Adapting to a new culture is never easy, especially if it does not happen at a very young age. Even though it is not easy, if the person is able to adapt, it can bring so many positive outcomes by understanding two completely different cultures and being able to appreciate them in different ways. This is the story of someone who was able to embrace both cultures and countries, while both being very different.
Azing Chin moved to the United States when she was 11 years old. Stories of people adapting to a new culture are common now but not necessarily here at Lafayette. While those stories are common, we often hear stories of people coming from Europe for example. While moving from Europe to the United States is a change, it is not a drastic change to say that the person’s world changes completely and is overwhelmed. Azing did not move from Europe. She was born in Burma and lived in a town called Hakha, with a population of around 35,000 people. We do not often hear stories about people from Burma, a country with a rich and complex history. The two countries are very different in many aspects that adapting to a new culture and way of living can never be easy. I personally had to adapt to a new culture as well but I came from France therefore it was not that hard. I did not struggle much because even living in the United States I went to a french school and therefore had an easier way of adapting. On the other hand, Azing had to go right away to an american school without speaking any word of English. I think it would be interesting to really explore how she was able to adapt so well without losing touch of the culture she had grown up in.
Through this interview, my goal is to bring light to both cultures and what both have to offer and to show how someone is able to embrace cultures who are very different and not forgetting one of them. I also think that it would be interesting to bring light to a country we might not know a lot about and the best way is through someone who was born there and lived there. By asking questions such as Azing’s favorite memory about growing up in Burma and what a typical day is in Burma compared to the United States, I hope those questions lead to understanding how she sees both cultures and what they have to offer. I also hope that through those questions we understand how she came to adapt to a new shocking culture. Through b-roll of pictures with her family in the United States and in Burma, we might learn that is through her family that she is able to still keep close to the culture she was born in.