LEARNING STILL LEARNING
“Truly a masterpiece.” -JWCN industries
By: Chingun Erkhembayar
to her grandchildren.
It is an early spring morn-
ing and Bayankhuu Shagdar is cooking a traditional Mongolian meal. She goes to grab a Gold Medal all purpose flour and mixes it with First Street brand milk. Although she is using American brand products, she is still trying to make Mongolian meals out of them, striving for the perfect balance of American and Mongolian culture. Shagdar’s cooking mirrors many aspects of her life: learning English, while maintaining her Mongolian; making Mongolian food, but using American products; and trying to adjust to American society as she endeavors to maintain her Mongolian traditions. Her efforts are ultimately for the benefit of her granddaughters and grandson. “I wish one day to be able to speak to my children in English” (Shagdar). She wants to be closer
Bayankhuu is an elder who came to the land of the free because of her grandchildren. She is trying to learn English in order to help her daughter take care of her children. Although she is from a unique cultural and linguistic background, her reasons aren’t different at all. “In 2010, more than one in eight (11.9 percent) U.S. adults ages 65 and older were foreign born...” and Ms.Higley who is a level two English teacher at the Adult education center, said,[a] “I see a lot of them coming in usually because they want to support their family. That’s the biggest thing because they don’t necessarily need to work anymore so it’s not like what you would use for work. It’s to support the younger generation in the Unites States” (Higley). Bayan takes “helping the younger generation” to the next level. So she still tries to get a job. She is a very energetic 60 year old grandma, who goes out for a walk every morning at 6:30 a.m. She always has to be doing something. When she isn’t taking care of her granddaughters, she has frequent visits to many different malls, from San Francisco to San Jose. She gets to places by taking many buses and trains. Although she knows she is only capable of having very small talk, she still tries her best to be a functioning member of society, “Even on the streets, I can say “Hi, How are you” to strangers and make myself hap-
py” (Shagdar). She doesn’t let the fact that she is part of of a small community of only 5,000 Mongolians stop her from getting herself getting out there and using her English. From where she learned at the Adult Education center which she goes to every weekday evening. It wasn’t always just wake up, walk, take care of children, and school for her. She had a husband and 2 children. A daughter named Saruul (the daughter she helps) and a son named Soyol (the song that stayed in Mongolia). Her husband’s name Davaasuren Chultem, he was fighter jet maintenance engineer. “I am so proud of him and he was humble and smart caring person. The real man” (Saruul Barrios (Bayan’s daughter)). He sadly passed away from liver cancer in 2002. Then her daughter Saruul left for
ter Saruul left for America to look for a better life, but due to financial circumstances, she was not able to take me, her son, with her. So he was left with Bayan. She spent taking care of him for around roughly 4 years with her son, Soyol. They both managed to make sure I didn’t see any sort of struggle. From the fact that Davaasuren would never come back, to the fact that we weren’t making it rain money. Although this Bayan and Soyol followed this path very well, I as the child, ended up a bit spoiled. I grew up very dependent, admitting that he needed help. I also grew up to be a very self-centered child who wouldn’t help her poor grandmother learn English. Today, I do help, but it’s not up to “expectations”; what Bayan wants more than anything in the world is for this fact to appear here: “...you don’t help me out. It would have helped if you helped me out” (Shagdar). This was directed at me. I can’t do much for her since I lost a significant amount of Mongolian while learning English.[b] I also try to help her, but I get frustrated by the fact that I can’t help her as much he would
want. Bayan has a very hard time trying to learn the English grammar and pronunciations. That doesn’t stop her from trying to talk to everyone in English, although that gets shut down Saruul and me. We prefer her to speak Mongolian. Another reason she is having a hard time learning English is that the only people who can translate English to Mongolian, are the same people who shut her down. Her English teacher supports her where she need it. Sandy Cutshell said, Bayan is a very sweet, friendly person, which makes her a great student and classmate. Her attendance is excellent in my class and she sits in the front row EVERY day. She is highly motivated to learn and, even when she struggles with something, she doesn’t give up. It’s also great to see that she reaches out to the other (mostly younger, mostly Spanish-speaking) students in
class
to practice their language skills together. (Cutshell) Bayan although certainly immature at times, is a very respectable and thriving grandmother. Through all the obstacles Bayan has at
home and at school, she managed to get a job of babysitting. She takes care of Sam. While she takes care of Sam, she also has to take care of her granddaughters. Bayan has to double task all the time while they are her responsibility. Taking care of children is not easy, they need constant attention to make sure that they aren’t up to anything sketchy. So while taking care of multiple
for America to look for a better life, but due to financial circumstances, she was not able to take me, her son, with her. So he was left with Bayan. She spent taking care of him for around roughly 4 years with her son, Soyol. They both managed to make sure I didn’t see any sort of struggle. From the fact that Davaasuren
would never come back, to the fact that we weren’t making it rain money. Although this Bayan and Soyol followed this path very well, I as the child, ended up a bit spoiled. I grew up very dependent, admitting that he needed help. I also grew up to be a very self-centered child who wouldn’t help her poor grandmother learn English. Today, I do help, but it’s not up to “expectations”; what Bayan wants more than anything in the world is for this fact to appear here: “...you don’t help me out. It would have helped if you helped me out” (Shagdar). This was directed at me. I can’t do much for her since I lost a significant
amount of Mongolian while learning English.[b] I also try to help her, but I get frustrated by the fact that I can’t help her as much he would want. Bayan has a very hard time trying to learn the English grammar and pronunciations. That doesn’t stop her from trying to talk to everyone in English, although that gets shut down Saruul and me. We prefer her to speak Mongolian. Another reason she is having a hard time learning English is that the only people who can translate English to Mongolian, are the same people who shut her down. Her English teacher supports her where she need it. Sandy Cutshell said, Bayan is a very sweet, friendly person, which makes her a great student and classmate. Her attendance is excellent in my class and she sits in the front row EVERY day. She is highly motivated to learn and, even when she struggles with something, she doesn’t give up. It’s also great to see that she reaches out to the other (mostly younger, mostly Spanishspeaking) students in class to practice their language skills together. (Cutshell) Bayan although certainly immature at times, is a very respectable and thriving grandmother. Through all the obstacles Bayan has at home and
at school, she managed to get a job of babysitting. She takes care of Sam. While she takes care of Sam, she also has to take care of her granddaughters. Bayan has to double task all the time while they are her responsibility. Taking care of children is not easy, they need constant attention to make sure that they aren’t up to anything sketchy. So while taking care of multiple children at once, you have to keep your eyes on those multiple children while also making sure that they don’t do the multitude of things that they could be doing. She does this at the age of 60. It is an early summer morning, Bayan begins the day with a walk with her friends, through streets and forests of Mongolia. Then she comes back home to her son and his wife and two daughters. She opens the milk bag that she picked up from a fresh milk distributor cart stand. Then puts it in the pot on the oven while having the UBS (Ulaanbaatar station) channel playing on the
tv. After setting the heat level to low, she goes to her awakening granddaughters. She goes to them before Soyol and his wife wake up. They are hungry. So she pulls out traditional Mongolian dried milk products. They nibble on that for a while[c]. Then their parents wake up. They then go to the kitchen where Bayan just finished up breakfast. It’s eggs, milk tea, and bread with butter and jam. Bayan will be going back to golia in is
MonMay. She going to be missed.
“How is the food?(shagdar)”[d]
Work Cited Shagdar, Bayankhuu, “Bayankhuu Shagdar Interview.” Personal Interview. 27 Mar. 2016. Higley, Nicole, “Nicole Higley Interview.” Personal Interview. 28 March 2016. Cutshell, Sandy, “Sandy Cutshell Interview.” Personal Interview. 30 March 2016. Scommegna, Paola. “Elderly Immigrants in the United States.” Elderly Immigrants in the United States. Population Reference Bureau, October, 2013. Web. 22 Mar. 2016. Profile of General Population and Housing Characteristics: 2010 Census Summary File 2, Mongolian alone or in any combination (465) & (100-299) or (300, A01Z99) or (400-999)”. American FactFinder. United States Census Bureau. Retrieved 8 October 2012. Barrios, Saruul, “Saruul Barrios’ Facebook messenger.” Personal interview. 22 April 2016.