By: Zuzanna Mamczarz
“Both of my parents are from Vietnam. My mom came over to the United States before my dad did. She came over right after the Vietnam war with her family and she later married my dad, allowing him to come live in the US. Growing up, my family was very tight knit. We would always get together and each other out because money was a prominent problem for us back then since both of my parents had to work hard to pay for rent and everything else. While my parents would go to work, I went over to my grandma’s house. I was basically raised by my grandma, along with my other cousins since their parents were also working hard to provide for their own homes. Family has always been a big part of my life because of this but after going to school for the first time, I started to learn that American families operated a little differently than how I was raised. I was very pressured to do well in school because my parents wanted me to have a better life than they did so academics played a big part in my life. I also learned that being bilingual was also kind of weird because most children I met only knew how to speak English while I knew how to speak both English and Vietnamese. Since my parents pressed academics on me and made sure I prioritized academics, they made sure I went to a school with a good academic program. When my districted school had a low academic program, my family moved to Howard county so that I could go to a school with a better academic system. I ended up moving to Howard High School my sophomore year. When I came to Howard I met many new people and Howard being such a diverse school, I met many people that had immigrant parents like me. There were many people I could connect and relate with, for example, I met many bilingual people.”
Zuzanna's Connection
I connected with Lena because I too have immigrant parents and can relate to many of the aspects of being a part of two cultures that Lena shared. For example, in school I saw how some of the things Americans did were different from what I was used to, for example the activities they were a part of, and few kids in my school were bilingual, an experience Lena also had.
