Tuesday, July 26, 2011

My Mom is a Fob: Earnest Advice in Broken English from Your Asian-American Mom by Teresa Wu and Serena Wu



Here is the authors' definition of F.O.B.:
"The acronym F.O.B. stands for 'fresh off the boat,' and is a term often used to describe Asian immigrants who just aren't quite on track with American culture." --Teresa Wu and Serena Wu


This book consists of examples submitted by readers of their blog that supposedly demonstrate the "fobbiness" of their immigrant mothers. (There is also a blog dedicated to F.O.B. dads.)

Some of the examples are funny, but to me, they don't really show fobbiness exactly. Rather, they show the mothers' struggles with English as a second language, their lack of boundaries between themselves and their children, and the rudeness and insensitivity that erodes self-esteem.

Check it out from the library if you're interested, but I'm not going to recommend it here.

No comments: