Len “Conflict”

Analyzing immigrants’ cultural conflicts in Inside Out & Back Again with the Len “Conflict”

When Ha arrived in Alabama, she found that it was a completely different world. To the local people there, Ha’s family were the only Asians whom they’d ever known, so Ha’s family had some conflicts with their neighbors. We decide to use the Len “Conflict” and the Len “Transformation” from Concept-Based Curriculum and Instruction for the Thinking Classroom to analyze the cultural conflicts that Ha had in the USA, and how Ha transformed when she got used to living in the USA.

Communication

Ha couldn’t communicate with classmates, she was unable to counterattack when she was laughed at.

Interpersonal relationships

Classmates at school

Ha was bullied at school. On the first day of school, the teacher laughed at Ha’s name. Because she thought Ha’s name sounded like the ha in hahaha. Most people had never seen an Asian. Ha’s classmates also made fun of her skin color and her hair, plucked her hand hair, or even mocked her name, and asked her whether she behaved like dogs or tigers. Ha’s name was also ridiculed and treated as a fool. Ha’s long hair was decorated with various hair clips by the girls in the class.

Neighbors

Ha’s Neighbors are also indifferent to them. They threw eggs or even the bricks at the door of Ha’s place, or hung a lot of toilet paper on the door.

When Ha and her family visited their neighbors, they were still not friendly and excluded Ha and her family. In order to fit in there, Ha and her family joined some Christian ceremonies.

Eating

Ha did not know how to have lunch at school. She even thought that Americans were supposed to be making fun of the Vietnamese flag. During lunch break, she hid in the restroom and ate lunch different from others’.

American food is tedious to her. One day, their sponsor brought cascaded fried chicken, and Ha’s family didn't feel good at all because they were used to eating chicken that was being slaughtered.

Learning

English

Because of the different tenses, she thought English grammar was difficult; because she never pronounced the sound of different tenses, she thought pronunciation was hard. In her mind, English did not have any logic at all.

Math

Ha just counted 1 to 20, and her teacher and classmates clapped hands for her. Ha was regarded as an idiot at school.

Conclusion

Although Ha fled her hometown because of the war, sometimes Ha would choose wartime in Saigon over peacetime in Alabama. Coming to Alabama did not make Ha’s life better, she was bullied at school.