Yan's Nonfiction Blog

     Everyone has experiences of being the new kid, as we all have moved from elementary to middle to high school, but in my opinion, the term “new kid”, is used to describe a complete stranger joining an already established social group. In the school situation, unless you moved to a different town, every time you move up a school level, there will always be at least a few of your friends that stay with you. Thus, even though you are the new kid at the school location-wise, socially, you are not actually new.       I was fortunate to experience being the socially new kid only once, when I moved from China to Champaign, Illinois, USA, in 2014. However, making friends and fitting in becomes quite a bit harder when you come from the other side of the world and barely speak the language.      I don’t remember much about my first day at Garden Hills, my elementary school, as it was about 10 years ago. I don’t think I felt scared, a nervous m...

     I often say, “English is my second language, so I have a valid excuse” whenever I misspell or misspeak a word. Even though I say this as a joke, the fact is indeed true, and since I came to the US at age 8 in 2014, I’ve had an interesting history with the language, the biggest of which was me deciding on whether or not I should curse.       Even before I arrived here, I knew a tiny bit of Engish. My mom often tells the story of when I was a baby. My grandmother asked me where the moon was in Chinese, and I did not react. However, when my mom asked where it was in English, I looked at the moon and pointed to it. My mom’s interest in English paired with me going to an “international” school, not that there were any international students; we just learned a tiny bit of English from a Chinese teacher, led to me having a small basic knowledge of English. Thus, I already knew of the infamous f-word even before landing on American soil. I remember saying...