How to be Japanese Group Work

message/purpose

• isn't against australian, but does not feel part of it.
• always asked where she is from but she doesn't even speak chinese. she was born in australia
• because people are judging her its an even bigger barrier 
• more about her appearance wanted to fit in as in her appearance
• 
  
• just because they look asian but they're not really asian
• not all asians feel that they are asians but australian

protagonist journey

• acceptance and home 
• acknowledging the image australian want to see in her
• cutesy hello kitty manga
• grandfathers migrant journey - asked and asked again if she is asian
• believes that people only believe in her because she is asian
• journey ends when she returns home and feels at home in china
• learns that she expects others to know where she is from
• but then she doesn't actually really know herself
• treating herself like others are treating her

Obstacles 

attitudes shown towards her frustrate her

her dad is australian, she looks asian

people are unable to see the relationship between her father and herself

techniques

the use of first person narration in the beginning - the perspective of the author and understand the situation 

descriptive words

the story was like a reflection and being able to empathise and feel what the character is feeling 

attitudes beliefs and values

she values her identity and how she reflected to others

restrained, ignorant and stubborn becomes more accepting and open to ideas

people should not be stereotyped

Migrant

it makes you question what feature/something about you that defines what you culture is. E.g is it looks, heritage, where you are atm

Their opinion of this is based on others stereotypes of them compared to how strong their own interpretation of themselves is. 

It completes when you believe you find a balance of who you think you are and what others think you are. :)

How does this compare to other GUAIA

Trying to be accepted into one or the other society but in the end they manage to find a balance between two cultures, or they accept their position. 

Positioning Techniques

Implied Audience: the author is able to have a claser connection to the audience through the use of cultural 

Language Choices: At the beginning she has negative lanugage choice to position you to understand that she doesn't like the racist behaviour. Towards the end, she is having a more positive experience - using more positive language for the audience to be involved and understand the journey.

GUAIA Homework

What message or purpose does the author have in writing this story?
The author isn't against Australia, however she is conveying the message that she feels left out. She is constantly asked where she was from, even though she was born in Australia. In the end when she visits China, she describes how she feels at home without even speaking the language. Supposedly this is a bigger barrier than appearances however she is saying that because of her look difference, she is automatically being judged. 

what Journey is the protagonist on? Explain with examples?
She is on a journey on being accepted and finding home. She begins by acknowledging that the representations that the Australian society want to see of her is her "worst nightmare: the cutesy, Hello Kitty-loving Asian manga-girl". It is also through her grandfathers death where she becomes more interested in Chinese history. By learning about her grandfathers Australian migrant journey and how he slowly became Australian, including his skin turning white and his eyes a milky blue. From there, she explains how she is asked and asked if she is asian, in which she replies "no, I'm not", and how she "lives in perpetual fear that I'll [author] get caught out by a serial Asian fetish". She believes that people only are interested in her because she is asian. Her journey comes to an end when she visits china as she states "i felt at home". 

What are some of the obstacles she face on this journey?
She overcomes the obstacles of containing her rage as people assume that she is Asian. As she says; "I'm bringing with prejudices of my own.. I just roll my eyes". She is able to contain this dislike by choosing not to act on it, however these attitudes shown towards her frustrate her. 

How (techniques) has the author presented this to us?
Unlike the other stories in GUAIA, this story is a reflection. It is done in the current time which allows the author to convey her emotions as well and the events happening at the time. It gives the audience her interpretation of what is happening through her point of view. 


What values, attitudes and beliefs are being expressed? Use evidence from the text to support your discussion
VALUES: being accepted  (as shown as a constant idea throughout the text, her fustration when people stereotype her, to when she arrives in China and feels at home)
ATTITUDES:She is restrained "Naz looks like she might want to punch him; I just roll my eyes". 
BELIEFS: She believed that people shouldn't be stereotyped "

Mates - Homework week 5

Wei-Li and Me

1. How Important is frienship to these characters?
Very important, for the author, Wei-lei was originally the one to take to torment off her. But as she became friends with him, they became each other's havens. It was when they were both appreciated for being their selves. As when the author says "Everything Wei-Li saw could be used as evidence for my difference. But Wei-Li didn't notice anything, or if he did, he never mentioned it" (p78) this showing how the author feels accepted by Wei-li. 

2. Different expectations of friends and enemies are revealded in these stories. What are they and how do they contribute to the character's understandings of relationships with their peers
In this story, Barry West is described as the 'bully'. As established very early on in the story when he tells the author "You're Indian and I've got your Indian Shit on me" (p76). And through Barry is the key enemy, the other student in the class are against the author and Wei-li "It took the class exactly thirty seconds to shorten his name to Wee." The expectation of these bullies in the story is that they constantly are forcing the targets to feel left out or isolated from the rest of the school. It shows that the author and Wei-Li also had to stick together because it was only when they were separated that Barry's bullying began on them again - suggesting that he is a coward and only "prey's on the weak". 

3. What are the attitudes, values and beliefs of your character?
"You must apologise to that boy" "never" this is what the author's mother tells her after the incident with the baseball bat. This conveys that the author believes that if someone (in this case barry) bring on so much torment onto her and her friends, it is not her fault that she attacked him and therefore has no need to apologise. She values her friendship with Wei-Li and trusts him. Her attitude towards life is overall a positive one, shown in the conclusion where she and Wei-Li are accepted in society and become "what we though we could never be: Australian".

4. What type of journey does your character go on? Pick one line from the story that tells you this. 
 "we had become something what we though we could never be: Australian". This quote shows that the author is acknowledging her's and Wei-Li's inner journey from being outcasts and bullied to being part of the Australian society. Being accepted without changing who she is is what has made her now believe that she is Australian. 

Battlers Homework - Take me away please pg64

"Right there was the divide between the old world and the new." Hop Dac
 Once immigrants arrive their battles are not over. There is still the challenge of finding work, making a living and supporting you and your family in a strange land. The tales of migrant efforts to survive thrive, and what their children learn from these form the core of this section.

Use one story from Battlers to answer the following questions

1. Discuss the notions of humiliation, honour and the need to survive. Do you lower yourself if you work at menial tasks in order to help your family?What does this have to say about those who do not take "any job" in order to work?
Lily Chan (author and narriator) has the eldest child responsibility of managing the cash float in her family's business. She explains that her homeworks is what helps her "pass the time". She does not enjoy working in the takeaway shop; for her, it is borning and repetitiive. However she still works diligentally because she understands (as she describes the regular customers as "the bread and butter" of the business) that the working of the takeaway shop is vital to her family.
Though the text does not directally talk about people who do not take "any job" in order to work, it implies that other people who choose not to take any job, do not have the same obglititaion to their family and Lily does. This may be because their family does not need them to work (as Lily must) or because that this other person may not have the same loyality to their family as Lily does.
2. What sense of resourcefulness does the text give you? What do you have to do to belong and thrive in a new land?
Lily Chan describes their connection to the other Laus (another chineese family) as one that allows them to keep their Chinese traditions alive. Together they celebrate "events on the Chinese calendar" and have get-togethers because within their "small, prejudiced town, all we [both families] had was each other". This gives the reader insight to the community they live in, that their previous traditions are not embraced in their small town. In order to belong and thrive, for the community, Lily's family runs the towns Chinese Takeaways shop and for their own heritage, they keep close company with the other Chinese family. This allows them to belong to their community for they are able to experience the "new land" whist keeping their previous traditions.

3. Make a list of the challenges faced in this section and the emotions they invoke in the participants. Why do they go on trying?
The main challange for Lily Chan in Take me away please is that she is bored living and working in the takeaway shop. Though she expresses her want "to get out of this town very badly" she carries on trying because she is loyal to her family and understands that this is their life and their business.

4. What journey is being represented in the story? Use evidence from the text to support your discussion.
Take me away please is representing the unfinished migrant journey. Lily Chan expresses her "dread" for the four o'clock opening of her familys local takeaway shop, as she explains "getting to work wans't and issue, but getting away was".  Early on in the text she describes her want to "get out of this town" and through further reading, this is likely due to her feeling bored within her environment. Her dull tone when explaining the events, such as, "The phone rang. Ah, Bodybuilder Man, on time as usual" expresses the boredom she has working in the takeaway shop which is vital to "every quintessential Australian town".

5. What attitudes and beliefs does the main character have (what do they think is important)? Why do they think this way? Use evidence front the text to support your descussion.
Lily Chan's attitudes towards her life is that she does not enjoy it, it is not hard but she does not want to be there. However as she explains that the regular customers are the "bread and butter" for her familyies business, this conveys to the reader that her attitude also reflects loyalty to her family, and her value in what keeps their business running.

Homework - GUAIA Pioneers

Pioneers - The Beat of A Different Drum

1. Do the second generation of migrants have an easier time than the first?
1. Yes because the second generation have grown up in the society of Australia (ie. trends, language). Where as the boy in this story has trouble understanding the language, as he states that on his first day of high school he couldn't understand the first question his teacher asked him. He also doesn't understand the uses of words, such as the lunch lady calling him "luv". This overall makes him feel angry, because back in Hong Kong he was successful, however he feels like he is an idiot in Australia because he is still trying to learn how to spell pie. 
2. WHy do the pioneers choose to come to Australia? Do you think that their reasons are always clear, even to them?
1. The boys family moved to australia to flee the "subsequent madness" which was caused by Margret Thatchers negotiation with Deng Xiaoping for the transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong. This is all he explains about their movement to Melbourne, it may be because this seems the only reason he can understand in which explained why they moved to Melbourne. 
3. How do the pioneers' lives change when they come to Australia
1. He is not used to the heat and humidity in Australia, as he explains that it "felt alien on my skin". He wanted to be able to sit at the back of the class and go unnoticed, however he was pestered with questions like "the new animal at the zoo". He felt "robbed" of language and the idea of going to school frightened him because he would be exposed to the new environment which he was not used to. He begins to feel angry and an urge to withdraw. He didn't have anyone to talk to, because no one would understand. He begun to 'absorb' himself in his martial art novels as a form of escape. 
4. What elements do they choose to bring with them when they migrate? And which do they reject? Why?
1. He brought his comics with him when he arrived in Australia, because it gave him a way to escape the difficulties of being in another country. Within this story it is not clear what particular things/elements rejects, we do not know much about his use of chinese, (but would assume that he would use it at home). Though at the beginning he does loose his love for things, because it becomes too difficult to understand and enjoy things in a world that he does not fit into. 
5. What tricks do the pioneers learn to assist them in belonging to Australian culture
1. He becomes good friends with Stewart, who is patient with him and help him understand the language. They bonded over the fact the Nigel found it cool that he could read chinese. Also he used soap operas to learn the language, with the repetitive plot and over-acting. This taught him the rhythm and tone of the language. He also began anticipating sentences so he would have the time to prepare what to say. As he explains in the final line, he begun to understand english when he began to "listen to its music".