By telling a story of Lee’s mother, the author demonstrated that the native people looked down upon foreign people who had difficulties to live in a new circumstance and could not speak English well to express what they wanted and thought. With the discrimination from the native people, Lee’s family struggled a lot in this community. The audience is the people who did not show respect to the foreigners and did not help them overcome the difficulties.…
her by widening her horizon. From this story, it cannot deny the fact that language could cause problems, but it can be solved by trying to embrace new culture and apply them in life. By combining the two readings, it can be concluded that by eliminating language boundaries, accepting new ethnic culture with different language can be positive and also can expand people’s…
Nguyen open up with her article by explaining her way to live in Grand Rapids, Michigan as an immigrants students. She also describe living with family on a gray house on Baldwin Street, she was living with her Father, Grandmother, three uncle, her sister and her. The life was hard living because they have to deal with paranoid and struggles. It was a new world for her and her family so they were trying to adapt in this situation. For the author, living in America was confuse, she felt like living in America was a treat or her warning for people of her type. Specifically for Thai people. The author also described how she was forced to speak English. At first, she thought that they were trying to make her forget her first language so she could only speak English but she was wrong. She also realize that kids like her was living a mixture of language. They were speaking Thai at home and English at school. She felt like that way will affect a lot of things in her abilities to speak two language and it will be confuse for her. The author show us that she was a little bit curious about the living style of others kids. There is a day, she was on her way back to home, and she missed her stop bus so she had a long ride in downtown and discover the living style of other kids. The author says he was a good experience for her because she saw that some kids was living a good life and some was living a bad life. Those are the things who make her realize what is really living in America. The author also described her high school experience. She talks about the transformation from the struggle of her identity to her simply not caring of her identity. She also talks about how she discover to adapt and overcome some trouble, she achieve it by being a good immigrant students. Specially, being active in class and confidents. The author also described her…
People who emigrate to a new country often find themselves a minority in that new country. Emigration describes leaving a country to settle in another; Immigration denotes coming into a new country as a permanent resident. For example, from Vietnam’s perpectives the boat people were immigrants from Vietnam to United States, but in the United States they were counted among this nation’s immigrants. (Chapter 1. of Racial and Ethnic Groups)…
Chapter eight discusses the migration of the Chinese in the 1800’s. These migrants were looking for a peaceful place to live from than China. In China there were conflicts caused by British Opium Wars. While British Colonialism was pushing the Irish population west across the Atlantic, it was also pushing the Chinese east across the Pacific. Another reason for this migration was that they were getting away from the chaos of peasant rebellions. Along with all of this, there was an economic crisis. Most of those who migrated were men, temporarily working in America. They were illiterate and hardly went to school but they had high expectations for themselves.…
Like past immigrants who came from Germany, Ireland and other places around the world. Chinese people in America faced many challenges when migrating. They felt like outcasts. Some experiences for the Chinese were in racist encounters and the feeling the way that Nazli Kibra felt when she came to America. She had always thought of herself as an American when she thought of herself as “the American kid on the block,” (Source F) until she went to school and she felt outcast and that “Whites think they own the world and the rest of us are just here for them.” (Source F) They felt as though they did not fit in in America. For Kibra, the Americans that she noticed at her school were people who were “VERY white, very wealthy. These kids owned sports cars and went to Rio for the weekend.”…
I think also that these aspects apply in today’s society. When people think to immigrate from their own countries they…
When Amy Tan falls in love with the minister’s son at the young age of fourteen, she takes for granted what her mother was trying to show her about life. Young Amy’s trying to impress her boyfriend by appearing as a traditional American girl not wanting to appear in any way Chinese American. Tan, still not experiencing life yet, had not grasped that being different is what makes someone who they are. It wasn’t until many years later that she came to realize that all her mother was trying to express to her was that she should be proud of her Chinese heritage. “But inside you must always be Chinese. You must be proud you are different. Your only shame is to have shame.” (117) She was not appreciating the diversity of different cultures and how both cultures have their own richness and value. Tan was embarrassed the whole time at Christmas dinner when she was trying to impress her young love Robert not realizing that her mother was making the meal for her. “For Christmas Eve that year, she had chosen all my favorite foods.” (117)…
Growing up as a child of immigrants, I felt trapped between two worlds. I was often referred to as a ‘Twinkie’ (yellow on the outside and white on the inside). It never really bothered me up until recent, and I’ll tell you why. Being Asian-American had always been a confusing part of me. I was born on American soil, but raised in a strict Thai household. I’ve always been proud of my heritage, but I had a hard time feeling as if I belonged somewhere.…
The pain and the suffering, the oppression, and the exclusion all describe the history of Asia America. When they arrived to the United States, they become labeled as Asians. These Asians come from Japan, China, Korea, Laos, Thailand, and many other diverse countries in the Eastern hemisphere. These people wanted to escape from their impoverished lives as the West continued to infiltrate their motherland. They saw America as the promise land filled with opportunity to succeed in life. Yet due to the discrimination placed from society and continual unfair treatment by the government, the history of Asian American was being defined and written every day they were in America, waiting to be deported because of the complexion of their skin. Striving everyday to conform and mix with society, the Asian American faced constant rejection and exclusion from the American way of life, defining the history of Asian America.…
As one of the economic super power nation, the United States of America is a place where many immigrants leave their homeland to come to. Among all these immigrants group, Chinese immigrant is a huge percentage throughout history and the first group of Chinese immigrants into American dates back to between 1849 and 1882. During that period of time, Chinese citizens felt civil disorder, poverty, and suffering in their homeland under Qing dynasty in 1840s. In order to escape the absoulte monarchy, they got opportunities to coming to American for build railroad as well as the gold rush in California. Unfortunately, when this group arrived American society, they faced much difficult issues with the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. However, Chinese improved their communities and united…
When the people of Asian came to American for reasons such as a better life for their families, more income, and a better education they stood out because of their focus, hardworking efforts and high respect for their elders. One of the biggest stereotypes toward the Asian race is the success they have in an educational environment by achieving high test scores, academic awards and punctual about turning in all work assignments. Education for Asian children is a major reason why most immigrants come to American because in American it is easier to better education and a greater chance to succeed in life. Many adults in American was taken by surprise when they realize how respectful Asian children and adolescents had toward them. For many Asian…
Beginning a new life and forming a new identity in a foreign country is not an easy task, we as immigrants usually face challenges to identify ourselves in a new culture which is very different from our own. Identity formation is the development of one's distinctive personality due to particular reasons such as a new environment, a new culture, new language and new life style. During this process; we can either create or deny the bond with our own culture. Based on The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiris, this paper intends to explain and explore the process that we have to go thru in order to blend in the different culture when we come from a foreign country to the US, just like Ashima struggles through language and cultural barriers as well as her…
Her mother, who emigrated to America from China and her “limited” English and how she as her daughter “ was ashamed of her English”. And the daughter who grows up in the United States, but, thus, she emphasizes the problems of a multicultural personality, for an example “why there are not more Asian Americans represented in American literature” and “ in creative writing program”? The author shares her family memories of “language of intimacy” between her and her husband, and the experiences of the language search located on the border of cultures, for example during her writing career.…
Despite the similarities there are also many differences. Rodriguez comes from a Latin background in which both parents speak Spanish and Tan comes from a Chinese background. Tan grew up in American Chinese culture and embraces societies language (English) while being able to preserve her intimate language. Unfortunately, Rodriguez faced many obstacles due to the language barrier and was not able to preserve his intimate language. The authors purposes for the essay’s are to show the importance and influence that language has on…