In the essay “The Good Immigrant” by Bich Minh Nguyen she talks about growing as an immigrant in America, specifically in a white-based area.  She talks about her time growing up in schools that were predominantly white, and how she would try and make herself smaller as to not stand out even more than she already did. In the essay, Bich talks about her challenges in a bilingual class, because she was better in English than she was in her native language. In the essay, Nguyen says “I would like to make a broad, accurate statement about immigrant children in schools. I would like to speak for them(us). I hesitate; I cannot.” I think what Bich was trying to say, was that yes she may be an immigrant but her experiences and her past make her unable to. In the essay, Birch talks about how she tried to make herself smaller and make herself invisible. “For, in addition to my excellent marks, I was nearly silent, deadly shy, wholly obedient. My greatest fear was being called on, or in any way standing out more than I already did-“, she writes. I think she believes she couldn’t speak for other immigrant children because she hadn’t liked being an immigrant, so she wouldn’t want to say something that she herself did not do. I believe apart of her was ashamed to be an immigrant. In the essay, she writes ” I have no way of telling what tortured me more: the actual snickers and remarks and watchfulness of my classmates, or my own imagination, conjuring disdain. My own sense of shame”(page 87). So yes, I think the way she grew up and how she treated herself  as an immigrant left her the feeling that she couldn’t make any statements for other immigrant children because she herself couldn’t accept the fact that she was an immigrant.