...lifestyle, Suki Kim and her family were forced to quickly adapt the American culture after fleeing their home country. In the biographical essay, Kim explained various inequalities of her new American lifestyle and the difficulties immigrants face when adapting the American culture. Kim specified that were once affluent Korean lifestyle drastically changed. Not only because her family moved to America, but also because her family’s social status changed. Korean Immigrants considered to be “well-off” in Korea were identified and held to a different standard than those in Kim’s new social prominence. Although Kim’s essay is very informal, the information included is extremely informational thought provoking. Overall, Kim’s essay on her transition to America gives a detailed description on how troublesome, yet rewarding an abrupt innovation of American can be. American culture is known for its disparities to other known and unknown cultures around the world. Not only is the American culture divergent, it can also be abrasive to those unknown to its cultural beliefs. For example, Suki Kim and her family were forced to grasp the harsh languages of American society at an early age. In the American culture there is a popular phrase, “Kids can be cruel!” In the essay, Kim described an incident of name calling; in which a peer described her as “Fresh off the Boat” or “FOB”. Not only can children use very harsh language to communicate in American culture, unfortunately, those harsh...
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...America into a culture melting pot, giving it the most diversity people have seen in a lifetime. Although it is a common misconception, these people are not just looking to live in America for working privileges. Their real desire is to become something that depicts pride and honor, an American. Being an American in a country as diverse as ours means more than just living on American soil, it has endless benefits that allows one to feel free. Unfortunately, the rapid flow of immigrants into America has led to many issues. One of the main ones is the concept of assimilation, which has been disputed for years due to the capacity of the incoming immigrants. Jay Nordlinger, in his essay “Bassackwards: Construction Spanish and Other Signs of the Times” notes that not “everyone who comes to America is dying to melt into the pot”. Yet he stresses, as does Linda Chavez in her essay “Supporting Family Values”, the need for immigrants to assimilate to American culture. These two concepts have been floating around America since the first illegal immigrants started to show up and they’ve been controversial ever since. Everyone is looking for a happy medium for the issue but can’t seem to find it. Recent immigrants are being expected to trade their ethnic and national identities for new American identities, and the concept of ‘Americanization’ commences. Is the idea of American culture as a “melting pot” still valid, or are immigrants becoming ‘Americanized’? Being an American means to live...
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...because two cultures disagree and choose to settle it, and the strong culture prevails. African American and Caucasian people used to be exiled for getting married, because they were different. There are millions of different cultures in the world today and every day is an example of how they clash. An author, Mary Louise Pratt, wrote an essay referring to these conflicts. Her essay made it possible to further examine these struggles. In works such as The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and “Family Stories From the Trail of Tears” Pratt’s essay makes it possible to deeply examine the clashing culture and gain insight into how it impacted the world today. Mary Louise Pratt’s essay is called “Arts of the Contact Zone”. She defines a contact zone as a space where two cultures wrestle with each other’s ideas and beliefs. She goes on to discuss how these contact zones have come to help shape society, and how the aftermath is world changing. Her essay provides an excellent analysis of what happens when two distinct cultures come into contact, and most importantly, how that affects others. She also examines the two phenomena that occur as a result of the Contact Zone. One sensation, authoethnography, gives the reader first hand insight into cultures. The other, transculturation, shows what happens after the contact zone. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao takes on an entirely new meaning with the help of Pratt’s tools of analysis. There are two distinct cultures, that of the...
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...Cultural Identity Essay All of my cultures are being a student, being African American, being an aries, being a friend to others, being a daughter and a sister. All of my cultures are great but, the culture I’ve decided to write about is being an African American. Being African American is simply about how close our families are. My family is super close. The reason why I say this is because every year we have parties. For example, every July we have a party for all of my family members that have a birthday in July. My aunty buys all of the birthday people a bouquet or a gift card for food or something like that. That’s what the July parties are for. We also have Christmas parties every year at the same house. There is also a Thanksgiving...
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...odds with a new culture for these two writers, both of them tried to assimilate into the American culture which they immigrated to and longed for getting involved with, by overcoming the inability of fitting in the society while struggling with their own particular difficulties, emphasizing that sometimes you have to do something against your original heritage in order to achieve the assimilation. The author, David Jacobson, of the essay “Reflections: Growing-Up Grown” expresses how grateful he was for his non-English...
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...Differences In Conversation Between Vietnamese And Americans Cultural Studies Essay Conversation is a dialogue using all the possibilities mentioned. The purpose is to reach highest degree of communication, understanding, and, where necessary agreement. Disputes may occur, but they have only the purpose of classification. The leading purpose must be mutual understanding and, in some cases, the attempt to reach agreements if possible and to create pragmatics solutions for conflicts in case of disagreement. (Anindita Niyogi Balslev, cross – cultural conversation, pp 166 - 167). As we know, conversation is communication between two or more people. It is a social skill that is not difficult for most individuals. Conversations are the ideal form of communication in some respects, since they allow people with different views on a topic to learn from each other. A speech, on the other hand, is an oral presentation by one person directed at a group. For a successful conversation, the partners must achieve a workable balance of contributions. Find out more from UK Essays here: http://www.ukessays.com/essays/cultural-studies/differences-in-conversation-between-vietnamese-and-americans-cultural-studies-essay.php#ixzz3LvVR2EAQ The subject matter of a dialogue has influence on its formal structure. There are some fields in which disputation and argument will be an essential part of the argument, and in which procedures for compromising are most lawgiving binding all partners involved. (Anindita...
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...Inevitable Transition from Vietnam to America The aftermath of the Vietnam war was tremendous. Many Vietnamese were relocated, some South Vietnamese generals taking refuge in America. Andrew Lam was the son of one of those generals and he and his family were refugees in American when Lam decided to adopt the American way of life for better or worse. In his essay, “Notes of a Warrior’s Son,” Andrew Lam uses an anecdotal style coupled with reflective diction and symbolism to justify and express his uncertainty with his own cultural transition from a Vietnamese culture, to an Americanized one. Lam began his essay by using anecdotal style, narrating the story of his father leaving Vietnam. He writes that, “he folded away his army uniform, changed into a pair of jeans and a shirt, and, now a stateless man, tossed his gun into the water” (24). By beginning his essay with an anecdote from his father he sets a more personal tone. This tone help the reader feel more sympathetic to Lam’s struggles. In this same quote he began using the...
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...African American's Journey Essay Below is a free essay on "African American's Journey" from Anti Essays, your source for free research papers, essays, and term paper examples. “African American’s Journey to Freedom” Charity Johnson HIS204: American History since 1865 Instructor: Leslie Ruff February 11, 2013 “African American’s Journey to Freedom” To some African Americans it may seem ironic that The United States of America is known as “the land of the free” considering that majority of their ancestors entered the US as slaves. African Americans were brought to North America via the middle passage which originated during the fifteenth century. They were enslaved for approximately 400 hundred years until the end of the Civil War in 1865. Although African Americans were enslaved in America, they were determine to survive and one day be freed in this great country. During The African American’s journey to freedom several significant events took place which was inclusive of but not limited to: The Civil Rights Movement of 1865-1877, Separate but Equal Legislation (Plessy vs. Ferguson court case) in 1896, The Harlem Renaissance of 1920, Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954, The March on Washington Movement of 1963, and The Black Power Movement of the late 1960s and 1970. I will discuss the significance of these events in relation to the African American journey to freedom and how they have help shape American society today. THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT OF 1865-1877 Frequently when...
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...various parts of Italy they were scattered all around the US. This paper will look at the common menu of those Italian migrants and look at how it has involved in the community that is now known as the Italian-American. This essay will mainly try to address the significant issues of the process of ethnic identity. This paper will argue that the role of family is very important in advocating ethnic identity. The influence of a very rigid and traditional family institution helped the Italian immigrants whom in the end were known as Italian American to maintain their identity. This is fascinating because despite undergoing changes from generations to generations their tradition is still very much alive and important to them. The paper will further argue this point by looking, the transmission of ethnic consciousness amongst the Italian American. Last but not least we will look at the maintenance of ethnic group boundaries and most importantly, the role of food in such process. Overall, this essay aims to look at the evolution of the Italian migrants in America and how this has affected their everyday food. This paper will articulate all the forwarded arguments and try to answer the main question of whether Americanization disintegrated the original Italian culture and traditions amongst the migrants or have their community managed to stand by their roots and...
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...In her essay, “The Plastic Flamingo: A Natural History,” Jennifer Price asserts that the United States culture is driven by the materialistic wants of society and the aspirations of the bourgeois family to surpass others, she uses Americans and their obsession over the pink flamingo to support her argument. Price uses diction, irony, and symbolism to additionally express her views of the culture of the United States. The generation that had been raised in the depression began to focus their attention on how to accumulate prosperity, and they began to find new and flashy ways to show off their wealth and success. Thus, creating their mania for the pink flamingos and other materialistic possessions. Her use of a sarcastic and sardonic tone...
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...various parts of Italy they were scattered all around the US. This paper will look at the common menu of those Italian migrants and look at how it has involved in the community that is now known as the Italian-American. This essay will mainly try to address the significant issues of the process of ethnic identity. This paper will argue that the role of family is very important in advocating ethnic identity. The influence of a very rigid and traditional family institution helped the Italian immigrants whom in the end were known as Italian American to maintain their identity. This is fascinating because despite undergoing changes from generations to generations their tradition is still very much alive and important to them. The paper will further argue this point by looking, the transmission of ethnic consciousness amongst the Italian American. Last but not least we will look at the maintenance of ethnic group boundaries and most importantly, the role of food in such process. Overall, this essay aims to look at the evolution of the Italian migrants in America and how this has affected their everyday food. This paper will articulate all the forwarded arguments and try to answer the main question of whether Americanization disintegrated the original Italian culture and traditions amongst the migrants or have their community managed to stand by their roots and maintain...
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...THE STATE OF HMONG-AMERICAN STUDIES (A BIBLIOGRAPHIC ESSAY) By Mark E. Pfeifer, PhD Director, Hmong Resource Center, Saint Paul Editor, Hmong Studies Journal Introduction In the newly published volume Hmong/Miao in Asia, Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, co-editor Nicholas Tapp provides an insightful essay “The State of Hmong Studies: An Essay on Bibliography” which traces the temporal development of research on the Hmong and assesses some of the key works within the interdisciplinary realm of Hmong Studies. Tapp’s essay is very valuable as an overview of the growth of Hmong Studies research based in Asia. Unfortunately, the sections of his piece pertaining to Hmong-American Studies, are, as he himself acknowledges, dated as they are heavily focused on publications from the 1980s and early 1990s. It is the purpose of the present short essay to provide the reader with an assessment of recent developments in Hmong-American Studies and some insights about certain research areas that need further development in the field. Health and Medicine Hmong-American Studies research has grown dramatically since the early 1990s. The Hmong Resource Center library in Saint Paul now possesses more than 150 dissertations/theses and 450 journal articles pertaining to HmongAmericans (as opposed to Hmong in Asia and other countries). The vast majority 1 of these works have been published since 1994. There are certain fields within Hmong-American Studies that have seen very important...
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...Christopher Cox Patricia Huhn English 121 20 February 2012 Education and Language Education and its effects on the individual is the primary focus of the essays by Richard Rodriguez, Leslie Silko, Firoozeh Dumas, and Gloria Anzaldua. Rodriquez’s “Achievement of Desire” illustrates how education can take the place of one’s cultural tradition in pursuit of knowledge. The loss of language is the focus of Silko’s speech, “Language and Literature from a Pueblo Indian Perspective”. “The F Word” by Firoozeh Dumas shows how profound words in one language can be funny in another, as well as hurtful. In “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” by Gloria Anzaldua, she talks about how the education system tried to remove her culture by taking away her language. The two authors take opposite views on education and how it directly affected their lives. While embracing education by becoming a scholarship boy, Rodriquez shows how his desire for knowledge overcame his families’ desire for cultural tradition. Anzaldua expresses her feelings about how education continually tried to forcefully remove her Spanish heritage. The term “scholarship boy” came from Richard Hoggart’s The Uses of Literacy and means that the student must move between two culturally extreme environments during their progression of education. In Rodriquez’s account of his early educational experiences, he demonstrates Hoggart’s core definition of being a scholarship boy to the tee. While finishing his dissertation...
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...and Personal Response In the essay "Se Habla Espanol" by Tanya Maria Barrientos, she identifies her struggles of being a Latina native who does not speak the language. From Guatemala, Tanya came to the United States at three years old, in 1963, with her family and gave up communicating in Spanish quickly. Her parents determined that their children would only speak, read, and write English to fit into what they called the “Anglo Society” (Barrientos, 2011). In her younger years, Tanya herself believed that if she fit in with this society, she could escape the Spanish stereotypes. At sixteen, Tanya’s father decided to send her to Mexico to help her see that being called Mexican was not an insult but more of an honor. Tanya was reluctant to go, but when she did, she found out that she loved the environment and culture. Sending her to Mexico gave her a new sense of pride that she didn't exactly know how to sustain. The author opens the essay registering for a Spanish class for the sixth time. According to Tanya in the wake of expressing her last name, she naturally heard that snippet of delay from the other man on the telephone. She reveals how she feels when people see her or hear her last name, they automatically expect her to speak Spanish. Tanya and her family came to the United States in 1963. Immediately at the age of three both of her parents decided that their children would defy the odds of their Guatemalan culture and fit into the American society entirely. They communicated...
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...College students should not be able to write formal essays in their preferred dialect for the simple reason that there are hundreds of different dialects. If every student decided to write a formal essay this way I am sure that professors would have a difficult time analyzing papers that might not even be understood. In, Border Crossing: Leave your Name at The Border, Munoz explains how his father had to anglicize his name from Antonio to Tony. Doing so, he would be able to be more appealing for better chances of receiving more work. Munoz did not care that he anglicized his name, even though he was not being true to his identity, he knew is that there was more work coming his way. At work, his name would be Tony, but at home and in his heart...
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