Mei Mei hates English. She was smart in her own school in
Honk Kong-her and her family moved to NY. She enjoyed Chinatown though. In NY
everything happens in English and the letters all have their own sound unlike
the Chinese language. Mei Mei loved speaking and writing in Chinese and she
refused to do anything in English. She understood English though. One day her
cousin Bing brought her to the Chinatown learning center where children brought
their homework for help. Mei Mei helped the younger children with math. She
liked math a lot because numbers are the same in every country. Mei Mei kept
dreaming about her family going to Hong Kong. It never happened. Mei Mei and
her friends and went to Jones Beach which is 3 trains and 1 bus away. It took 2
hours to get there. They caught shellfish and cooked it. One day a teacher
names Nancy came to help Mei Mei with English. The teacher read her a story and
she enjoyed it. But she got frustrated when she couldn’t find the word for
wagon in Chinese. Mei Mei felt afraid that night-she felt she would lose
something. Her mother said goodnight in Chinese she answered back in English
without even thinking about it. The next day Nancy kept talking and talking to
Mei Mei until she responded in English. Mei Mei began to talk to Nancy about
Hong Kong and herself, in English. Nancy thanked Mei Mei and now she speaks
English and Chinese.
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