TRANSCRIPT
TRANSCRIBED BY Indigo Mudbhary (x 3)
Great. So my first question for you is, what do you remember from your first few days in the United States when you arrived?
Okay, so when I arrived — San Francisco — with my family, with all my siblings, there were eight of us. And we were very excited because we had so many relatives over here on my father's side. And when we came from Hong Kong, we really didn't have any relatives. And there were some uncles and aunts that had visited us back in Hong Kong, so we were very looking forward to meeting them. So of course, you know, as kids coming to a foreign place, first day we went to our house that was already set up or rented for us. And we went to the zoo, went to all these places and just met all these people. So it was wonderful. It was very exciting for us.
Oh, amazing. Do you remember who picked you up at the airport and where you went from there?
Okay, so there were ten of us. So two of my dad's cousins came to pick us up. And we went straight to our house that was rented on 33rd Avenue and Balboa. So the house was already set up. All the furniture was already there. So it was quite easy for us. And after we dropped everything off, we went out to eat. And you know, we just kind of ventured and it was, like I said, it was very exciting to meet one of my uncles — which was actually my godfather — that had recently moved here about a year ago. So you know, when we went there, right away he brought us to the San Francisco Zoo. So that was nice while my parents, you know, they settled down and did other documents and so forth. Then actually we moved pretty rapidly because we came like around the end of August and I think like the next day that we already went down to Van Ness Street to sign up for school at the San Francisco Unified District. And I guess my parents didn't really waste any time, [laughs] settled that score. And aside from that, I must just say that it was just very exciting to be here.
Yeah. Is there anything else you remember doing during your first week here?
First week here was really just visiting a lot relatives. Because just first cousins alone, you probably had over like 150. So that was like, amazing. It was like party after party every day. People would just come to the house or would flow, go to other people's houses. And we were very close to Golden Gate Park. So, you know, right away, we all bought like bicycles. So we got to go ride around. I guess the first week was more like, you know, really seeing the city. Yeah, and actually, one thing I remembered was we walked — me and my brother, we were 13 — we walked up to the corner, and there was a Progress newspaper stand, that sells Progress newspaper. I don't know if you even remember—you’re probably too young for that. Usually you get this free newspaper, or people subscribe to it for like $1 a week or something. So we saw it and then it said that they could hire people for kids—all you need to do is like just be 12 and over and you will make like 3 dollars. And we thought, Oh, that's pretty fun. We can actually make money. So we signed up right away. And we just thought that was exciting, so that we could, you know, go buy stuff that we wanted to with our own money. Me and my brother were like 13 and 14 so we did that. So we were kind of in the middle. So siblings that came were like from five years old to 21. So we were sort of the middle.
Okay, gotcha. And was there anything that you ate that was brand new to you?
Now, because in Hong Kong our family liked to eat out every day so we'll pretty much eat everything. But I guess one thing amazing was that we were pretty close to Clement Street and there's a lot of Chinese people, so it was surprisingly that you know… diverse, diversity of people. So even when we went to school to sign up, because a lot of them figured that we were from Hong Kong that, you know, automatically that we knew how to speak Chinese. Actually our English was better because we all went to English and Portuguese school. I guess during the first week, it seemed like we learned more Chinese than English in Hong Kong because of, like, the people that we met, you know, in the stores and so forth, knowing them.
And were there any cultural differences or cultural similarities that you noticed?
I think for us it was probably easier because where we were brought up, we were actually brought up in a British environment where we actually spoke English. So first language. And so we kind of merged in easily, especially since we had like so many family and relatives in San Francisco. Versus others, I could see that they had a little bit of a problem. And I also remember is my mother, she… well, well, my parents they were executives in Hong Kong. So right away, when she came, she was looking for a job. So I remember that she had like… so she was just trying to get the first job that she could get. And also, I know the next day we went to buy a car. [laughs] And you know, in those days, you could be like seven, eight people, you can all just hop into the car, it didn’t matter whether you had seatbelts or not. We went to Ocean Beach, and just drove around. So pretty much we were just seeing the place. It was… everything was, like, new to us. That as far as immersing with everybody, it was easy only because that, you know, we were brought up in a English-speaking environment. Oh, there was one thing… that well, but I guess that was little later, not my first week of school. It's just that when we actually went to school that… I hated math when I was in Hong Kong because I wasn't that good, and so forth. So when we went to school, I started ninth grade. And ultimately, I thought, I'm just going to enroll in like the easiest math class, whatever math class they were. And when I went there, after three days, the teacher laughed, like, “I'm sorry, you’re in the wrong class.” Because first day, they gave us an exam and it only took me like two minutes, I finished it—the 20 questions. So when I brought it up there, she said, “Did you have a question?” I go, “No, I'm done.” She goes, “Obviously, you’re in the wrong class. You're gonna move up to the top class.” So I just thought that the standards were a lot lower than when we were in the States. Because right away, they moved us all to the advanced classes, versus I know that a lot of people from Hong Kong that went there, they were all in the ESL. So I noticed that difference when we were in school.
Gotcha. In terms of your first days and first weeks, is there a specific memory that you associate with that time or that you think of?
I guess, let's say it was really like, you know, just getting on the plane, getting off, and just excited to see everybody.
Okay, great those were all the questions—it’s a pretty short interview, so those are all the questions that I had. But is there anything else you'd like to share about your first days or your first week here?
I think have pretty much shared everything.
Great, thanks.
