought they were going to be.
Race relations are improving as time goes on, but I feel like unfortunately there will always be people who are racist and just mean people who will not be accepting of people from foreign countries.
- Qing Sham Liang
“I saw him only once. In the village, that is the way it happens, you see the man one time and decide. (Page 37).
That is so different to how things are traditionally when it comes to marriage. You just see someone once and decide that is who you are going to marry. I feel like that wouldn’t have a high success rate of marriages lasting long.
It was interesting reading about adjusting to a new country and lifestyle because I feel like it would be difficult to get used to the new food and the culture and way of lie in this new country that you don’t know about.
- Frank Bai
When he worked for the shoe manufacturer, he had to watch over a lot of people and was making more money than all of them.
It is interesting in certain cultures where there are two different languages known when each language is appropriate to use in certain situations.
- Dale Minami
“I had just finished a case against Washington State University about creating an Asian American studies program because they didn’t have one there.” (Page 51).
More schools should have an Asian American studies program because it is important to learn about.
It is interesting with the differences in age of who went to the camps and who did not. He talks about how his brother was taken away without due process but he was not because he was born after the camps.
- Gary Locke
I enjoyed reading about when he was running for office and the breakdown of how it all works. It is unfortunate that some people didn’t vote for him just because he is Asian American.
Him becoming governor is a big deal because of the history of him being the first Asian American governor and the fact people can look up to him and realize if he did it, then maybe other Asian American people can too.
- Ruby Chow
I think it is crazy she was one of ten children because that is a lot of siblings and a hard environment to grow up in.
She was in the restaurant business for thirty-one years and that is a long time to be in one profession. I think it is cool that the restaurant was named after her.
It is also really cool that Bruce Lee lived with her for four years.
- Cheryl Chow
I admire her perseverance to run for a bunch of office positions and be okay with not being elected for mayor and doing it to see if she could become mayor.
I also liked when she talked about how tough it is running as an Asian American woman because both of those groups have a hard enough time on their own, but together makes it even more difficult.
- Shamita Das Dasgupta
I think it is amazing that she founded a group whose goal is to end violence against South Asian women living in the United States. It is an admirable effort and I wish there were more groups to stop violence against different ethnic groups in the United States.
It is unfortunate domestic violence is a huge issue for the women in the community, but it is good there is a group to help support them and end domestic violence.
- Ark Chin
I think it is really cool that he reconstructed an old orphanage and helped build a new one for the betterment of the children.
- Hank Sasaki
This is the first time I’ve heard of a Japanese country artist, those are usually two things that aren’t associated together.
- Jake Shimabukuro
This guy must be very good and a pretty big deal if he is touring with Jimmy Buffet.
- Joann Lee
As fun as this sounds, I don’t feel like something like this could happen in the current environment.
- Steve Thao
After reading this, I feel like the American Dream is different for each person and very different for each culture on how they view it.
- Albert Lee
I never thought about people who are mixed race having a hard time fitting in because if someone is an Asian American, people who are Asian would look down on you as not fully Asian and Americans would look down on you as not American so you don’t really fit in anywhere.
- Daniel Jung
I didn’t know Koreans had the same views as some Americans do when it comes to African Americans and stereotyping them.
- Jeff Andrada
It must be difficult being used to living here in the United States to go back to the Philippines and back to being in a third world country.
- Jake Shimabukuro
I think it is interesting in Hawaii people will know what ethnicity someone is but then when someone comes to the other states people can’t tell exactly what ethnicity you are.
- David Tang
It is unfortunate that some people see racism as not that bad because it used to be a lot worse off when any form of racism should not be tolerated.
- Laura Jung
It seems that a common theme from all of these readings including this one is how important education is placed on the children by their parents. It seems like education is the most important aspect for the children to succeed in from the parent’s point of view.
- Agnes Braga
It is unfortunate that there are still a lot of countries in the world where woman are being treated poorly like lower people and sometimes as even property or slaves.
- Albert Lee
It is weird to think of a time where you had job postings in a phone book and you had to call a location to see if they are hiring. Now you go online and find thousands of jobs that are hiring and simply submit a resume and it feels like there are a lot more opportunities to get a job now.
- Corky Lee
I think it is cool that a place like Chinatown exists so people can experience their culture while living here in America.
- Dale Minami
There has been a big shift in Japanese culture becoming more popular in America through various forms of media.
- Steve Thao
I have never heard of people being involved with clans and all having the same last name.
- Hoan Dang
I did not know that some states had associations for people of difference race and ethnicity.
- Laura Jung
I did not know there was a Koreatown; I only thought there was a Chinatown.
- Shamita Das Dasgupta
It is strange to think in other cultures that people getting married young is normal and acceptable when I am not used to arraigned marriages or young marriages.
- Veronica Leung
It seems that many business and people’s lives almost had to start over again after the attacks of 9/11.
- Corky Lee
It is crazy to think phone service was down for four whole weeks because that is a long time if you have a business for the phone lines to be out of service.
- Shamita Das Dasgupta
It is a shame Asian people were some of the targets in the aftermath of 9/11 just because they looked similar to the attackers despite the attackers not being Asian and being Muslim.
- Naomi McWatt
It was nice reading about her being able to reconnect with her mother.
- Gita Deane
I wonder how lbgtq life is in different Asian countries.
- Albert Lee
“People will say a lot of stupid things when they don’t think the object of their scorn is around to listen.” (Page 226).
This is because they do not think anyone who they are making fun of are around when they are saying these things.
- Karl Ludwig
It seems that many Asian people pursue careers in the medical field.
- Kristen Houghton
It must be very difficult to orphaned and then adopted by a family in another country and move there having to adjust to the new environment.
- Ark Chen
I did not realize how much control the parents have over their children in the Asian culture.
- Candace Chin
I did not know in Chinese culture that marrying someone who is not Chinese is bad.
- Susha Pratt
I think it is cool that they have interviews of three generations of Asian Americans because you get to hear three different perspectives and timelines.