Girl in Translation

JeanKwok.com

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Title: Girl in Translation

Author: Jean Kwok

Genre: Fiction

Pages: 320

Jean Kwok's Girl in Translation is a modern-day immigration story.  Kimberly Chang and her mother emigrated from Hong Kong to Brooklyn, New York on a trip funded by Kim's Aunt Paula. They are thus indebted to Aunt Paula and work in a Chinatown clothing sweatshop that barely pays them enough to survive.  Kim and Ma are forced to bear New York's blistering winters in a roach and rat infested apartment with no heat.


Kim, although the brightest student in her former school in China, struggles academically and socially in America. She only half understands her teachers' lectures and doesn't understand American teenagers at all! Despite this, Kim forms a close friendship with Annette who helps her learn English and equally as important makeup.  With time, Kim perfects her English, improves her grades, and eventually earns a spot in a prestigious private high school. Yet, Kim still struggles to hide her sweatshop job from her friends and classmates.


Kowk's Girl in Translation is a beautifully told story of the struggles of poverty, immigrants, and heart break. It is also a story of perseverance, success, and sacrifice. The story begins by vividly describing Kim's disgusting apartment and the horrid working conditions where the elderly and young work side by side. The author then clearly conveys Kim's frustration and confusion in not understanding her new American classmates, teachers, and language.  Matt's character, Kim's love interest, is well-developed and adorable. Their love story is touching and heartbreaking all at the same time. Readers will get to experience first love mature into adult reality. Young immigrants--and adolescents alike--will love Girl in Translation. A must read!


Rating: A+

Reviews

"Part fairy tale, part autobiography... what puts this debut novel toward the top of the pile is its buoyant voice and its slightly subversive ending that suggests "happily ever after" may have more to do with love of self and of family than with any old Prince Charming."-O, The Oprah Magazine


"Writing in first-person from Kim's point of view, Kwok cleverly employs phonetic spellings to illustrate her protagonist's growing understanding of English and wide-eyed view of American teen culture. The author draws upon her own experience as a child laborer in New York, which adds a poignant layer to Girl in Translation."-USA Today


"The astonishing - and semi-autobiographical - tale of a girl from Hong Kong who, at age eleven, shoulders the weight of her mother's American dream all the way from Chinatown sweatshop to the Ivy League."-Vogue




Teacher's Corner


Related Resources


Movies


Real Women Have Curves (2002) This coming-of-age film captures the life of a Mexican-American girl who must choose between going off to college and staying behind to help her family make money.
Spanglish (2004) Cultures clash when an Anglo-American suburban family hires a Mexican maid who takes great pride in her heritage.

Books

Red Hot Salsa: Bilingual Poems on Being Young and Latino in the United States. Ed. by Lori Carlson. 2005. (0-8050-7616-6).

The poets collected here illuminate the difficulty of straddling cultures, languages, and identities. They celebrate food, family, love, and triumph. In English, Spanish, and poetic jumbles of both, they tell us who they are, where they are, and what their hopes are for the future.

Book description from http://us.macmillan.com/redhotsalsa/LoriCarlson

A Step from Heaven. 2001. By An Na. (0-886910-58-8)

A first novel in which a Korean-American girl tells the story of her acculturation into American life beginning from the day she leaves Korea as a young child and ending when she is a young woman. While going up into the sky on the flight from Korea to America, four-year-old Young Ju concludes that they are on their way to heaven-America is heaven! After they arrive, however, Young Ju and her parents and little brother struggle in their new world, weighed down by the difficulty of learning English, their insular family life, and the traditions of the country they left behind. An Na’s striking language authentically reflects the process of acculturation as Young Ju grows from a child to an adult.

Book description from http://www.anwriting.com/astepfromheaven.html

Lesson Plan for 10^th Grade Students

Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok
Teachers can use Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok to explore issues of Americanization, immigration, and assimilation.

21^st Century Learner Standards

1.1.4    Find, evaluate, and select appropriate sources to answer questions.

2.1.3    Use strategies to draw conclusions from information and apply knowledge to curricular areas, real-world situations, and further investigations.

3.1.6    Use information and technology ethically and responsibly.

Objective: After reading Girl in Translation, students will research topics of Americanization and assimilation across cultures. They will be instructed to look for primary and secondary sources to discover similarities and differences of assimilation across cultures and time periods. Students will be required to submit an annotated bibliography prior to starting their research reports.