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Inside Out And Back Again By Thanhha Lai

879 Words4 Pages

The conflict of English learners being in mainstream or private classes has been raging for decades. Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai is a work of historical fiction. First Ha, her three brothers, and her mother were forced to leave their home country of Vietnam due to the war. They have to face this hardship without the support of their father, who was captured by the Communists and disappeared many years before. Then they travel on a boat in terrible conditions to a refugee camp in Guam. Next, Ha’s family becomes sponsored by a cowboy and they move to Alabama to begin a new life. The family had struggles in America with adapting to a new form of discrimination, from their race and language, but their struggles were nothing compared …show more content…

From page 148, Ha tells, “Not that I care to understand what Pink Boy says, but I have to if I’m to laugh back at him one day.” From this line, the reader can infer that Ha wants to be able to defend herself with words. “I wish… That English could be learned without so many rules,” Ha explains on page 158. The saying reasoned means that Ha wants to learn English, but is having much complication. She later finds a tutor to help her with the new language. Additionally, from page 165, “She volunteers to tutor us all… I’m afraid to tell her how much help I’ll need.” Based on this stanza, Ha is struggling with her new language, but is going to later get some help from a friend. Many students struggle with learning a new language, and standard classes might be a …show more content…

“Enough time for me to turn and yell, Gee-sus, Gee-sus,” Ha states on page 219. This line shows that Ha has experienced more American culture than she probably would’ve though. Ha most likely wouldn’t have learned who some Americans worship if she had lived in Vietnam still. Ha describes on page 196, “Pink Boy keeps asking, ‘What are you?’ By the end of school he yells an answer: ‘She should be a pancake. She has a pancake face.” Based on this stanza, not only is she learning a foreign language, but also American cuisine. The saying was indeed not thoughtful, but she does learn what commoners eat. “I count in English… I walk faster, count faster in English,” Page 147 states. This shows that Ha has already memorized her English numbers. English number symbols aren’t too complicated to memorize, but there can be some trouble when learning new things. Since Ha has been near English speakers, her vocabulary has increased at a rapid

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“School’s now closed; everyone must go home a month too soon”(Lai 38). Ha even learns how to speak english. She keeps getting frustrated with herself because she can't speak it as well as she wants to but is still not giving up. “MiSSSisss WaSShington makes me memorize a new word a day and practice it ten times in conversations”(Lai 166). She also finds out that for her neighbors to talk to her and her family in Alabama they need to get baptized.

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