On Life, and Passing the Naturalization Exam

An email from a former undergrad student I thought I’d share:

Dear Professor Hing,

It’s been months since we’ve last talked about naturalization and the possibility of changing names. I’d thought I should give you an update since then.

Neither my father nor I changed our names. My father simply decided not to. I was told by my interviewer that I had to go to court, made some notes on the application and continued on with the session. I’m still not sure if they’ve changed their policy on name changing, but oh well. It was still a great moment when we both passed.

Just as a side note: I know that those over 50 years of age are asked more history questions than about the government. However, even I, nevermind my father, could answer this on the spot: who was the second president of the United States? Then again, I wasn’t surprised that I couldn’t remember facts that I’ve last encountered in high school.

Our oath ceremony was yesterday morning. It was announced that there was over 1500 people to be sworn in and about 100 that never showed up. Overall, I felt like I was sitting still for too long. However, the video shown about Ellis Island was interesting. And apparently, America is not a melting pot or a salad bowl, but a stew pot. When the ceremony was over, everybody was rushing out the doors to deal with their social security and passports.

Then we celebrated over bowls of pho. It was delicious.

As for now, I’ve graduated and been unemployed for a month now, doing odd jobs for my parents. The current stunt is fence painting in 80 degree heat. I’ll start looking for jobs again, when I give myself some motivation. Constantly hearing that I should find a job that pays at least $20 per hour is disheartening. I’m still trying to figure out a way to tell my mother that I will not become a financial analyst.

Have a good school year!

Sincerely,
[former student]

bh