Dario and "The Social Worlds of Immigrant Youth"
Wow! I could really relate to this article. It brought back so many memories of my Chinese friend that moved to Crookston in third grade. He moved into the United States without knowing a single word of English or any background of the country. However, with the strong influences that he had with his family, friends (the ones that he immediately made in Crookston), and the school, he was able to learn extremely fast and knew almost as much as we did within the first year. It's amazing how children, especially at a young age, can learn so fast, and yet the older you get everything gets tougher and tougher. Anyways, it is because of those influences that my Chinese friend was able to survive in the American culture and schools. If they didn't push him and encourage him and even support him enough, he would have never made it through the first year. It just goes to show how much inside AND outside influences affect a person and their learning ability. Also, just this past summer, he came back to visit, and he had a friend of the family that was going to be going to our high school. The boy was in the same situation that my friend was in. He knew how to say hello and that is it. I'm really anxious to see how he ends up over the next couple years. I'm sorry about the whole entry being about my Chinese friend, but it just brought back a lot of good memories and I thought that I would share it with you.