Paper Tigers
Bianca Duarte Bianca 01
Professor Barclay Barrios
ENC 1101
October, 8 2013
Paper tigers All our lives we are told succeed. To do something meaningful with our lives. To be the very best that we can be. But how do we achieve this satisfaction of a personal achievement? What are the key factors to help us succeed? And why are some unable to achieve such success. We keep such strong ties within our ego centered networks and this will restrict from developing the social skills we need to break through our own bamboo ceilings. Risks need to be taken, social interaction needs to happen, and you need to be the best of the best. Wesley Yang’s writing, “Paper Tigers”, shows how Asian Americans are unable to achieve this high success that they want to achieve. We can take his advice written for Asian Americans and intertwine it with ideas from Malcom Gladwell and his writing, “Small Change”, and Rebekah Nathan’s writing “Community and Diversity”. With insight from all three of these writers, we can achieve that success we all long for. At a young age, we were told to always listen to an authoritative figure. To not speak up and to keep our opinions to ourselves. Wesley Yang makes note of how this affects Asian Americans from advancing in the real world. He writes, “So let’s say I go to meetings with you and I notice you never say anything. And I ask myself, ‘hmm, I wonder why you’re not saying anything. Maybe it’s because you don’t know what we’re talking about. That would be a good reason for not saying anything. Or maybe it’s because you’re not even interested in the subject matter. Or maybe you think the conversation is beneath you.’ So here I’m thinking, because you never say anything at meetings that you’re either dumb, you don’t care or you’re arrogant. When maybe it’s because you were taught when you were growing up that when the boss is talking, what are you supposed to be doing? Listening” (541). Being taught to listen, we listen. We do not ask
Professor Barclay Barrios
ENC 1101
October, 8 2013
Paper tigers All our lives we are told succeed. To do something meaningful with our lives. To be the very best that we can be. But how do we achieve this satisfaction of a personal achievement? What are the key factors to help us succeed? And why are some unable to achieve such success. We keep such strong ties within our ego centered networks and this will restrict from developing the social skills we need to break through our own bamboo ceilings. Risks need to be taken, social interaction needs to happen, and you need to be the best of the best. Wesley Yang’s writing, “Paper Tigers”, shows how Asian Americans are unable to achieve this high success that they want to achieve. We can take his advice written for Asian Americans and intertwine it with ideas from Malcom Gladwell and his writing, “Small Change”, and Rebekah Nathan’s writing “Community and Diversity”. With insight from all three of these writers, we can achieve that success we all long for. At a young age, we were told to always listen to an authoritative figure. To not speak up and to keep our opinions to ourselves. Wesley Yang makes note of how this affects Asian Americans from advancing in the real world. He writes, “So let’s say I go to meetings with you and I notice you never say anything. And I ask myself, ‘hmm, I wonder why you’re not saying anything. Maybe it’s because you don’t know what we’re talking about. That would be a good reason for not saying anything. Or maybe it’s because you’re not even interested in the subject matter. Or maybe you think the conversation is beneath you.’ So here I’m thinking, because you never say anything at meetings that you’re either dumb, you don’t care or you’re arrogant. When maybe it’s because you were taught when you were growing up that when the boss is talking, what are you supposed to be doing? Listening” (541). Being taught to listen, we listen. We do not ask