The United States is commonly known as a melting pot of nations, where people from all over the world have immigrated to form a homogeneous but diverse culture. Although we come from different ethnic groups, we are usually bound together by our common English language. This becomes a problem, however, when immigrants are unfamiliar with English and American culture and instead attempt to keep their heritage alive. They are often torn between identities through language, the one they speak at home, which they know well, and the one they must adhere to in public. Many others question identity because of the way people see them and the vernacular that portrays them. This often leads to fights and conflicts on both sides, dealing with different cultures and how people react when assimilation occurs. For this reason, living in the United States often requires us to fully accept only one identity, although hints of the other may sometimes emerge. Language often serves as a barrier for people to assimilate into American culture. People of different cultures in the United States struggle to find the balance between adapting to American culture and at the same time keeping their heritage alive. Maxine Hong Kingston explicitly states that as a child she had difficulty expressing herself through the English language, especially at school. He states, “It was when I discovered that I had to speak that school became a misery, that silence became a misery” (Kingston 239). Although she had difficulty integrating into “American school,” Kingston felt comfortable and much more comfortable in her after-school Chinese classes. He says the Chinese-American students, once shy and fearful, “read together, … middle of the paper … and expressed themselves in a world they couldn't truly relate to. In any case, a sense of fear can often overcome the true ability to realize the identity linked to the language, and often even to more than one language. Because of the clear struggle between maintaining two languages, our identities are never truly aligned. with one culture or another unless complete assimilation occurs. Even then, the inevitable events of how the other party sees you could affect how you continue to see yourself. Language therefore shapes your identity, in the sense that there is a realm of culture that you can understand, but struggling with two languages, or two backgrounds in many cases, also prevents us from maintaining clear aspects of our identity, as assimilation ultimately it leads to either a mixed understanding of a certain culture or complete disdain for another.