"How to Pronounce Knife" Trivia Quiz

Answer: Because she couldn't read in English

When receiving notes, her mother - who could not read English - threw them away. The girl often had problems at school, as for example the day she had to wear pink clothes, but, unlike the other girls, she wore green, because her mother failed to read the instructions.

When the girl was asked by the teacher if her mother read the note, the girl said she did not deliver it. The girl didn't question her mother about the note and also lied so as not to put her parents in a difficult situation. Perhaps in another culture, a mother would ask her child to read, or the child would offer to read the note.

Here is a problem in which the mother, by not mastering the language of her new country, was unable to help her child with her school tasks, or to participate in parent meetings, ending up creating problems for her child.

Answer: Kicked off his shoes

The first thing her father did when he got home was take off his shoes. In Asian countries this is a traditional custom, since it is unthinkable to assume that one would enter a clean home with dirty shoes. In the western world, this custom became popular in 2020, as a prophylactic measure to control the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is a very healthy habit which will probably be incorporated into the post-pandemic western world.

Answer: Cabbage and chitterlings

For dinner, her mother prepared cabbage and chitterlings. In Asia chitterlings are much appreciated and prepared in many ways. It is an affordable dish which is not widespread in the West. For this reason, butchers sometimes discard or sell the chitterlings at a very affordable price.

When the girl takes this type of snack to school, her classmates complain because the food has a strong smell. The difference in eating habits is one of the problems that immigrants often face when eating in public. Though the country destination of the Laotian family is kept intentionally vague in this book, from other reports from the same author one can infer the country was Canada, where chitterlings were not popular at that time.

Answer: False

Her father talks to the girl in Lao, wears a T-shirt that says LAOS, and his friends are from Laos. However, he recommends that she doesn't speak in Lao and doesn't say that she is from Laos, because he thinks it will not be good for her. This situation leaves the child vulnerable and confused.

Her father, when asking his child to "deny" her origins, tried to avoid embarrassing situations for her but at the same time created other problems, leaving her ashamed, frightened and humiliated.

Answer: She insisted she was right and lost her temper

The girl did not accept the corrections made in class, not even when she was taken to the school's administration. She insisted she was right, since if there was a letter "K" in the word it should have to be pronounced. At no point in the discussion did she say she was influenced by what her father had said.

A very embarrassing situation which disturbed the child, making her lose her temper. When she met her father, she thought about what else he didn't know, what other things she would have to learn on her own.

This draws the reader's attention to the lack of sensitivity of the school, when pushing an immigrant child, who does not have English as her mother language, to such a stressful situation.

Answer: She told her father she had won a prize at school

After the confusion, the teacher called the girl and asked her to take something in a bag. It was a puzzle, the prize she would have received if she had got the lesson right. Arriving home, the girl did not tell her father he was wrong, nor that she had had problems at school, because the letter "K" in the word in question was silent.

Instead, she told her father she had won a prize. Her father was happy because he was sure he was also entitled to the prize. If this situation had occurred with a Western child, maybe her behavior towards her father would have been different.

Answer: That he was upset about his salary and about his friends' jobs

The girl overhears her father say he is worried about his payments and that his friends, who had a good education and good jobs in Laos, are now beginning a new life as if they had no qualifications. This is a recurring problem with immigrants, because they do not know a new language, they do not have their credentials recognized, they are undocumented and also because they often have to face prejudice and racism against them.

Answer: False

On the contrary, the friend draws attention to the fact that the child has to learn English before joining school, so that she can adjust to the new environment and be able to mingle with other children. She insists the mother must speak English with the child. Language is at the top of issues which immigrants have to deal with in their destination countries. On the other hand, mothers are especially divided between adapting to the new country or maintaining customs or languages of their origins. Children find it very easy to integrate into new cultures and often seem "foreign" to their parents, especially to those mothers who do not have jobs other than homekeepers.

Answer: 13 years old

This story deals with a very serious problem: some children of immigrants, as they join a new society, disown their origins and their parents. In this case, the 13-year-old girl scolds her mother because she went to school to pick her up, calling her by her original name and not by the western name she had adopted, also talking to her friends.

She said to her mother "You are so embarrassing". This behavior is sometimes observed in adolescents in general. In life, sometimes this estrangement subdues over the years, but in this tale, the situation persists and mother and daughter lead separate lives.

Answer: They were dreamers

They were dreamers. Red in "Paris", a poultry plant employee, dreamed of being beautiful, being able to have a nose job to look like other girls who worked at the company and who were promoted to better positions or work at the Boobie Bungalow, a place that only recruited pretty girls. Red knew that her current salary was sufficient to pay current expenses, but she dreamed of greater things, which could bring joy, such as going to Paris. She was aware that Paris was just a dream.

Raymond in "Mani Pedi", a former boxer, worked in his sister's beauty salon and sometimes when serving clients he imagined they could consider him for a romantic relationship. When his sister tells him to stop day-dreaming, he says he is aware that the girls will not fall in love with him. However, thinking that he could date girls was good for him, it made him happy for hours, days. He asks his sister not to say what dreams he could have and was adamant when saying: "that I can dream at all means something to me."

I think that most immigrants are dreamers; for different reasons, they leave their country or region in search of a better life for themselves and their children