Setting: New York, Chinatown, School, Chinatown Learning Center
Characters: Mei Mei, Bing, Nancy
Theme: Trust others, It's alright to be afraid
This is a story about a Chinese girl named Mei Mei who doesn't like English. She was smart in China, but her and her family moved to Chinatown in New York. School was all in English and the letters were nothing like Chinese. Chinese was fun to write. Mei Mei refused to speak in school since she would have to speak in English. She went with her cousin Bing to the Chinatown Learning Center. There she would teach other kids math since numbers were the same in both languages, and she could also speak Chinese there. She would help around there and write letters to people in Chinese, but she would have to put the address in English. She had a dream one night that she was on a plane with her friends and family speaking Chinese, and then she went on a trip with the Learning Center to Jones Beach and spoke Chinese. She had a great time there and only spoke Chinese. One day a woman named Nancy came to help Mei Mei at the Learning Center with English. She read Mei Mei a story in English about a family moving to California in a covered wagon. Mei Mei didn't have words for covered wagon in Chinese, and she didn't want English to have words that Chinese didn't. She began to cry, and Nancy said they would stop. She had a bad dream that night that she saw her friend Yee Fong, and she didn't remember her. The next day she was mad. She even said, "I don't care," in English to Nancy. Nancy said she knew that Mei Mei knew English, she just didn't want to learn it. She said that was too bad because everything in America happened in English, and she also wanted to get to know Mei Mei. Mei Mei said she was sorry, and then they went on a walk together. Nancy talked and talked until Mei Mei yelled, "Stop!" She wanted to talk now. She told Nancy about things in Hong Kong in English. They laughed together and had a great time. Now Mei Mei talks in Chinese and English.
