In the classroom where I interviewed her, this sentence was on the board, "What makes Michael Jordan such a good athlete?" After the interview, I read that sentence aloud, pondering it, and this student looked at me, eyebrows knitted, and asked perplexedly, "Who's Michael Jordan?"
She's so incredibly smart, but one often forgets that intelligence can't simply translate into years of missed cultural nuances, no matter how seemingly pervasive one thinks they are.
Let's talk about your dad. You said last time that he was mad when he saw your classmates.
He's just shocked to see the school. It's not at all how it is in India or Nepal.
What do you think he’s going to do about that?
Nothing, he cannot do anything.
So next year you'll be here?
Hopefully not.
Why?
People are so bad here. They cannot speak a sentence without swearing. They’re rude.
The welcome center people [who welcomed her to America]–they said this school is a renovated one. Yea, it's very old, the building.
What’s it like for you to go from the order of schools in Nepal to this school.
Uh, it's fun. The studies are very much easier. But it's still not good. Because it was so strict there and here nobody cares.
Who is nobody?
Everyone. They don't care about their studies. Every student. Over there, there used to be one or two. Somehow they would get to work by threatening them, or they would get expelled. If they get expelled from one school, they could not go to another school. I just heard that; I’m not sure if it's true.
I’ve seen people around here, and I don't know how they're not expelled. If it was Nepal they would be expelled a way long time ago.
Is there another reason you don't like it here?
Because I’ve done everything we've done before. I’ve told my dad I want to move on from what I’m studying now. In Nepal it's just more advanced.
[But, and I add that because it's a really crucial but] people are not educated [in Nepal], especially kids. Not at all. They don't have free schools. They have public schools, but they're not as good as here. There was a public school right in front of the school I used to stay and oh my god, tons of students and very small, nasty looking building. Very, very dirty.
So I'm guessing you didn't go to a public school in Nepal.
Of course not.
Who gets to go to private schools?
The people who can afford it. It was like 10,000 [lakh, I learned later] a month for day schoolers, I think. I’m not sure. I saw it from a friend. Mine was like 80,000 [lakh] per month for me cause I was a hostel student there. Everything was so perfect there.
When you saw kids from public schools, what did you think?
Some people, some like poor people, they go to the public school. And very poor people, they go to work on someone's house for money, to feed their stomach. And very, very poor people just stay on the street. There are so many old people on the street begging for money. They can't get food to eat.
What are some similarities with poor people here?
Better here I think because the government gives them money. Enough to eat at least.
What’s the difference between you and a kid whose family can't afford a good school, like some of the kids here?
They swear a lot; they're always busy with phone and chatting. And they're usually mean, I don't wanna judge but still, they're mean.
Why do you think they're like that?
I don't know, mister. They have problems. They’re unhappy.
At this point, I probed her to think of this question deeper. She was, much to my surprise, stumped, so I told her it was her homework to think about it. Also much to my surprise, she finished her homework a mere hour later, but we're getting to that.
Where do you want to live and what do you want to do when you grow up?
I would live in this country, and I wanna become a UN officer. People don't know what that is though.
What is it?
United Nations organization. I would go to countries and visit people. And look how they live and learn their language.
Yesterday they had the exercise game, and they had a question like. "People that speak more than three languages, stand up." And I thought about that when I got home, and I came up with more than three.
Which?
English, Nepali, Hindi, Urdu, a little bit of French too.
I learned French until grade four, and the principal was so mean, and she said I need to do Hindi and French both, but I said, "I can't do that I have too much homework." And so she said, "Fine, then leave French." So I had to stop taking French.
What's your favorite ice cream?
Vanilla.
Why?
I just like it.
...
That was the end of the interview. As we parted, I hoped that she would take my homework to heart, that she would think on why her peers were mean and unhappy. And sure enough, an hour later during a transition, she made a beeline for me through the throng of onrushing students. She handed me a piece of paper that was nearly filled with her fluid cursive penmanship. All she said as she handed it to me was, "I thought about it."
This is what she'd thought about:
Why do you think people are mean and swear a lot if they had a bad childhood?
I think because they have problems and they are unhappy. They might have some family and friends problems or could have low self-esteem. They might be frustrated or unhappy with what they got. Just so many reasons.