تفسیر درس

Roots – Commentary Lesson

Hi, this is Kristin. Welcome back to the commentary for the conversation Roots. First, I would like to explain something that I mentioned in the vocabulary lesson. In the conversation, it was talked about a neighboring state, North Carolina being a neighboring state to Georgia. And I’d said that North Carolina was right next to Georgia and that’s what makes it a neighboring state.

It’s actually, if you look on a map, you see that mostly to the right, South Carolina is right next to Georgia but there is actually a very small part of North Carolina that comes over South Carolina and touches the top or the northern part of Georgia. So you wouldn’t necessarily notice it right away but a small part of North Carolina does touch it. But it might not necessarily be considered a neighboring state because most of it is not right next to Georgia. So anyway, I just wanted to explain that.

Alright, so for this commentary, I wanted to talk about two times in my life where I was uprooted. So the conversation is about roots, having roots, being settled somewhere. So uprooted is the opposite. That means moving, moving from a place where you were really settled. You really had roots in the ground. Remember, I described roots as coming from a plant, the parts of the plant that grow into the ground and keep the plant there.

So the first time where I was uprooted, where I was moved, this was actually not by my choice because I was only eight years old. My family was living in Michigan, my mother, my father, my two brothers, we were living in the state of Michigan which is in the northern part of the United States. And my parents were teachers and they had lost their jobs because a lot of teachers in that state were losing their jobs.

There were just no jobs. A lot of the schools were closing. The economy was doing very badly in Michigan back in the…when would this have been, the late 1970s. So my mother and father decided to move the family, me and my brothers, to the state of Georgia. My dad had a brother living there and he told my…my uncle, my dad’s brother had said why don’t you move your family down here. Jobs are plentiful, especially for teachers. The economy’s doing very well.

So remember, I told you, Georgia is in the southern part of the United States. So I can remember making the drive between Georgia and Michigan. It would take us about 15 hours to drive. So we made that move and, like I said, it was right after I turned eight years old so I was starting third grade. And even though I was very young, I had my roots in Michigan. I was very rooted there. I had friends. I had activities. I belonged to, for example, I was on the swimming team. I was taking dancing classes.

Now, when we moved to Georgia, I joined the swimming team and I also started taking dancing classes, as well as playing sports, so I was even doing new activities. But the swimming team was different. It

didn’t seem to be the same as the swimming team in Michigan. And my dancing classes were different. They just weren’t the same as the dancing classes I’d been participating in in Michigan. Maybe because I didn’t know anybody. I was new.

Also, we moved in Michigan from a very blue-collar area. Blue-collar means, if someone is referred to as being a blue…having a blue-collar job, it means a skilled job, a job that they were able to get training for. Maybe go to school, but it’s not a lot of school is needed necessarily. And so the pay is…it’s okay. It’s not great maybe, considering what kind of job you do.

So for example, a blue-collar job might be a plumber, someone who works on your water pipes like from your toilet or your sink, the kitchen sink. If they get food stuck in them and they’ll come and get, y’know, help with that problem. That’s a plumber. So that would be more of a blue-collar job. So in Michigan it was more blue-collar workers, at least in the area that we were living.

And then we moved to Georgia which was more white-collar. So white-collar means professional jobs, professional meaning a lot of school was involved for the job. For example, to be a doctor or a lawyer, you can make a lot more money. So in Michigan with it being more blue-collar where we were living, and my parents are teachers, those aren’t necessarily, I don’t think teachers are necessarily considered blue- collar workers but the pay is maybe about what a blue-collar worker would make.

You do have to go to college or university to become a teacher, but the pay is not great for teachers here in the United States. So we were, with both my parents being teachers, they didn’t make a lot of money and we were living in an area with people, like I said, who had blue-collar jobs. They didn’t make a lot of money. So we moved then to Georgia to an area where there were a lot of white-collar professions, professionals, people who were doctors, lawyers, dentists, making a lot of money.

So you could say that this area was very affluent. Affluent means very wealthy. These people were making a lot of money. Affluent means, y’know, an area where there’s a lot of money. So that was very different for me and my brothers. We weren’t used to be around, basically, people who had a lot of money, rich people. So that was a big change for us.

It took some time to get used to. We also left a neighborhood, an area, the area where we lived where our house was, there were many houses around us with many families, children our ages we could play with and I remember there would be what we called block parties where, for certain holidays, we would have picnics.

Everybody in the neighborhood would come together and they would bring food and drinks and the children, the kids would play together and the adults would just eat and spend time together and we might play games. It was just fun. The whole neighborhood or the whole are where we lived, all the people coming together, certain times of the year for certain holidays like the 4th of July, for example.

We had that in Michigan so then when we moved to Georgia we were living in a neighborhood where it was more spread out, first of all. There weren’t as many kids and the neighbors just weren’t as friendly with each other, unfortunately. So there were no more of these block parties that we were used to in Michigan where all the neighbors would come together. We didn’t really have that. We did make some friends in our neighborhood but there just weren’t as many children. That was a big, a big change for us to get used to as well.

And another thing was we left our grandparents in Michigan, my mother’s mother and father. They were living in Michigan and they stayed when we moved to Georgia. So we would have to drive, some summers, I remember me and my brothers, we would drive with my mom back to Michigan to visit my grandparents, and that’s how I can remember it was a 15-hour drive. So those were big changes.

And sometimes people think that kids are very adaptable, in other words, they’re able to get used to change quickly. And some kids, maybe. Other times, change for children can be not so easy to get used to. So for me and my younger brother, who is one year younger than me, he was seven, I guess when we moved to Georgia.

It was very difficult for us to make friends, to feel like we fit in. I think my older brother actually, it was a little bit easier transition for him, the move. And eventually I did end up liking my dancing classes in Georgia and I did end up liking the swimming team. It just took time to make friends, to feel like I can let my roots go deep into the ground here, in Georgia. In other words, it took time for Georgia to feel like it was my home.

Another big difference was the accent. There is the Southern accent and I had more of a Northern accent so right away when I started school, I was different from the other kids because I didn’t have the Southern accent. I had a strange Northern accent that they weren’t used to. And it was easy for them to make fun of me then.

Okay, I said that there were two times when I was uprooted in my life, actually I’ve moved around a lot. But that first one was not by my choice and took a lot of time, effort, energy to get used to that move, that particular move from Michigan to Georgia.

So the next, or not the next, another time where I moved and it was a major move for me, where I was uprooted, I was living as an adult in Georgia. I’d lived in other places. I’d lived in Korea. I’d lived in other states, for example, South Carolina, which is right next to Georgia. But this particular time I was actually living back in Georgia, Gainesville, Georgia where I grew up, and I was reconnecting with high school friends, some college friends and also meeting new friends in the area.

And so I had a very active social live. I had many friends. I was dating different guys, having just a great time in my life at that point, at that period of time in my life, having a lot of fun. And then I decided with AJ and with another friend of ours, we all decided to move to Thailand, to Bangkok, Thailand. Now, I was excited to do this. I chose to move. But I will say it was not easy getting used to the move.

Now, I’d been to Thailand before. I knew what to expect. But visiting Thailand for say a month and then actually moving there to live, in Bangkok, those are two very different things, to visit and to live. So here I went from living in a small town, having a lot of friends, very active social life, like I said, to moving to another country. Which I had lived, like I said, I’d lived in Korea already at that time.

But I moved to Thailand and so there’s the language barrier, I didn’t speak Thai. There was…I didn’t have friends. I moved with two friends, AJ and another friend, Todd. But I didn’t have my girlfriends. I had many girlfriends in Georgia. I didn’t have any guys to date. I just didn’t…I went from having many friends to two, the two I moved there with. Big difference.

And I moved from this small, quiet town where I drove everywhere to suddenly I’m in Bangkok, this huge city that’s loud, y’know, very noisy and there’s pollution, but very exciting. And I had no car. I walked everywhere or I took the bus or taxis. Very different lifestyle. And it’s hot year-round. So there were many things, like I said, to get used to.

I eventually did start making friends, Thai friends. I started taking Thai classes to learn the language, which I didn’t get so great at, but I did try. So I was making Thai friends. I was meeting other people from other countries at my Thai school. They were also there to learn the Thai language. So I was slowly making friends. And I even started dating. I met a Thai man and we started dating. So it took some time but I…that move ended up being such a good move for me in my life. And I miss Thailand. I love Thailand dearly and I still go back to visit and still have friends that live there.

Okay, so have you ever moved anywhere at all in your life? Or have you stayed in the same place, growing up? Y’know, I know people here in the United States, American people, who have pretty much

stayed in the same area. I can think of two different families in Georgia. They’ve all stayed there. None of them have moved away, not even to another state.

That’s so different for me because I’ve lived in so many…I’ve lived in different states and I’ve lived in different countries. But there are people who’ve stayed in the same, the same area of the state, same state. That’s what they like. So have you moved around at all or even once or have you pretty much stayed living in the same place in your country? Share with us on the social site. We’d love to hear from you about that.

Alright, this is the end of the Roots commentary. Have a great month and I’ll see you next time. Bye-bye.