Documentary – The children of immigration, here to stay, are the new Americans. How we fare in welcoming them will determine the nature of this country in the 21st century and beyond. In I Learn America, five resilient immigrant teenagers come together over a year at the International High School at Lafayette and struggle to learn about and get comfortable with their new land.
The International High School at Lafayette is a New York City public school dedicated to serving recently arrived immigrant teenagers, with more than 300 students speaking 24 languages from more than 50 countries. The students strive to master English, adapt to families they haven’t seen in years, confront the universal trials of adolescence, and search for a future they can claim as their own. Through these five vibrant young people, their stories and struggles, and their willingness to open their lives and share them with us, we “learn America.”
Available through Kanopy (MDC Library resources)
WATCH: I learn America Duration: 1:32:54
Use at least TWO of the concepts listed below (these concepts can be found in chapter 15) and explain how they are reflected in the film:
- Ethnic consciousness
- The Three-Generational hypothesis
- Transnationalism
- Assimilation
- Symbolic Ethnicity
- The immigration debates
Questions: (Answer all these questions within your essay)
- As you watch the film, consider the ways in which the characters in the film are similar to you, your friends, and your colleagues.
- What differences do you notice?
- When and where might those differences seem important?
- When might those differences not matter that much?
- What does it mean to “learn America”?
- Over the course of the film, how does each student “learn America”?
- What does it mean to be or become American?
- How do people become American?
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