Family Interview Research Paper

1209 Words5 Pages

The person I’ve chosen to interview is Li Juan Zhang. She is my mom and immigrated to the United States in 1993. The reason I chose my mom as my interviewee is because I felt it was important to know more about my mom’s history before I was born. Li was born on June 16, 1968 to the parents of Yigi Yu and Hui Lain Zhang. She has a younger brother named Yu Peng Zhang. Li grew up in a small village in Guangdong, China and speaks a Chinese dialect called Toisan. She is currently 47 years old and has raised two children, a boy and a girl. The boy is currently 21 years old and a junior in college, while the girl is a senior in high school. Li’s parents lived with her throughout her life until immigration at age 24. After 13 years, in 2006, Li’s …show more content…

The reason behind this is because she didn’t want to go to school anymore and wanted to work. When she went to school in China, it was mixed with students of 1st to 8th grade. The grade levels were diverse in one school. Li would wake up at 6AM Monday to Friday to get ready for school at 7AM. School would last until 11AM. Despite the fact that she started school in 1st grade, her parents never walked her to school. School was a mile away from Li’s village and she always joined a group of villagers walking the same route for school. She grew up walking to school with students of different grade levels every morning. When I asked Li, “Why didn’t your parents walk with you to school at a young age?”. Li replied, “It was always safe because you never walked alone. My mom and dad suggested this was the way to teach independence at an early age”. Li made the decision to stop going to school after her culmination of 8th grade. She began work at the age of 12 and worked a big portion of her life. In the United States, she decided to learn English at an adult school to better her chances of finding a decent paying job. She went to an adult school for 2 years while working 8 hours after class at her seamstress job. She was able to gain a little bit of understanding and speaking English, but not enough to have a fluent conversation with