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Assimilation has a cost. As a third generation Chinese American, NPR Short Wave's Emily Kwong is rediscovering the language her father once knew, and what that means for where she comes from.
Emily Kwong is host and reporter of NPR s
Short Wave podcast. Michael Zamora/NPR
NPR Short Wave host and reporter Emily Kwong is a third generation Chinese American, but she s never spoken her family s language.
Until now. At age 30, she s trying to learn the language for the first time, and unpacking why she never learned it in the first place.
NPR
YouTube
Emily s father, Christopher Kwong, stopped speaking his first language Mandarin Chinese when he was five-years-old. Born in New York City in 1958, he struggled to communicate with his kindergarten teacher and classmates.
Emily s grandparents, Hui and Edgar Kwong, were worried he would fall behind. They stopped speaking Mandarin to Christopher at home, and dedicated themselves to teaching him English.