When I was in Hong Kong, I had already chosen to focus on the sciences-track. All of my classes were science-oriented since Form 4 (10th grade). By the time I came to the US, I had not touched any social sciences and art classes for more than two years, with the exception of economics. I was not happy when my guidance counselor had told me I had to catch for the required classes I need to finish to graduate from a high school in the school district, which was a full year of US government in the ninth grade and US government in the tenth grade.
I ended up taking US history as an eleventh grader with a tenth-grade student I was shadowing for the first few days. The student happened to be a boy from Hong Kong as well. His name was Andy.
Andy was quite an extrovert from the first impression. He had only been in the country and attended the Annapolis Senior High School for a year, but he appeared to know a lot of people. The other students were also quite friendly to him. After spending a day or two with him, I had realized he was not the “elite” group of students back in Hong Kong. In fact, he admitted he was doing pretty bad in Hong Kong. He had dyed his hair blonde, which was a forbidden sin in any Hong Kong schools. His parents had finally sent him to live with his uncle in Annapolis, Maryland, in the hopes of shielding him from the mental and behavioral corruption of a big city. I tried not to be judgemental with his past by not mentioning much of my own. At that time, he was the only person I could talk comfortably, and I would not risk losing his friendship.
My oral English wasn’t that horrible when I first came to the US. I just preferred to be quiet and by myself. Being an introvert in a new country had driven me into a deeper corner. There were days I did not talk to anybody in school. I did not see a problem there. I was just observing the crowd.
The crowd.
For many years, I had only been aware of the Caucasian and the African American population in the US. Well, that’s what TV shows and movies had shown me. But the crowd had a third population that I was completely not aware of.
“What are these people speaking?” my inner voice keep asking. It appeared my universal translator had broken. I couldn’t understand a single word they were saying.
“Hola! Andy! Como Estas!” a male student was approaching Andy and me at our lunch table.
“Hola, Jose! Como Estas!” Andy replied.
I could only try to smile at the male student, but I was clueless.
“Jose is from El Salvador! A lot of students in our school are from El Salvador. A few are from Mexico. They all speak Spanish here. If you get a chance, you should take the Spanish class!” Andy must had seen my clueless face and proactively briefed me on the situation.
I had no idea where El Salvador was. However, I knew where Mexico was! But I again had no idea of everyone in Central America spoke Spanish. “He is from central American, but he speaks Spanish?” my inner voice questioned. It felt like I was being asked to draw a picture on the spot, but I could not even recognize some of the colors. I had so many missing pieces in my mind at that time. The appearance of this new group of people, or officially being called the Hispanic population in the US community, was one of the biggest surprises.
The story and the relationship between the North and Central America slowly unfolded in my US History class, or I should say in my readings of the US History Book.
The two semesters of US History was nothing like the classes I had had in Hong Kong. The two different male teachers in US History A and B (first and second semester) were both very genuine persons, but they seemed to have given up hopes of teaching some of the kids in the class. I later found out it was because I was being put into a regular US History class, instead of one with an “Honor” designation.
The regular US History class wasn’t as chaotic as what I saw in the Boston High for the majority of the time. Most of the time, the teacher asked us to read a specific chapter of the book and to complete a piece of the worksheet by the end of the class period. The teacher would just sit behind his desk and read his own material. In the first semester, I was in a class with a lot of Hispanic students and Andy. The class atmosphere was quite uplifting most of the time. The occasion class disruptions were because someone made funny comments on something in Spanish. Every Hispanic student laughed. Sometimes Andy would laugh along. I had no idea if he actually knew what had been going on or if he was just playing along. I certainly was once again feeling being alienated. It was even more ironic on this occasion because I was being alienated by other resident aliens.
The second semester of US History was very different. I had another male teacher for the class. I cannot remember his last name, but I remember he was slightly bold and looked like the famous actor Jack Nicholson. He also had a daughter that was in the workforce already. Andy and I were not in the same class anymore due to a change in schedules. Everyone in the class was, in fact, completely different. All of the Spanish chattings had vanished. I was in a class in which the majority was African American. The only unchanged component was the reading and worksheet exercise and my practice of daily silence. I remained quiet in the class, especially when I was in a room with all the Klingons. I was cautious the entire time. I would never want to offend anyone of them.
The reading of the US History book was unexcited as usual. Although, I was told to read the history of the 20th century. I sometimes went back to read the stories describing the US colonial age. I was more eager to understand the reasons and the process for the uprising of the colonist. Why did the Americans not wanting a King? How did the thirteen colonies expand into a country stretching from coast to coast eventually? These were much more fascinating stories to me than reading the Great Depression, the Prohibition, and trying to figure out who the initials were belonged to, such as the LBJ, FDK, and JFK.
The early history of America was so tightly knit between the Spanish and British Empires. The voyages of Christopher Columbus was as fascinating as the exploration of the Milky Way Galaxy in Star Trek. The crew sat sail to the great unknown, to explore the places where no man had gone before. They were the same. In fact, there were too many parallels between the actual history and the fictional plots in Star Trek.
In my last chapter (Chapter 2 – First Contact), I had mentioned if the Europeans were the Vulcan, then the Americans would be the rebellious Romulan. That was an analogy of the two groups of people in modern times. Looking back at history, the conflicts between Spain and England from 1585 to 1604, or the so-called Anglo-Spanish War, were so similar to the conflicts between the Vulcan and the Andorian in Star Trek. The Andoria planet was located in a neighboring system to the Vulcan planet and had a lot of disputes over colonies and territories. This was precisely the same event between the neighboring Spanish and British Empires during the colonial era. The similarity extent even beyond the Vulcan and the Andorian. The Romulans also had an invasion against the Andoria colonies. In reality, it was called the Spanish-American War in 1898! I was once again impressed by the brilliant mind of Gene Roddenberry.
The majority of the second semester US History was just reading on our own. However, one day the teacher put up a videotape of Hong Kong for us to watch. It was a production by ABC News at around 1997, the year of the British hand-over of Hong Kong to the PRC (People’s Republic of China). I remember the video described the high efficient capitalism and business environment of Hong Kong. The show host had spent only three days from getting a business license, signing a short-term lease agreement to opening a small shop in a shopping center. The video host praised the prosperity of Hong Kong and had hoped this would continue after the hand-over, as promised by the Sino-British Joint Declaration.
I noticed some students had fallen asleep by the boredom of the video. I was wide awake. It was interesting to see Hong Kong from the American news media’s point of view. At the conclusion of the video, the teacher pointed out one key fact.
“Anyone noticed what the corporate tax rate was in Hong Kong?” the teacher asked us.
No one answered, partly due to half of the class had fallen asleep. Honestly, who would have paid attention to the minute detail presented in the video?
“It was only at fifteen percent! Can you believe that?”
He then spent the rest of the class time expressing how he felt about the unfairness of the US taxation system. He complained about how his daughter’s six-figure pre-tax salary had to be taxed so much before reaching her own pocket. His face had begun to turn a little red as he kept bashing about the system. He then went on to talk about even more politically related topics.
I thought that was unusual for him. I had actually never seen or heard him acted that way. Thinking back, he could be complaining about the taxation system around the tax-return filing time. It makes so much more sense to me now as I have been paying tax for a few years. I would not say the taxation system is unfair, but it is definitely more painful compare to what my parents had paid in Hong Kong.
The following day was unexpected as well. The teacher continued the topic of discussion of the day before. He used the taxation system to extrapolate the topic to the fundamental differences between the Democrat and the Republican.
“That is something new!” I thought to myself.
My understanding of both political parties was minimal at that time. I still don’t understand much now. However, I grew up hearing the booming economy during the Clinton Administration. Then the Democrat must presumptively be better at managing the money! I guess there is no right answer to which party is better at what. Though it was clear that the teacher must have a flavor over the Republican over the Democrat form the way he talked. He was the first person in the US explaining to me the “Small government, low tax” approach of the Republicans and the “Big government, high tax” approach of the Democrats. It was an eye-opening lecture. I still remember clearly what he had told the class that day. Although he didn’t convince me to be a Republican nor persuaded me to hate Democrat, he certainly had provided me with the foundational knowledge of the two major political parties in the US. In the past seventeen years, his words have continued to resonate in my mind when I try to interpret different economy-related policies proposed by both parties. I still refer back to his explanation of the parties for the majority of the time. This political knowledge was undoubtedly unexpected from a US History class.
