Olympics and Immigration

Vocabulary

Video

Transcript

Senator Dick Durbin, Democrat, Illinois: “In 1982, a Korean immigrant came to the United States. He didn’t speak English very well. He carried a Korean-English dictionary with him. He had a couple hundred dollars.

He landed in California, and decided he was going to make a go of it here in America. And so he went off to school and obtained a degree in manufacturing engineering technology.

And then he started to raise a family.

In that family was a young girl who showed at a very early age an interest in snowboarding. Her father, this Korean immigrant with no major skills and little proficiency in English, decided that he would help her.

And he did. He made great sacrificed so that she could develop her skills in snowboarding, and ultimately she became one of the best in the world.

As of yesterday at the Olympic Games in South Korea, she was awarded a gold medal because of her skills in snowboarding and the fact that she won this half-pipe competition against the others, some of the best in the world.

This is Chloe Kim.

And Chloe Kim, this Korean-American girl, like Tereza Lee, developed an amazing skill. Today, all across this country, and all across the world, we are saluting this amazing seventeen year old girl and the skill that she developed.

But let’s remember: Chloe Kim’s story is the story of immigration in America.

Chloe Kim’s story is a story of people who come to these shores, determined to make a life. They don’t bring wealth. Many of them don’t even bring proficiency in English, They certainly, in many cases, don’t bring advanced degrees.

They only come here with a determination to make a better life for themselves and a better country for all of us.

Questions

1. Where is this place? Who was the person speaking?

2. The man from Korea came to the US as a doctor on H-1B visa. True or false? Describe him when he first arrived in the US.

3. What did he do in America?

4. The father encouraged his daughter to only study, study and study. Is this correct or incorrect?

5. Did their efforts pay off? Were all their efforts and sacrifice worth it?

6. Is Chloe Kim and her family’s story unique?

7. Why did the man make a presentation of Chloe’s family story?

A. I am an immigrant or a child of immigrants. Yes or no? Do you know anyone who is an immigrant?

B. Who are some successful immigrants in your city or country?

C. Are immigrants and their children on average, more “successful” than native-borns?

D. What will happen in the future?

E. Should there be more, less or the same amount of immigration? What kind of immigration policy should there be?