The Good Daughter Caroline Hwang Analysis

In Caroline Hwang’s published essay , The Good Daughter, she talks about the struggles of assimilation, being a first generation child and thus figuring out her culture after being Americanized. The author poses many interesting questions such as “Is it okay to Americanize your child’s culture if it’s for their future?” and “Is it culturally insensitive to deny your children the right to learn their parents culture?” Although I am not the first generation child, I have experienced the same struggles of trying to explaining to people and proving to people who I am.
Unlike Caroline, I have never experienced the problem of being wrongfully identified as another ethnicity. Questions on my ethnicity or race included, “Are you Filipino?” or “You’re Hispanic, right? and even the worst “What are you?” question. However, most of the time they assume that I was either Hispanic or Filipino. And to their questions I say; Yes, I am Filipino or Yes, I am Hispanic, but what some of them don’t know is that I am both.
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They said they were “concerned if I had learned another language it would ruin my English accent.” So I never learned both languages, Spanish or Filipino. However, I still try to connect with both cultures as much as I can. The fact that I live with both parents who’ve been practicing these cultures since they were babies, you can’t help but be exposed to the culture when they practice it. It's intriguing; their greetings, curses, literature, songs, proverbs, cures, wisdom, and prayers. I understand bits and pieces of their culture, but I don’t know the language so well. Which means it’s very difficult to explain something outside my head to someone. So if I ever have kids, I’d unlikely pass the culture onto them. And that’s when the culture really