Almost American Girl

In these chapters, cultural tensions between Robin and her classmates and Robin’s mom and their stepfamily intensify as both grapple with the Cultural Differences in Prejudice and Social Norms between their old and new homes. The problems Robin faces with linguistic and racial alienation in these chapters parallel her mother’s experience with gendered social alienation.

In the United States, there is often a lot of pressure on non-English speaking immigrants to learn English to communicate in their new country. Robin herself feels a linguistic alienation that exists alongside racial alienation. Her bully, Bryan, utters a series of pseudowords: nonsense words that vaguely resemble the cadences of another language, but which have no meaning. Bryan’s pseudowords resemble Chinese, which he mistakenly assumes Robin is. He also makes racist facial expressions. When Robin protests this bullying, Bryan and his friends repeat her words in an exaggerated Korean accent (85). This amalgamation of mocking actions ties together linguistic and racialized experience.

Robin’s fear of speaking English is tied to her fear of not appearing “normal.” She thinks that speaking English will make her seem “like a bumbling idiot” (86). When she takes too long to respond to a peer in the cafeteria, the peer accuses her of being “deaf” or “stupid” (101). Even though Sarah sticks up for Robin, she is humiliated by the judgment of her peer. She cannot get up the courage to speak to Sarah afterward, fearing that she and her friends will say: “You are not cool enough to sit with us” (102). Robin begins to fear that her peers’ judgment of her English will affect their perception of her as a whole; as such, she becomes even more socially alienated and lonely.

Robin’s stepcousin, Ashley, takes advantage of this alienation. They both attend the same junior high school and are part of a band class, so Ashley is supposed to be responsible for translating important information for Robin. For unknown reasons, Ashley feels bitterness and spite toward Robin. When Robin asks her for clarification on something their band teacher said, Ashley deflects the question with a smirk, “which made [Robin] wonder if she was telling [her] the truth” (88). Ashley’s lies get Robin in trouble with the band teacher. Ashley consequently gets in trouble for lying to Robin, which makes her even more bitter. Though Robin does not know what she has done to earn Ashley’s mistreatment, she knows that somehow, language and translation are at the heart of their conflicts.

Tensions like these continue to crop up between Robin, her mother, and their new family. While Robin’s problems with her cousins stem from their linguistic differences, her mother’s problems with the family have gendered social causes. In Korea, Robin’s mom felt conflict within her own culture due to their different ideas of a woman’s role in society. Robin’s mother is more self-sufficient and independent than many other Korean women. She was in a relationship with a much older man, Robin’s father, for three years before getting pregnant. Even though it was “considered scandalous to have a baby without being married in Korea” (139), Robin’s mother turned down her father’s proposal, unsure of “how great he would be as a father and a husband” (140).

Robin’s mother could have avoided social judgment by accepting the proposal, but she prioritized her and Robin’s long-term physical and mental wellness instead, even if that meant being subjected to social stigma. She soon broke up with him altogether, after his drinking problems worsened and she discovered he had an affair. She subsequently had a healthy, 10-year relationship with Mr. An, but still did not marry him even though people whispered that they were “a shameless bunch” behind their backs (148). Her priority was always Robin, not protecting her social image from the judgment of more traditional people. As Robin grows, she notices how single mothers are portrayed in Korean media as either evil mistresses or helpless waifs. Her mother is neither of these, but depictions such as these guide the narrative that their society tells about single women, speaking to The Power of Stores in Shaping Identity in a more negative form.

Robin’s mother also goes against the grain of other Korean traditions that she sees as unethical. She refuses to give Robin’s teacher money: She calls it a bribe while the teacher calls it “a token of gratitude” (152). Robin’s teacher takes out this insult on Robin with increasingly cruel behavior. Robin’s mother cannot report the behavior to the school board “because everyone turned a blind eye to the bribery” (153). Robin’s mother is in a difficult position: either she can give the bribe to protect her child and subsequently compromise her ethical stance, or she can refuse to provide a bribe while Robin continues to suffer the teacher’s cruelty. She chooses the latter, with an addendum: They will leave the society that forces her into such impossible decisions.

However, because of Mr. Kim’s “very traditional” family, life in the United States does not offer the reprieve Robin’s mother thought it would. She faces the same gendered expectations of behavior. Her mother-in-law tells her, “it’s not a wife’s place to criticize her husband. Her duty is to support him” (127). Robin’s mother is expected to be submissive to Mr. Kim, but she has always prioritized her and Robin’s wellness and independence, even if that means they will be subjected to prejudice and social stigmas.

While Robin faces linguistic alienation at school, her mother is increasingly frustrated by the social, gendered expectations for her in their new family. These dual rising actions set up the climax of the story in the next set of chapters, when Robin and her mother set out on their own.