The Gift Of Language Summary

Most of the time immigrants underestimate the difficulties they might face in their new destinations. Such as overcoming language barrier, adapting to the new culture and environment. One of the writers who discussed the issue of challenges immigrants face was Lan Cao. This essay will clearly analyze the weaknesses and strengths of the article "The Gift of Language" by Lan Cao. In the excerpt, the author tells about a Vietnamese girl and her mother who immigrate to America during the Vietnam War and, the experiences and difficulties they have with the language and new culture. As the author had described, it was not that easy for the mother to adjust to their new life as her daughter. At the same time the difficulties the mother faced worried her daughter, who had difficulties in learning the new language and adapting to the new culture. Lan Cao is the author of the novel "Monkey Bridge" (1997) and she is a professor at Chapman University School of Law. In the article, she mentions that when the girl and her mother immigrated to America, they had culture shock and they were struggling with the language and pronunciation. After a while, when the girl was acquainted with the culture and learned English with the help of her aunt and uncle, she could assist her mother. Mostly the author was supporting her ideas by giving examples. …show more content…
The article is really successful at showing how the girl herself learns the new language and how she as a child overcomes the problems even when her mother does not know English. "I would have to forgo the luxury of adolescent experiments and temper tantrums, so that I could scoop my mother out of harm’s way and give her sanctuary" from the article (p.617) where the girl gives up everything in order to help her mother. Additionally, the author has made really good descriptions of the moments when the girl helps her mother not to feel alone in a new