Two Different Roles She stared straight in front of her, her round brown eyes fixed on one point at the audience. She raised her hand, groping the air surrounding her, the big sleeves of her dress shivering in the slight breeze created by the Air Conditioner in the black box. It was sophomore, then a freshman, Betty Huang’s end of the year drama performance. Her role was Helen Keller, a role that does not require much memorizing of lines. Huang has been in the ELD program since freshman year, when she took ELD 1. The role of Helen Keller marked the end of her first year in drama, but her journey in MVHS continues. Huang still remembers the process of rehearsing Helen Keller. Instead of focusing on memorizing long lines, Huang needed to practice staring at one spot for a long time and expressing emotions through a few simple gestures. “I enjoy the role because it’s actually harder than [the ones] that have a lot of lines,” Huang said.
Yet she is not so happy about the fact that she has never got a role in drama that has many lines — oftentimes others would shove a role to her, according to Huang. “I feel weird,” Huang said. “It’s almost like I’m not as good as them.” She did not outwardly express her discontent, yet she experienced an outburst of emotions during one of the rehearsals when she was suddenly on the verge of tears, and rushed out of the drama classroom. Loneliness, homesickness, indignation, Huang could not quite identify the reason of her sudden tears. On the other hand, ELD class seems like a safety zone for her. During her ELD class, Huang feels more secure because most of the classmates have been in ELD 1 with her during freshman year. The class is also smaller, so each student will receive more help. Huang often talks to her teacher, Lindsay Stuart, privately after class about things going on at home and in school. She even expressed her joy of being the
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“older sister” of her ELD class that combines ELD 1 students with ELD 2 students. Familiarity with the course and her classmates made her more confident. “I feel like now even when I’m walking [in the classroom], I raise my head high,” Huang said. This confidence extends into her sheltered classes, Chemistry and Literature, but stops at her regular class, Algebra 2. Even though the class material is easy for Huang, she rarely talks during the class and prefers to stay out of the conversation of students around her in regular classes. She does not quite know why. “I’m the quiet one in math,” Huang said. “But I’m okay because it’s only one class.”
Kim.
Left photo: sophomore Betty Huang fills out her section preference form for her next drama preformance on Nov. 14 in drama class. Right photo: Huang acts in the MVHS performance of the play Helen Keller. Photo used with permission of Betty Huang.
Vishalrathna Nagar | El Estoque
Becoming a Leader Eight years ago, former ASB Social Manager and El Estoque staff member, class of 2014 alumnus Colin Kim, was sitting in a fifth grade class at John Muir Elementary School. He was sitting with around 15 others, listening to their teacher, Mrs. Wu. Kim remembers that Wu made every student in the class feel at ease: she was calm enough to make 10-year-olds settle down, patient enough to teach the kids grammar and vocabulary, accepting enough of the students’ differences when introducing foreign cultural aspects. She was also Asian — just like the teachers they grew up with. After fifth grade, most of Kim’s friends in the class went to Hyde Middle School, but Kim went to Kennedy Middle School. He was one of the only students in his class to graduate from the ELD program. “I wanted to join the regular classes and the regular sessions after the first year,” Kim said. “If you’re in ELD, you tend to want to NOVEMBER 19, 2014
stay in ELD because those are your friends. For me, it was different. I really liked [ELD], but I wanted to explore and be in different social groups, and get involved in school activities.” While Kim was excited to explore new social groups he lacked confidence in his ability to speak English and struggled to converse with other students outside of the ELD program. “You’ve got to imagine how a student would feel in an environment where people are telling you things but you can’t really understand what they’re saying ,” Kim said. “The frustration you have when you want to talk to them, but you can’t, because you don’t know how to respond to them.” American culture was as foreign to Kim as the language. In Korea, Thanksgiving takes place on a different day. There are no celebrations on July 4. Koreans do not Trick-or-Treat or make Jack-O-Lanterns and Americans never celebrate Children’s Day.
“Holidays and all the culture is different, but it was cool for me and I got used to it,” Kim said. “It definitely helps to find friends.” By his freshman year, however, Kim felt comfortable enough in the U.S. to run for class officer. He did not win. But, in his sophomore year, he was elected as Class of 2014’s Social Manager, followed by the same position in junior year and in senior year, he was elected to be Social Manager for ASB. “Throughout the whole journey, I really wanted to just go back home to Korea,” Kim said, “but you just have to have that mindset to try to put yourself out there and get out of your comfort zone. Then you can actually make things work.” n.patchipala@elestoque.org l d.tsai@elestoque.org l y.wu@elestoqu.org
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