Preview

Analysis Of Hmonglish: Transitions Between The Old And New Culture

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
392 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Analysis Of Hmonglish: Transitions Between The Old And New Culture
Heather Mathews
Extra Credit #4
4-9-2007
I attended the lecture, "Hmonglish: Transitions Between the Old & New Culture", which was presented by Bee Lo, Ph.D. I didn't know anything about the Hmong people before this lecture so it was interesting to learn about their history, problems, and culture. They are mostly from northern China, the Middle East (Iran, Iraq, and Syria) and Russia but they don't have a country to call their own. The Hmong people possess many traits unique from the people they live amongst like having lighter skin, pale blue eyes, and narrower faces. The presentation was specifically to inform us of how the Hmong people came to the United States and the struggles they faced with religion, identity, and old heritages as
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Hmong Case Study
    • 1084 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Hmong Case Study

    What do you think of the traditional Hmong birth practices? Compare them to the techniques used when Lia was born. How do Hmong and American birth practices differ? Can you think of any parallel examples of medical or healing practices that you have heard about that are used in different cultures?…

    • 1084 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Summary Of Public Library Services To The Hmong
    • 260 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Summary Of Public Library Services To The Hmong

    Unlike other Asian American stereotypes the Hmong are seen as hardworking but lake adjusting to the American culture and therefore are isolated and struggle to read English.…

    • 260 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Latehomecomer By Kao Kalia Yang: Literary Analysis
    • 594 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Latehomecomer By Kao Kalia Yang: Literary Analysis

    The book The Latehomecomer was written by Kao Kalia Yang. She wrote it after her grandmother’s death in order to tell the story of her family and their struggle against persecution and genocide in the jungles of Laos, for survival in Thai refugee camps, and to fit in and prosper in the United States. The historical-biographical lense is used to examine the life and experiences of the creator of a piece of literature and the broader historical context and events in which and alongside which it was written or takes place. When viewed through the historical-biographical lens the book The Latehomecomer shows the reader that the experiences and struggles of the author and her family parallel those of the Hmong community as a whole.…

    • 594 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Hmong Involvement in the Vietnam War
    • 1915 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Hmong Involvement in the Vietnam War

    In 1945, France controlled Vietnam. However, the communists in Vietnam wanted control, so they fought the French. In 1954, the Geneva agreement ended the fighting and declared Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam independent countries. The agreement also split Vietnam into two countries; communists governed North Vietnam and South Vietnam became a democratic country. North Vietnam reneged and the communists tried to take over South Vietnam, so the American military fought the communists in a battle that became known as the Vietnam War (Barr, 2005). The Hmong in Laos experienced tragic, long-term consequences for their wartime allegiance with the United States by secretly fighting in the Vietnam War.…

    • 1915 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Nogo Railroad
    • 1592 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Nogo Railroad

    The world may have known that there was a war called Vietnam War, however they may have not ever known the aftermath of its war. There had been several thousands of the Hmong people died consequently after the Vietnam War. In comparing the war itself, the Hmong soldiers who died in Vietnam War is less than the death of the aftermath of the war. Hmong people suffered greatly by capturing by the Vietnamese Communist Government after the American troops pulled out, hunger, ambushes and drowning to death in the Mekong river. The former CIA officers have known very well what reason they had recruited the Hmong for the Vietnam War. However, it has been kept secret until now. The help of the Hmong to American troops is known as “The Secret War in Laos.”…

    • 1592 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Becoming An American The Latehomecomer Analysis
    • 584 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Becoming An American The Latehomecomer Analysis

    In 1975, Kao Kalia Yang's teenaged parents fled into the wilderness. They were not yet her parents, had not yet even met each other, yet life in their towns had gotten to be so hazardous there is no option remain. The war in Southeast Asia had attacked their homes, their groups, and their nation what's more now the Hmong individuals were generally chased again in light of the fact that they had helped the U.s. battle its war on their dirt. Like the hundreds of years long history of the Hmong before them, they found themselves at the end of the day without a spot to call home. The question I have been asked to answer throughout this paper was if Kao Kalia Yang was an American or not. From what I have read from the book Latehomecomer Kao Kalia Yang is not an American.…

    • 584 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down Analysis
    • 905 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down Analysis

    Rather than assimilate, many migrated to the highlands of Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. During the Vietnam War, the CIA recruited the Hmong in Laos to fight against communist forces. When the US withdrew its support, around 150,000 Hmong, including the Lees, were forced to leave their homes to escape persecution. The majority eventually relocated to the United States, where they endured slander, violence, and high rates of unemployment. Many of their American neighbors, unaware of their involvement in the war, resented their high reliance on welfare. The Hmong, on the other hand, felt that they deserved this help due to the sacrifices they had made for the…

    • 905 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down Analysis
    • 687 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down Analysis

    She goes into great detail when explaining their history and their beliefs. In doing so she ends up essentializing Lia’s family; by using phrases such as, “the Hmong cannot be assimilated” (Fadiman, P.158), and “Hmong parents are likely to view assimilating as an insult and a threat” (Fadiman, P. 207), she was implying that the Hmong were incapable of changing. It was a fact of them being Hmong that made Lia’s parents incapable of following the instructions on her prescription medication, or not bother to learn English. They weren’t choosing to not change, it was in their nature, and their essence, their…

    • 687 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Hmong Culture Essay
    • 703 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Hmong Culture Essay

    This family is constituted in the world by the ways of their traditional beliefs and values brought with them from Laos. Foua and Nao Kao came to America for the same reasons as many other Hmong families did and that was to avoid the assimilation they were faced with living in Laos. To the Hmong people their ethnicity is everything to them. "They did not come to America to save their lives, they came to save their selves that is their Hmong ethnicity" (p. 183). When Lia gets sick we start to see how this family's values and beliefs are very different from that of the western culture. With her epilepsy we see a clash between medical science and beliefs held by the Hmong. Dan Murphy a resident at MCMC diagnosed Lia with having epilepsy, meanwhile Foua and Nao Kao diagnosed Lia with having the illness "when the spirit catches…

    • 703 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Lee Family Culture
    • 586 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Lee Family Culture

    At a young age, many of use have values, beliefs and ways of thinking instilled into us by our parents and grandparents. As mentioned above, the Hmong people originated from Laos. Their values and cultural traditions were passed on from generations to generations. This spiritual group of individuals, looked at the world differently than many of those in American society. Their lives were made up of many customs, practices and beliefs, which directed their way of thinking. The Lees were exactly this, in that they followed their traditional ways of living even though they were faced with challenge and backlash for many years. It is said that the Hmong are a stubborn group of people, but maybe it is because for many years groups have tried to strip them of who they were. The Hmong “would rather flee, fight, or die than surrender” (p.17). They believed that as a group they were all equal, that “no one was more important than anyone else” (p.…

    • 586 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Assimilation Theory In The Movie 'Grand Torino'
    • 2307 Words
    • 10 Pages

    Assimilation Theory In The Movie 'Grand Torino'

    The movie Grand Torino shows a Hmong family that has immigrated to the US and that…

    • 2307 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Kikongo Language
    • 1098 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Kikongo Language

    In the Kikongo language, nommo means word, but it is also “the force that makes things live as what they are” (Kingsolver 209). Everything is present in this world, but once named, it gives them the life that they are named after. For example, a snake has the life it has because it is named snake, while a chicken is not a snake because that is not what it is named. This is why Adah and Leah live different lives despite being twins; they have different names.…

    • 1098 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Hmong History
    • 825 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Hmong History

    Hmong is a language spoken by about four million people around the world, most commonly in northern Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Burma/Myanmar, and parts of China. According to hmongculture.net, “About five percent of those speaking the Hmong Language actually reside within the United States speaking this and English fluently in certain cities around the country.” This statistic demonstrates the fact that the Hmong language is in danger of possibly becoming almost extinct. Learning about the Hmong language, its history, and the efforts that are put into preserving the language will help people to understand this unrecognized language more and more.…

    • 825 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down Essay
    • 431 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down Essay

    In this essay I will review the question of how the Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down exemplifies the techniques of ethnographic research that we have studied in class. Also I will consider the question if there are ways in which Fadiman could have improved her methods to be a better anthropologist. In the essay I will look at the specific methods and techniques that Fadiman utilized. I will discuss where she conducted her research and also cover how she conducted her fieldwork. I suggest Anthropological studies on cultural difference would have a practical application to Lia’s study for the following fact that the Hmong do not completely believe in western medicine.…

    • 431 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Hmong Education Goals
    • 371 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Hmong Education Goals

    In the United States, the Hmong American community has the largest youth population with half of its population being under the age of 18 years old.In addition, Hmong students have one of the lowest bachelor degree attainment rates across all racial and ethnic groups. Furthermore, there is a big gender difference among the rates in which Hmong male and females attend and complete college. Based on the 2013 Hmong National Development Conference report, roughly 29.9% of Hmong American females reported attending college or graduate/professional school, while only 23.4% of Hmong American males reported attending college. This data only represents the initial attendance of Hmong students attending colleges and not how many actually complete and obtain a degree. Therefore, my short term goal and long term educational goal is to attain my bachelor degree and proceed to graduate school. After attaining my master’s degree, I plan to use my education to create possibilities for Hmong youth. Furthermore,…

    • 371 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More