“Along with the belief that they are in some way foreign, many Asian American youth have internalized the notion that this foreignness makes them inferior to real (i.e., white) Americans. There students hate qualities they understand to be associated with Asianness (i.e., foreignness). In an effort to distance themselves from these stigmatized images, some Asian American youth may reject things that they understand are perceived to be foreign, such as their names or languages.” (Lee, p77)

I always insist that nobody should feel inferior to anyone else, so when reading that many Asian American youth feel inferior to their white peers only because of their identity, I felt sad and disappointed. Some Asian Americans went through a very hard time at school not only because they were not acknowledged by their peers but also because they themselves hated certain parts of them and struggled. I have a good friend who is not really Asian American but moved to America when she’s five, after finishing kindergarten in China. She once shared with me that although she looked outgoing, she had few friends until going to college. With the advantage of speaking fluent English and mandarin, she had no difficulties communicating with either English speakers or mandarin speakers and should have made more friends; however, her American peers didn’t think her as an American because the fact that she was born in China and her “foreign appearance”; her Chinese peers didn’t think her as a Chinese since she behaved more like Americans in many aspects. Consequently, she was not welcomed in either group.

My friend speaks a lot more English than mandarin because she moved here and has been living here since a very young age after all, it was also because that she wanted to be more involved and engaged in American culture. At least for me, I don’t see any differences between her and Americans, but she, in some degree, struggled for her identity. For example, she felt very awkward and weird every time when someone except for her parents called her in her Chinese name, but at the meantime, she felt guilty. In Chinese culture, name is considered to be an extremely important part of a person because often times, every single character of our first name has its unique meaning and delivers our parents’ hope and blessings. Therefore, although she is used to being called in her American name, she forced herself to like and embrace the Chinese name as well, which was not easy for her.

Apparently, there are many things that teachers and educators can do to change this situation of Asian American students, especially during adolescence when they are forming the attitude towards such issues. For example, providing students with more opportunities to communicate, showing respect to students’ culture background and avoiding the influence of foreigner stereotypes mean a lot to students and help them see their identity in a correct way.