While reading The Good Immigrant Student, I noticed that Bich Minh Nguyen stated something significant in paragraph 28. Nguyen said, “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.” Through this, she means that there is no way to generally describe immigrant children in school. She says this and later explains that essentially everyone is different and therefore their reaction to being the “immigrant” student can vary. Nguyen uses her sister and herself  as an example to convey her point. In particular, Nguyen described herself as “… nearly silent, deadly shy, and wholly obedient.” However, she goes on and later states, “My own sister, for instance, was never as shy as I was. Anh disliked school from the start, choosing rebellion rather than silence” (paragraph 28). This is why Nguyen could not make a “broad accurate statement”. She witnessed first hand that all immigrant children in school are different resulting in her sister and her. Rather than being rebellious like her sister, Nguyen fought against her mental to be better than those who set bad reputations for immigrant students. For example, “This only propelled me to try harder to be good, to make up for everything I felt was against me: my odd family, my race, my very face”. She was aware that due to her differences, she would get treated differently and people would expect more from her. Nguyen defined and concluded in a way what it meant to be different in her writing. For example, she says “the idea of difference is easy to come by, especially in school; it is shame, the permutations and inversions of difference and self-loathing, that we should be worrying about.” Besides the obvious difference amongst immigrant students and the rest, Nguyen believes there is more to it. It is also having to deal with one’s own thoughts about feeling unworthy or useless due to their difference. Though Nguyen tried to generally describe immigrant children in school, she could not. Being that she experienced with her sister that not all immigrants feel secluded and odd so they try their best to “disappear” amongst the rest like Nguyen did herself, some may become rebellious and careless like her sister. 

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