Family works together to make life work in Logan
For a family with no knowledge of English, newly separated parents and a foreign culture to adjust to, Logan is a scary place.
When Susan Chen packed up her three children and quickly left their home in Kaosiung, Taiwan, the young family was not prepared for the adjustments their new life required.
“My parents had a really big fight one day and the next thing I knew, we were all on a train going to the capital,” Tony Wang, 18, said of the 1995 move from his home and father. “By the time my mother decided to move and bring all of us kids to Utah, times were very dark. It was almost like we had a plan, and the plan was to escape our own home, our father – my mother’s husband. My dad wasn’t a bad guy. He just didn’t know how to manage his anger and responsibilities as a husband, a father and as a son to my grandfather.”
The spur-of-the-moment move brought Kevin, (now 22), Jackie, (now 24), Tony and Susan to live with an aunt, uncle and cousins near Adams Elementary, where Kevin and Tony attended school.
“I learned that elementary students are horrible people,” Tony, now a freshman at USU, said of his initial experiences in starting second grade. “I learned lots of racist terms I never even knew existed – and not just for Asians. A group of kids kept telling me to call this black guy the ‘n’ word, but I just kept saying, ‘What does that mean?'”
Quick to note that not all of his experiences at Adams were negative, Tony said he eventually made friends that he remains close with today.
“My friends have seen me grow; they’ve taught me everything from English, how to roll my tongue and how to not be afraid to speak,” he said.
Other than learning from friends and using the typical English as a Second Language program, Tony said the school had an intern who spoke Chinese and a teacher who tried her best.
“Despite our language barrier, she always did great figuring out my confusions and hand gestures,” Tony said of his most memorable teacher, who he knows only as Mrs. Muir.
Though he knew some English words when he first started at Adams, Tony said he didn’t know how to make them into phrases or sentences.
“I would have to go to the bathroom and not know where to go. I’d have to whisper something like ‘teacher – peepee’ and all the kids would laugh,” he said.
Adapting to a new language also meant taking on a new name for each member of the Wang family.
“My real name is Hsin, but Americans can’t figure out how to pronounce that,” said Kevin, a USU graduate in accounting and economics. He emphasized the tendency to pronounce it as “shin” instead of sin.
“So my aunt gave me the name Kevin,” he said.
He said his aunt tried to give each member of the family an American name that reflected their personalities, but not everyone agreed with her choices.
“My aunt gave my sister a name she hated – like Miriam or Maryann or something – so she just changed it to Jackie because she liked the way it sounds,” Kevin said, laughing.
Of all the members of the family, Tony said Jackie, who started high school at the time of the move, faced the most difficult adjustment.
“Every Friday and Saturday, Jackie had to work at the restaurant and Kevin did a lot of the time, too,” Tony said of his siblings’ long hours at their aunt’s business, Mandarin Garden in Logan.
“While the two worked on those days, their peers were out doing what teens do – hanging out, playing, going bowling, etc.”
Besides having a harder time making friends, Tony said his brother and sister’s social adjustments were also hindered by language difficulties.
“I got to stay home on weekends and learn English by watching TV and singing with school music programs,” Tony said of his first years in Utah. “Both my brother and sister had a harder time than I did because they were older, so their Chinese was more developed.”
And even after more than a decade of living, working and going to school in Logan, the struggle to become fluent in English isn’t over.
“Jackie is working so hard. Even in her spare time or on breaks, she’ll pull out a dictionary and just sit down and learn vocabulary,” said Tony, who is thinking of majoring in English. “She is only not even in her mid-20s and she already owns her own restaurant, Royal Express, while also going back to school at USU, taking online courses in business management.”
Kevin, Tony and Susan can also be found at Royal Express at 880 S. Main on almost any given day. The Wang family comprises all but one of the staff who run the business, make, dish and deliver the ready-made or specially made items on the Royal Express menu.
Between working and living together in Logan for the past 11 years, the Wang family has gone through hard times and big changes, Tony said. Citing a language barrier caused by age differences as a key factor, Tony said he didn’t feel connected to his family for a long time.
“After the move, my mom would tell me I’m more ‘Americanized’ than the rest of the family because sometimes I would feel like eating a hamburger or because I hung out with white people,” he said. “I didn’t ever know what they were talking about and it seemed like they didn’t care to hear from the ‘American’ in the house.”
Since then, Tony says he’s improved relations with his family by learning to see both sides of every situation – including what their situation could be like in Taiwan.
“I remember how bad it was in Taiwan. Even little kids had knives at school,” he said of the blades all students used as pencil sharpeners. “I remember watching 4-year-olds having knife fights at school. We were wild kids in Taiwain; we never listened to my mom, but my dad’s glad we are here now – being good kids.”
After spending 11 years in Logan being a good kid, saving some money from his job at Royal Express and earning a bachelor’s degree, Kevin says his U.S. experience is complete for now.
“It is time to get out of Logan,” he said of his plans to go back to Taiwan in August. “I want to teach English and look for other business opportunities.”
And even after more than a year of two meals a day plus leftovers every night, Kevin still can’t get enough of the food at Royal Express.
“I get sick of the food for a time, but then I want it again,” he said, noting that the most popular items are not authentic, but instead “made up for Americans,” like tiny spicy chicken. “When I went to Taiwan in October, I lost six pounds – but I was surprised that I really missed the food here.”
-lindsaykite@cc.usu.edu