It was a very hard year.: Becoming Minnesotan
Essential Question
Becoming Americans: What does it mean to be an American?
Problems in America: What could have helped this person’s adjustment in the U.S.?
Words to look for
fortunate
transition
Background Information
Immigrating to a new place is scary - especially when you don’t know the local language or customs. Many immigrants come to the U.S. willing to take on the challenges of a new culture in order to have better educational or job opportunities.
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- Chapter 1
Download Maryam Shapland 5
3:31 Minutes | 3.39Mb
Transcription
Narrator: Maryam Shapland (MS)
Interviewer: Lita Malicsi (LM)
LM: I’d like you to talk about your first year in school in Minnesota. How were you accepted? Was school a happy place for you and your sister?
MS: You know, it was a very hard year. It was a hard year in terms of the culture shock, and it was a hard year because she started middle school and I started high school. So in a lot of ways, we came here at the absolute wrong time in a child’s life, because we were starting to become adolescents and starting to change in terms of our bodies and our thinking, and then to throw us into a very different environment in those years was very difficult for both of us.
LM: But did you have any language problems, any language barriers at all?
MS: Fortunately, having that year in Canada was a big help; we never really had to struggle... I remember walking in high school the very first day and just experiencing this shock that everywhere I looked was a Caucasian face. I still remember that very vividly just looking around the hall and thinking where are all the Filipinos? [Chuckles] Because I wasn’t used to it. The language, fortunately, came pretty smoothly to me. I've been fortunate enough to pick up languages pretty easily, so it wasn’t that hard of a transition. It was mostly the shock of being in such a different place than I was used to.
LM: Was this something - the unhappy social experiences that happened in school – was this something that you discussed with mom and dad?
MS: I think we talked about it. I don’t remember feeling like they could relate, though. I didn’t feel like they really could understand. And I don’t know if they really could have, because they were going through a different experience, their own immigrant experience and trying to get an apartment, and buy a car, and all these things. So I think that that was a different experience for them. So I don’t know really if they could really get what was happening.
LM: So how long did you go through this kind of experience and when did it finally end and go away? And did it?
MS: As I said, I’m a pretty social person, so I eventually started making friends. I would say maybe by my second year, I’ve already created my American self for the world, for my world. [Chuckles] And I’ve already made some friends and joined extracurricular activities and started really enjoying high school at the time; I joined student council and all these things.
Related Glossary Terms
Caucasian
Adjective: Of European descent, white.
culture
Noun: The arts, customs, and habits that characterize a particular society or nation.
experience
Noun: 1. Participation in events, leading to knowledge, opinons, or skills. 2. The knowledge thus gathered.
extracurricular
Adjective: Outside of the normal curriculum of an educational establishment.
fortunate
Adjective: Lucky, favored by fortune.
immigrant
Noun: A person who comes to a country to permanently settle from another country.
transition
Noun: A process of change from one form to another.
Citation
Minnesota Historical Society. Becoming Minnesotan: Stories of Recent Immigrants and Refugees. September 2010. Institute of Museum and Library Services. [Date of access]. http://www.mnhs.org/immigration