Translation One

My experience and connection to the LLN writing:

First LLN Draft:

Across the Hall

            It was a random Friday in August, 2016. My mom was in the kitchen packing things away and putting them in the fridge. My sister was on her laptop playing her games or doing assignments. I’m getting ready to join my friends and play games, then all of a sudden we heard our doorbell. My mom tells me to go open the door, but we’re all confused because no one should be here at this hour. It’s around 7 PM right now. I checked the door view, but I saw nothing but a void. I open the door thinking it is probably one of my cousins, but I open the door. I see a familiar face but yet so unfamiliar. It was my cousin, just not the cousin I was expecting, the cousin that’s all the way in Long Island who’s supposed to be in her dorm getting ready for bed. The cousin who I grew up with, who I see as a sister, the cousin whom I was forced to spend a whole month apart from. Seeing her face paralyzed us. I just stood there for three seconds but it felt like 30 minutes, processing the face and the figure in front of us. She just looked at us and gave a giggle, and that giggle broke the silence. EEE’s and AAA’s shouted as we hugged each other and embraced the warmth that was missing for a month.

           She walks inside and as I was about to close the door, I see a creepy figure staring at me with just half her face and her dog at the end of the doorway with half of his face out too. I could see the dark shadows oozing out from the crack of the door that just highlighted their faces. I was in a horror movie, my heart dropped to my stomach. and all I heard from my grinch neighbor was a  ‘shush’, and  ‘or I’ll tell my dog to bite your brown asses, stanky ass motherfuckers.’ And then she slams her doors. She made sure that she was loud, loud enough for me to hear her but not others. I didn’t know what to say at that moment. I just stared at her door like the emoji of a man standing. My mom shouted from the living room to come inside and to join everyone. I wanted to say something, but I didn’t want to ruin everyone’s mood so I just let it go. 

            My cousin decided to go upstairs and surprise her parents, as we said goodbye and I was closing the door I let my mom know what our neighbor said. I have never seen her so furious. Actually, I lied when I didn’t do the dishes or my chores. I’ve seen her go all psycho, but not furious like this for outsiders. Instead of closing our door she kept the door wide open as if she was welcoming an invisible guest. She started talking to my neighbors closed door as if my neighbor was standing outside listening to everything that she was saying. She said ‘if somebody has something to say, they can say it to my face. If somebody has a problem, they can say it to my face. If somebody has shit to say about what I do in my own apartment that I pay for they can say that shit to my face. And let’s see what that ugly Chihuahua can really do.’ And I think the last part about her ugly Chihuahua really struck a nerve for my neighbor. She knows her dog looks just like her. They are identical like twins. She slammed her door open. She told us that we were yelling and shouting and disrupting her, and my mom argued back saying that we hear her yelling with her parents all day long as if she owns the place. She lives with her parents. Rent free. It was a cat fight or a dog fight. I don’t really know, her dog was barking, She was barking, We were talking, but we were laughing. With our commotion all the neighbors from upstairs and downstairs came to our floor to see the show of the night. It wasn’t really surprising to see how many people in this single apartment were also fed up with our neighbor. Apparently, she has been giving shit to everybody in the building who are not white or not Hispanic like her. Even her own Hispanic friend who lives downstairs on the third floor was also sick of her. It was really a cherry on top to see her parents, her son who was in 5th grade at that time, and her 15th boyfriend of the month apologizing to us on behalf of her “childish behavior”, as her son claimed. Not really a shock, counting us this was her 6th fight of the week, we were on the 5th day of the week. Friday. She had another fight with someone on the 6th floor earlier that day. He was black. He really tore her a new one with his creative insults. 

            This was not her first time making a slick comment to us. I had five other family members living in the building all on different floors, she wouldn’t say anything to me or my cousins because she knew we would be able to defend ourselves but today I was too stunned when she said it straight to my face but when i saw the fire in my mothers tongue I knew holding back today would give my neighbor the bill of rights to constantly disrespect us. We will be giving her a red carpet to walk straight towards any minority’s groups and to make continuous comments about the food we make, about the clothes we wear, the culture we celebrate, the religion we follow, and about the uniqueness of our roots and our ancestors. Even if it’s not perfect, one word is enough to fight back. 

Final LLN draft:

Across the Hall

            It was a random Friday in August, 2016. My mom was in the kitchen packing things away and putting them in the fridge. My sister was on her laptop playing her games or doing assignments. I’m getting ready to join my friends and play games, but suddenly we heard our doorbell. My mom tells me to open the door, but we’re all confused because no one should be here at this hour. It’s around 7 PM right now. I checked the door view, but I saw nothing but a void. I open the door thinking it is probably one of my cousins, but as I open the door. I see a familiar face but yet so unfamiliar. It was my cousin, just not the cousin I was expecting, the cousin that’s all the way in Long Island who’s supposed to be in her dorm getting ready for bed. The cousin whom I grew up with, who I consider a sister, the cousin whom I was forced to spend a whole month apart from. Seeing her face paralyzed us. I just stood there for three seconds but it felt like 30 minutes, processing the face and the figure in front of us. She just looked at us and gave a giggle, and that giggle broke the silence. EEEs and AAA’s shouted as we hugged each other and embraced the warmth that was missing for a month.

            She walks inside and as I was about to close the door, I see a creepy figure staring at me across the hallway with just half her face and her dog at the end of her doorway. I could see the dark shadows oozing out from the crack of the door, and the flickering light that highlighted their faces. I was in a horror movie, my heart dropped to my stomach, and all I heard from my grinch neighbor was a  “shush,” and  “or I’ll tell my dog to bite your brown asses, stanky ass motherfuckers,” and then she slammed her doors. She made sure that she was loud, loud enough for me to hear her but not others. I didn’t know what to say at that moment. I just stared at her door like the emoji of a man standing. Even though I could speak, for those seconds I was mute. My mind was rushing with words in Bangla but my brain twitched, unable to translate them fast enough. All these years of learning English and communicating with people just ran out of my soul. I was not only speechless but I was back to being the new kid in 3rd grade who didn’t know how to properly introduce herself. My mom shouted from the living room to come inside and join everyone. I wanted to say something, but I didn’t want to ruin everyone’s mood so I just let it go. 

            My cousin decided to go upstairs and surprise her parents, as we said goodbye and I was closing the door I let my mom know what our neighbor said. I have never seen her so furious. Actually, I lied when I didn’t do the dishes or my chores. I’ve seen her go all psycho, but not furious like this for outsiders. Instead of closing our door she instructed me to keep the door wide open as if she was welcoming an invisible guest. She started talking to my neighbors closed door as if my neighbor was standing outside listening to everything that she was saying. She said ”If somebody has something to say, they can say it to my face. If somebody has a problem, they can say it to my face. If somebody has shit to say about what I do in my own apartment that I pay for, they can say that shit to my face. And let’s see what that ugly Chihuahua can really do.”And I think the last part about my neighbor’s ugly Chihuahua really struck a nerve. She knows her dog looks just like her. They are like identical twins. She slammed her door open. She told us that we were yelling and shouting and disrupting her, and my mom argued back saying that we hear her yelling with her parents all day long as if she owns the place. She lives with her parents. Rent free. It was like a cat fight or a dog fight. I don’t know, her dog was barking. She was barking. We were talking but laughing. 

            For a second I forgot that my immigrant mother was the main person talking. My immigrant mother who would always ask us to translate whenever she would come across a facebook post that wasn’t in Bangla, or to make her doctors appointments on her behalf, or to help her put her words together for work or when she had an interview. At that moment I felt proud and embarrassed. I was proud of my mother who did not hesitate if her English was perfect or not, what mattered to her at that moment was protecting us from a future conflict with my neighbor and to make sure she thought twice before saying something again. I was embarrassed of myself for not being able to use the language that I left my mothers language for. This language that everyone wants to learn and speak I had the privilege to use. But for the crucial moment the only language that I was able to utter was my mothers language, Bangla. 

            With our commotion all the neighbors from upstairs and downstairs came to our floor to see the show of the night. It wasn’t really surprising to see how many people in this single apartment was also fed up with our neighbor. Apparently, she has been giving shit to everybody in the building who are not white or not Hispanic like her. Even her own Hispanic friend who lives downstairs on the third floor was also sick of her. It was really a cherry on top to see her parents, her son who was in 5th grade at that time, and her 15th boyfriend of the month apologizing to us for her “childish behavior”, as her son claimed. Not really a shock, counting us this was her 6th fight of the week, we were on the 5th day of the week. Friday. She had another fight with someone on the 6th floor earlier that day. He was black. He really tore her a new one with his creative insults. 

            This was not her first time making a slick comment to us. I had five other family members living in the building all on different floors. She wouldn’t say anything to me or my cousins because she knew we would be able to defend ourselves, but today I was too stunned when she said it straight to my face. However, when I saw the fire in my mothers tongue I knew holding back today would give my neighbor the bill of rights to constantly disrespect us. We will be giving her a red carpet to walk straight towards any minority groups and to make continuous comments about the food we make, about the clothes we wear, the culture we celebrate, the religion we follow, and about the uniqueness of our roots and our ancestors. Even if it’s not perfect, one word is enough to fight back.