Reconnecting with linguistic heritage can reframe how a person values immigrant parents’ success.

Evidence

Sami’s mother was overjoyed. “Oh, my God, Sami!” she said. “Your Arabic is getting so much better, so much nicer. You know exactly what you’re saying.” He was speaking a lot more Arabic now, and he felt himself changing. How stupid he’d been when he was younger, he told me. “Why did I shy away from my culture?” He reflected a lot on his parents during this period, thinking about their incredible success. They had come to the United States with nothing, and now they have a $4-million house and his father has his taxi medallion. “All this for a man with no high-school education!” — Moustafa Bayoumi, How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? Being…, 267

Categorization

• DEFINE: Illustrates the emotional mechanism by which language recovery rescripts family narrative.