Week3_Annie Tang A01

Annie Tang

A01

Week 3

As a genre new to me, autoethnography interested me by combining ethnography with autobiography, defined in the material. In the reading, “Navigating Graduate Education as a First-generation, Hmong American Woman: An Autoethnography”, this genre made the paper appealing and persuasive through a unique voice of author explaining social phenomenon with personal examples.

The main issue suggested in the reading is how the author encountered challenges in graduate school from being identified as a first-generation Hmong American student, a case which I can draw quite a few similarities when compared to my situation. According to the author,  Manee Moua, she was born to fit in the Hmong’s culture that expects women to “speak less and work more” (Moua). The picture below shows exactly how a Hmong woman describe her gender role. Moua resultantly became a typical Hmong girl who compromised and work hard to make her advisor happy. Identified as an Asian female student here in America, I would say my home culture has more or less the same expectation for women. While I also have plans to go higher into graduate school, Moua’s example of failure helped me foresee the drawbacks that are likely to happen in the future. So right now, I believe it will be much better if I learn to speak up for my voice and go more directly to what I want. Meanwhile, I wonder how she would react if her professor continued to assign minor work to her.

 

The paper also inspires me on how to write a paper well. This medium-length paper does not have a complicated conflict or structure and dictions, but it proves to be a well-written one with sufficient description and explanation.  

Reference

Moua. M. (NA). Navigating Graduate Education as a First-generation, Hmong American

            Woman: An Autoethnography. Hmong Studies Journal. 19(1):1-25.

Vang. G. (2015). Gender Roles in the Hmong Community. Retrieved from https://medium

.com/@Gokia/gender-roles-in-the-hmong-community-374433e452f.