ENGLISH FORMATIVE TEST

11th Form

"FOBs" vs. "Twinkles": The Language of Intraracial Discrimination

Today in my sociology class, the teacher asked the students to volunteer our own experiences with
racism or ethnic harassment. 1 imagined the responses would once again feature the ongoing battle between
white vs. minority. Instead, to my surprise, most of the students told of being discriminated against and
marginalized by members of their own ethnic group.
In the Asian community, the slurs heard most often are not terms such as "Chink" or "Jap," but rather
"FOB" ("Fresh Off the Boat") or "white-washed" (too assimilated). When Asian Americans hit puberty, they
seem to divide into two camps, each highly critical of the other.
Members of the first cling to their ethnic heritage. They tend to be exclusive in their friendships, often
accepting only "true Asians." They believe relationships should remain within the community, and may even
opt to speak their parents' native language over English in public.
Members of the second group reject as many aspects of Asian culture as possible and concentrate on
being seen as American. They go out of their way to refuse to date within the community, embrace friends
outside their ethnic circle, and even boast to others about how un-Asian they are.
"My co-worker is Vietnamese," 19-year-old Carol Lieu remarked, "but she will yell at you if you speak it
to her and pretend that she doesn't understand."
Second generation Asian Americans often face pressure from their parents, who believe that the
privileges we are allowed in this country make us spoiled and ungrateful. Many of us very much want to
belong to our parents' community, but we cannot completely embody one culture when we are living in
another.
The pressures we face force many of us to feel we must choose one culture over another. We can
either cling to our parent's ideology or rebel against it and try to be "American."
The problems start when those who have made one choice discriminate against those who have made
the other. [...] A character in a recent movie complains about a girl who is pursuing him despite his lack of
interest: She "rambles on about her East Asian Students Club or whatever. Then I have to actually pretend
that I give a st or she calls me a Twinkie ... yellow on the outside, white on the inside."
"People act disappointed that I can't speak Japanese fluently," a student of Mexican and Japanese
ancestry in my sociology class complained this morning. "I don't see anyone giving me credit for speaking
fluent Gaelic."
On the other side, second-generation kids who refuse to assimilate are called FOBs. The cars they drive
are derided as "Rice Rockets," and their pastimes and ways of dressing are stereotyped as exclusively Asian.
"We live in America," one freshman political science major recalls more assimilated friends telling her. "Don't
bring your culture here."
Not all young Asian Americans buy into the dichotomy between "FOBs" and "Twinkies." Many, like me,
understand the term "Asian American" in ail its complexity, and embrace all sides of our identity. Rather than
identifying with one culture or another, my friends and I accept both. You should identify with your heritage
"because that's who you are," Ricky Kim, founder of the online journal Evil Monito, has said. "But don't be
ignorant of the culture you grew up in - that's being ungrateful."
Asian Americans grow up experiencing enough difficulties living in a predominately white country with
the face of a foreigner. The gap between races is wide enough without drawing lines within ethnicities and
communities. We can avoid this internal discrimination simply by recognizing that we are of two cultures - and
that in itself creates a new culture that should be fully celebrated, by Grace Hsiang

Grace Hsiang, 18, is a freshman at the University of California at Irvine and an intern for SOMA magazine in San Francisco.
A - Justify the title of the text.

B - Say whether the following statements are TRUE or FALSE and quote from the text to justify your
answer.

1- Young Chinese Americans in the first camp ("FOBs") will speak Chinese at home but never in public. ~

2- Young Asians in the second camp ("white-washed") will not choose their girlfriends or boyfriends
within the
Asian community.

3- Carol's fellow-worker wasn't Asian.

4- First generation Asian Americans sometimes think that their children enjoy too many advantages for their
own
good.

5- The Japanese-Mexican American student said that speaking Gaelic gave him a lot of prestige.

C -Find words meaning approximately the same as the following in paragraphs 1, 2 and 3

(lines 1-10),

1 persecution 2 continuing 3 insult 4 teens 5 - hold fast

D - Answer the following questions using your own words as much as possible.

1- Who surprised the author in her sociology class and why?

2- According to the author, young Asian Americans suffer conflicting social pressures - identify those
pressures
and say where they come from.

3- Explain the author's position regarding her own cultural identity.

4- In your opinion, are the effects of "intraracial" discrimination on young people's everyday lives
different from
those of "interracial" discrimination? Justify.

II

A - Rewrite the following sentences beginning them as indicated. Make the necessary changes.

1 - Cho feels he has to choose between two cultures because of the terrible pressures he faces.
If Cho.

2 - Reconciling ourselves to our multiple identities is essential to our understanding of ourselves and the
society we
live in.
Unless we....

3 - They were close friends, even though their cultural heritage was very different.
Despite...

4 - Some members of the Students' Club were discriminating against John Cho.
John Cho...
B - Fill in the gaps with suitable words formed from the ones given.

Having listened to both Chinese and English, I tend to be suspicious of any____(1)_____(compare)made

between the two languages._____(2)_____(typical), one language - that of the person who is doing the
comparing - is used as the standard, the benchmark for a_______3)_______(logic) form of____(4)______
(express). Thus English speakers point out that Chinese is extremely difficult because it relies on variations of
tone barely _______(5)______(discern) to the human ear, while Chinese speakers say that English is extremely
difficult because it is inconsistent, a language with too many broken rules.

from Amy Tan, The Opposite of Fate, 2004, p.286

Ill

Choose ONE of the following statements and discuss it in reference to All My Sons. Refer to the text of the
play whenever necessary, but do NOT retell the story. Write 100-120 words.

A - "Millers work explored the dilemmas of the American Dream" (Michael Ratcliffe, Obituary of Arthur
Miller, Guardian, Feb.12, 2005)

B -" Arthur Miller wrote with a civic insistence on the causality of human behaviour. Survival depended on
men and women taking responsibility for what they do and, more contentiously, for what they know other
men and women to be doing" (Michael Ratcliffe, Obituary of Arthur Millers, Guardian, Feb.12, 2005)