Cultural Differences In Joe's Project

Many personal adversities arise when dealing with cultural differences and misunderstandings about disabilities. But in the end, people need to learn to cope with their experiences, and learn from them. In the interview, Finding Her Way, Stacy interviews her sister-in-law, Angela Park, and discusses how she coped with her situation. Angela moved to America from Korea at a young age, and many kids at school bullied her for it. But along the way, the immigrant learned to just deal with the negativity, because it didn’t mean much to her. In the play entitled, Kylie’s Project, Kylie Saeed shares her favorite hobby, and disability, with her class. Kylie lives her life in a wheelchair, but that didn’t stop her from riding horses everyday. …show more content…
For example, Angela, at first, defended herself and her differences, since kids were bullying her for it. She also let the kids at school’s words slip by her, as she did not want to show she cared. According to Angela, “Once in a while I would talk back, but mostly I would try to ignore them and pretend they didn’t bother me.” Angela took a more aggressive and passive approach when dealing with her adversities, unlike Kylie, who took a more optimistic approach. Kylie saw her disability as an opportunity to complete amazing activities that she wouldn’t have even thought about doing before, like horseback riding, and learn from those activities. According to the excerpt, “Riding has made me a lot stronger and has improved my balance and coordination. But the best part is the freedom I feel.” Kylie even embraced the fact that she was a disabled rider. As the text states, “But, Emily, I wasn’t talking about my disability. I was talking about what it’s like to be a rider. Get it?” Kylie realized that it was impressive and interesting that she could ride horses, even while in a wheelchair, and wanted to share it with the class.All in all, Angela Park and Kylie Saeed had contrasting views on how they dealt with their personal …show more content…
In the end, both girls were happy with their decisions, as they made them who they are today. Angela and Kylie, at such young ages, were forced to deal with very heavy obstacles, from cultural differences to misunderstandings about disabilities, yet the two were able to overcome those obstacles, and put their best foot forward. Perhaps if all people, “different” or not, responded to the challenges the way the girls did, there would be less bullying and low self-confidence in the world, and people would be proud of who they