September 28th, 2011 by Rachel | | No Comments »
Sophia, I’m glad to hear that you finally finished watching the first episode of Switched at Birth. I can appreciate too the scenes regarding the arguments between Kathryn, the wealthy mom, and Regina, the middle class mom, about allowing Daphne, the deaf girl to ride the motorcycle with Emmett, the deaf guy because the safety of riding mopeds and motorcycle has been brought up in conversations between my parents and me. While we don’t see a whole lot of mopeds and motorcycles in London and also in the States too, but if you travel to other parts of Europe such as France and Italy, you will notice that mopeds and motorcycles are extremely common like in China. Since my first trip to Europe, I’ve always been fascinated by mopeds and motorcycles and have told my mom that I’d love to own a moped as it’s cheaper than owning a car and it’s more environmentally friendly. At the time when I asked them, I was a high school student who wanted to have the independence of going to places, including school. My parents had hectic schedules as my dad was working full-time and my mom also had to take care of my two younger siblings, and thus, I had lack of freedom of choosing when I could go to places. There were a few times when I wanted to go to school early or stay late so that I can meet with teachers to get some extra help or participate in school activities, but I couldn’t because my parents could not pick me up. Public transportation is very lacking in Atlanta where I grew up. During the first two years of high school, I took the yellow school bus almost everyday, which was free, and the problem with the yellow school bus was that it went from the stop near my home to my school only once every morning and same for afternoon, only once from school to the stop near my home. Cars were expensive for teenagers to afford although some are able to save up some money or some other teenagers’ parents will buy them one. I will not deny that I did beg my parents A LOT to own a car. It wasn’t because I simply wanted a car. Like I said, it was simply because I wanted the independence of being able to get around my town with ease. So, owning a moped, which is a lot cheaper, should be a viable solution right?
However, my mom and my dad, especially my dad, are totally against the idea of my riding a moped because they think they’re dangerous. My dad even told me that I was not to ride on any mopeds during my trips to Europe. This is a very typical American view of mopeds and motorcycles, especially for those coming from American suburban life like the Kennishes, the wealthy family. I have an American friend living in Italy who told me the last time I visited her that she was not going to allow her son to ride a moped even if most of his friends do.
It is true that that mopeds and motorcycles are more dangerous but there are valid points to why they still exist for both cultural and financial reasons. Even though the western part of Europe is very well developed like the States and many families live in very comfortable homes, gas price is extremely high, much much higher than in the States, and so, mopeds provide cost-savings advantages for many people there. Also parking is extremely limited in throughout Europe and so, mopeds allow people to have easier time to find parking as it doesn’t take up as much space as cars require, and roads are extremely narrow in many parts of Europe and so, mopeds allow people travel through the roads more easily. Plus, many people in France are very concerned about the environment, much more so than in the States and so, many prefer to ride a moped as it uses much less or no gas. I’ve actually asked my mom if we were born, raised and living in Europe, would she allow me to ride the moped. She paused for a moment and then said, “I’d likely have a different view if I were an European.” And here’s the thing…many people in America says it is perfectly OK to ride bikes on roads…The irony is that riding bikes is just as dangerous as riding mopeds!
So, for my reasoning wanting to own a moped rather than a car was because it is more affordable for a teenager to own it and of course, it is environmentally friendly. At the end, I ended up owning a used (second-hand) car as my parents and I agreed that I would save up as much money as I could, which I earned through allowances, babysitting, and birthday and hanukkah gifts and my parents would help me pay for it. I drove myself to school and everywhere in my town throughout my junior and senior (3rd and 4th) year in high school.
Sorry that I got off tangent here, but the subject of mopeds and motorcycle is a really hot topic in the States.
I agree that money is important and can in some way provide a better quality of lifestyle such as better quality of health care and education and also greater conveniences such as my example of owning a car. I do totally agree that money does not always bring in happiness. Look at Tiger Woods, a famous millionaire golf player who had affairs and divorced his wife. And Lindsay Lohan, a movie star, who has been arrested several times. And Britney Spears, a pop singer, who has been on drugs, arrested, and temporarily lost the custody of her children. There has even been a few cases where people who win a lottery and say that they wish that they could go back in time and not purchase the lottery ticket at all because suddenly having millions of dollars made them less happy.
Since you asked me if I were a poor Chinese girl, what my life would be like, the first and the only thing I can imagine is that I would likely not be able to hear and speak as I would not have the technology, cochlear implant or would not have gotten it until later in life, when it is too late as it is much harder or almost impossible to learn to hear and speak at an older age. Cochlear implants didn’t come to China until 1997. I hear that rehabilitation for children with hearing loss hardly exist in China. Rehabilitation is extremely important as we can’t just put the cochlear implants on our ears and expect us to magically start being able to speak and hear well. We have to go through rehabilitation to train our brain how to hear with the device so that we can learn to speak too as we learn to speak through hearing. Because my parents were so involved in my life, I know that even if the technology did not exist, they would still find a path to ensure that I still had access to communication and education. They would both learn sign language and teach them to me and join a community where I would be surrounded by people utilize sign language so that I would not be lonely and have access to social life. Life would certainly be much harder as my access to communication would be limited, but I think we would make the best of the best, and I would still find my own happiness. I know that many deaf people who were born prior to the invention of cochlear implants and utilize sign language to communicate still lead very fulfilling lives.