The Relative Advantages of Learning my Language by Amy Choi

The Relative Advantages of Learning my Language by Amy Choi

1. The author opens the story with an anecdote. What is the anecdote and what effect does it have on the reader? The author tells us a story about how she was very rude to her grandfather and did not have much respect for him 

2. What is the author’s view of the Chinese language in the 2^nd paragraph? She thinks that now she is living in Australia with all the English spoken around her she thought it was not necessary to keep Chinese in her vocabulary

3. What is symbolic about the house that the Grandfather mistakes for his own? What does it say about the assimilation of his family into Australian culture? What does it say about his understanding of Australian culture? What is ironic about the inhabitants of this house? Its symbolic that the grandfather makes the mistake because it shows that all the other Asian/Australian families all have the same type of  style sense and that their understanding of Australian culture is trying to get better because they are living in a brick house with a ford falcon

4. What does the death of her grandfather inspire the author to do? The death of her grandfather inspires her to relearn how to speak Chinese but not write it

5. Why is she motivated to know Chinese? What is it she wants to ensure she is able to, regretting that she couldn’t do it with her grandfather? She is motivated to learn chinese because of her grandfathers death and because she was very ignorant to him. she wants to insure that if another elderly relative asked her to listen to something that she had the ability to do that not like what she did to her grandfather