Jean Kwok's Girl in Translation

Girl in Translation
by Jean Kwok


Tired, penniless, and in the mercy of her aunt, Ah-Kim Chang, known as Kimberley in America, clutched onto her mother's hand, who doesn't speak any English. They just arrived to New York from China. Kimberly's aunt, who funded this trip, "generously" gave them an apartment to live in and a job to work in. The cramped apartment was condemned and infested in roaches and rats; it's unbearable to live in. The job at the Chinatown clothing factory forces Kim's mother, once a successful piano teacher, to work long hours for pennies. Indebted to her aunt, Kimberly and her mom agreed to these standards. Readers are exposed to the hardship of a new immigrants life, and as the book transitions to when Kimberley becomes a teenager, it becomes a coming-of-age story that leaves readers realizing that, maybe, light will always be found peeking through a seemingly dark room.
Girl in Translation weaves what it means to be an immigrant with family values, a sense of duty, and hope for the future. Although this is a work of fiction, Jean Kwok, also a Chinese immigrant, incorporated much of what she endured when she moved to America in this novel. Like Kimberly, she was penniless at her arrival, and her parents were forced to work in sweatshops. She lived in poverty, basically taking the description of the protagonist's apartment from her childhood apartment.
This novel kicked off my summer reading project. I loved how she incorporates the accents of Kimberly and her mother in their dialogues. Kimberly speaks and understands a Chinese schoolgirl's English; she understands most words, but struggles constantly. Thus, Kwok writes the dialogue the way Kimberly hears and interprets it. I was forced to be in Kimberly's place, feeling the sense of disorientation and bewilderment she feels. Jean Kwok puts you in Kimberly's worn shoes with ease, especially when you were an immigrant like her. Coming from Seoul, South Korea, I never distinguished myself as being different from everyone else...until I took ESL classes. I know how that feels: the shame and embarrassment of not being fluent in English. However, even through I was discouraged and felt "slow," I persevered and took regular classes in middle school. I sacrificed, however, my once fluent Korean. Still, this book truly inspired me to teach myself Korean every night, and even use a silly approach as to set the language on Facebook to Korean. Kimberly taught me to embrace and be proud of my oriental background, and that through hard work and persistence, you can move mountains.