F2F Class Notes (Nicholas) [W]

Go into greater depth and give me negative opinions and criticisms and concerns.

For Lunar New Year’s holidays, I went to New York to visit my boyfriend’s family. It was my third time to go New York, and I got the different feelings of New York this time from the first and second visiting.

For the Lunar New Year holiday, I went to New York to visit my boyfriend’s family. It was my third time going to New York and I got different feelings from New York this time around versus my first two trips/visits.

His family lives in Sunset park area, the China town in Brooklyn. Once I arrived there, I thought I’m in Hong Kong surrounding traditional Chinese billboards and Cantonese immigrants on the street. My boyfriend’s family is a conservative Chinese American keeping their own Chinese culture which I admire. But it was still shocking to me how Cantonese the area looks like. That’s the immigrant culture which I hadn’t expected before experiencing it in person.

His family lives in the Sunset park area — the China Town of Brooklyn. Once I arrived there, I thought I was in Hong Kong, I was surrounded by traditional Chinese billboards and Cantonese immigrants on the street. My BF comes from a conservative Chi. American family and they keep [preserve] their own Chinese culture, which I admire.But it was still shocking to me how Cantonese the area looked. That’s the immigrant culture which I didn’t expect to see before experiencing it in person.

I also could feel felt “the real diversity” in New York this time. There are diverse cultures and people in the city, not only Chinese, but also Korean, Italian, Spanish, Mexican and Jewish etc. I respect their strong-bonded society and cultural preservation including bilingualism. It looks common that an immigrant American speaks two languages like my boyfriend’s family speaking Cantonese and English. (I surprised that his sister even speaks fluent Mandarin).

Through this trip, I’m glad that I could see and understand another side of New York, “the immigrant culture”, which I hadn’t had any ideas when I traveled the city alone. In the past, I thought adopting the local is everything to live abroad as a foreigner. However at present, I think maintaining and cherishing my own culture is also important when I stay outside of Korea. Now I have more confidence to move to New York with my boyfriend in the future (We are still talking about a plan though) and plus feel secure that I won’t have homesick since Korean and Chinese cultures exist there.

Through this trip, I came to see and understand another side of New York: “the immigrant culture”, which I never experienced when I traveled the city alone. In the past, I thought adopting local customs was everything for living abroad as a foreigner. However at present, I my thinking has changed a bit: I think maintaining and cherishing my own culture is also important when I am staying outside Korea. Now I have more confidence to move to NY with my BF in the future…and additionally I feel more secure that I won’t feel home sick since Asian cultures exist there.

**Keep an eye on past tense throughout.**

**Review the style.**

**Only use THE when it’s something SUPER specific.**

Vocabulary

melting pot / the idea that different races of people melt into one “cheese” or “race”

mosaic / a little different than a melting pot; everyone is different but when you step away they look like one thing

multicultural / many cultures living in peace in one society

hotly debated / a topic that is very hot and causes argument

FOB / fresh-off-the-boat

aloof / carless, ignorant and a little dumb; things that should be obvious, aren’t obvious to these people

3/5 compromise / political history in the US where black Americans were only counted as 3/5ths of an actual person

wary / to be cautious of something

e.g. I’m very wary when a man comes up to me on the street and offers me money.

e.g. I’m very wary of Asian people giving advice to other Asian people.

“as evidence by…” / this connects two ideas: the first is your idea the second is your proof or evidence.

e.g Korea is the best country in the world as evidenced by their high GDP, their high education levels, etc.

Grammar

grateful with that / grateful for that

pretty introvert / pretty introverted