Kitchen Chinese by Austine (容榕)

1. I would like to live into other country like Japan or Korea. To learn about more of their cultures and languages since i am always intrested in these countries. But i won't consider to uproot my life because i want to keep my original culture but also learning in new cultures.
2. I think she chooses "kitchen Chinese" as her title because cuisine in this country affect her new life in China a lot. She'd also mentioned in the book that there were many different names of food in Chinese and I think she sees the Chinese cuisines as the Basic of all China.Language is a really big part of her new life. She was ashame that she realize she couldn't even speak proper Chinese for being a Chinese/American. That is why Language stand for a big role in this story.
3. Yes, i think Chinese parents had always been expecting more froom their children than those American parents. To respect the elderly are always one of the top important thing in traditional Chinese family. Since these Chinese parents were grown up in china or chinese family, they had been taught in this way and so of course they will expect their children to do the same.
4. Isabelle really changed a lot on her perception of viewing China. Before she go to China, she thinks China is jus her parents' hometown and she also fell bad or embarrased because she was half of it. She doesn't care about these Chinese culture because she doen;t want to be diferent from her classmates and friends. After she went to China, she realized that her origin hometown was quite interesting to discover and to understand it.I think the best way of learning a foriegn language is like Isabelle; go to that country and learn about everything. Like me, for example, I've been learing English since i was in first grade. My elementary school was actually a bilingual school so i had to have english for half day and chinese for half day. And of course, my English has a certain level.(not too bad can read and write and speak) so when I came to the US last year, it wasn't as horrible as i thought. But also, i've notice that it is i would say 80% different from how i learn English inTaiwan, the teachers the classmate the room the everything in here was so different. Then i realized that you don't really know the culture just by learning their language because there are always much more interesting thing than you can think of when you actually live in the country.
5. Yes, i do feel like a fish out of the water even now in the very minute. I always feel like the left out person in the school because first, i do not know anyone in the school. Second, people speak really fast English that i couldn't understand. And third, i don't know anything like i dont know whats next or what am i suppose to do. It was just terrible and a mess.But then i start to meet some people and try to be active at making friend or talking to people and ask questions in class or when i do not understand.
6. The thinking of "blond hair and big nose" is definitly a stereotype of Americans. As you can see on the street, not all americans have blond hair. And obviously I dont think there were actually a lot of big noses. I think now in many countries there are still many people having this stereotype. And my opinions of America, i say that they are "ethnocentric" (just learn this word), Americans always think they are the best and they are everything like there are only Americans in the whole entire world. I think they are too proud of themselves. Like today, one of my classmate asked me "can you speak Chinese?" and I said yes, and i told her that i am from Taiwan and she paused....then she said are you Japanese? i said no i am Taiwanese. And "then" she asked, what is the difference between chinese and Japanese??? WOW!! i thought in my mind because they are acting like they've heard Chinese for the first time like they dont even know Chinese People exist. And this is how i think of most of them.(not all)