Do you sympathize with the shame Tan feels because of her family’s differences from

their non-Chinese guests? Or do you think she should have been more proud to share
her family’s customs? Think of an occasion when, for whatever reason, you were acutely
aware of being different. How did you react? Did you try to hide your differences in order
to fit in, or did you reveal/celebrate your uniqueness?

I sympathize with Tan because I can personally see where she is coming from. I am very
much like her in that I was born in America, but I have parents that were immigrants here. They
value their culture a lot and they constantly try to tell me and my brother the importance of
embracing our culture. A lot of our lives revolve around our culture. Specifically, I come from an
Indian background, one that is very big and holds lots of significance. I would say my culture is
very interesting, but I also think some aspects of my culture are embarrassing, and I have been
guilty of trying to hide these ‘embarrassing’ aspects many times in my life. The majority of the
students here at Garnet Valley are Americans and that is why lots of my friends are American
as well. They are obviously different from me, and I was aware of these differences at a very
young age. For instance, when I went to my friends houses, I would always notice how their life
inside the home was different from mine. Their parents spoke “normally”, in english, while mine
spoke different languages from what I thought was normal. When I was younger and my friends
were around my parents, I would feel embarrassed when they spoke in another language
because I thought it was much different from English, the language my friends spoke and the
language their parents spoke. When my parents spoke a language other than english, I would
tell them to stop or to be quiet because I wanted to hide my differences from my American
friends. Although I have changed a lot since then and I now embrace my culture openly, I still
have times where I feel I am different and that I need to hide my differences. I think Amy Tan
should have been proud to share her family’s customs, just like I feel that I should have been
proud to reveal my differences and my uniqueness. I will always be Indian, and that is
something I should be never feel ashamed about.