Coming To America From A Foreign Country

Being a Cuban immigrant has provided me with a unique bicultural perspective that has become my support system in the United States. For the first eleven years of my life, my culture was composed of music and dancing. In every street corner of my hometown, there was a group of seniors playing domino and close by, their grandchildren dancing to the Salsa music being played on the radio to pass the time. The hardships created by the communist regime are overshadowed by memories of my mother teaching me how to sew and by my paternal grandmother teaching me how to enjoy a strong Cuban coffee.

Enmanuel Raposo 11/02/2014 ELL 095 Chapter 20 It Take 2 Generations for Immigrants to Become Successful The essay by Joel L. Swedlowb titled, "Changing American" was published in the September 2001 edition of National Geographic. The definition of change is making a difference or becoming different. Joel L. Swedlowb is a prominent scholar, an author, and a journalist, who formerly served as a senior editor of National Geographic. In his essay, Swerdlow describes J.E.B. High School in Virginia as a representative of the evolving cultural identity of the United States. The focus of this essay is how immigrants have changed American. Joel L. Swerdlow, in “Changing American,” demonstrates why it takes 2 generations become successful: Language, Culture, and Economy. First of all, Language is one of the big problem that a second generation take when people come to another country (please) in "Changing American" by Joel L. Swedlowb tell us ' 'In 1990 some 32 million U.S. residents spoke a language other than English at home, and more than 7 million lived in households with no fluent English speaker over 14 years old. ' ' It is a problem for the second generation to be successful because their parent doesn 't help them in their home in the language. For a young children have little difficulty with English, learning it in elementary school at the same time they learn to read. For many students who are beginning to learn English, and only starting to read at the age of fourteen to

obstacle that I have ever faced, especially with the fact that there was a time where I didn’t

Children and adults from different backgrounds may speak a different language to the majority of

For many immigrant families moving into the U.S the culture shock is significant. Families can easily be overwhelmed by their need to fit into their new surroundings. This is especially true for children in these families. It is easy for children to get caught up in the American way of life, and that can cause the original culture to be forgotten. That is why the adults in these families have to enforce their native culture on their children, so the adults can make sure that those customs are not forgotten.

On the other hand, here in this country my life also has been influenced by my age. Two years ago, a job was denied because of my age. I applied for a job as receptionist in an electronic company and I fill up the application and turned in, after the lady read it she told me that the position was only for women of 30 or younger. Then I asked her why they did not post that on the newspaper announcement. My language has influenced my life since I arrived in this country. I faced the language problem when I tried to communicate with other people especially with my children’s teachers and doctors. All the time that I wanted to communicate with their teachers and doctors I have to wait for a translator. Another way that language has influenced my life was when I got my first job in McDonalds. Since the first day at work I realized that the only way to succeed in this country was learning English. I attended many schools to learn English, but I did not understand the teachers because they did not speak Spanish and I did not understand any word of English. During the process of learning English, I was promoted as casher in

In “Se Habla Espanol” by Tanya Maria Barrientos, speaking multiple languages at the time of Barrientos being a child, was not perceived as a bonus on your job application. When she was just three years old she was moved to the states and her parents completely stopped using Spanish and taught their children English. They did this in order to provide a better education for their children in America. They knew that if they spoke Spanish, they would be perceived as poor individuals. Barrientos stated; “If I stayed away from Spanish, stereotypes would stay away from me.”(Barrientos 646) She knew even as a young child that people around her pegged their family as “Mexican”, which would mean inferior. She wanted to feel white so she could fit into society. Today, America teaches languages in schools. They want children to be bilingual because there are more opportunities in the world for people who speak multiple languages. However, stereotypes still exist and are very common in a lot of areas. Where I come from, people speak in a Southern accent. People tend

Imagine waking up in a house that is not your home. You do not know what the morning routine is, what is eaten for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, or even know what is and what is not appropriate behavior. In the movie Coming to America which was directed by John Landis, Eddie Murphy’s character, Prince Akeem, is in for a cultural shift when he decides to move from Africa to Queens, New York in order to find his princess. In the film, Akeem is exposed to how Africa differs from America when he discovers the differences in power distance, work ethic, and the value of money.

“Empirical studies also show that some immigrant parents sometimes fail to implement effective bilingual education because they firstly, are unable to keep speaking continuously at home out of habits when living in a foreign country; secondly, they fail to push hard enough for education; and thirdly, they try to help but do not know how” (Fan-Wei 115). Often times when children start going to a new school and make new friends, they get used to talking in the language spoken at school (their non-native language). Therefore, when a student starts learning a new language, they tend to practice it as much as possible and start talking to everyone they know in the new language. This causes the child to not speak enough of their mother tongue and eventually forget how to read and write it. On the other hand, parents may fail to make the effort to teach the child their native language because they are so focused on having their child and themselves excel at the new language. This causes a lack of connection or familiarity between the child and language that their parents

Humans rarely change their ways; they stay in their own worlds and always interact with the same types of people. Unfortunately, this habit often creates unseen barriers that divide and alienate human beings from one another. In Luis Alberto Urrea’s book The Devil’s Highway, Urrea provides a personal perspective to immigration by telling the story of 26 illegal immigrants, known as the Wellton 26, who are abandoned as they cross the Mexico-U.S. border. Through their story, Urrea proves there are invisible borders among people that create prejudice, such as language, ethnicity, and economic status. By reading The Devil’s Highway, it is clear that these barriers must be broken down to ensure harmony within society.

Raised all my life in Puerto Rico and then transferring to America was a great challenge. I had to overcome various difficulties in order to adapt to new ideas, cultures, and lifestyles. One of the obstacles I encountered was adapting to school. Since I was five my parents wanted me to imbibe the English language in order to have an exceptional future filled with opportunities, but when I arrived all my hard work in learning English did not seem to matter at my middle school. I arrived in this country thinking I was going to be in the most challenging classes and be at the top but reality smacked me in the face the first day I entered eighth grade. To my disadvantage the counselors did not care about my previous grades in Puerto Rico. Seeing that my parents were only able to speak Spanish, the school deduced my English was not well-developed enough and consequently I was placed in English-language learner (ELL) classes. After testing me in reading, writing, and hearing I was

The United States is a place of freedom. We are a mixing pot that unifies as one. Many religions, cultures, and languages make their home in the Unites States. Many foreigners see the U.S. as an opportunity to seek better lives and education, but when it comes to foreigners and native-born non-English speakers that do not yet know English, it becomes a little more difficult to go about an average day let alone make a better future. Children in school often become English Language Learners, or ELL, to assimilate to the American standards. It is a hard journey for both the students, families, and the teachers. But, their journey is not taken alone since there are about 5 million English language learners in the United State.

Immigrant lives in both Fruit of the Lemon and ‘reality’ hardships mostly share similar endurance. Many immigrants are stuck in two different cultures; their original culture and the new culture that they adopt in a new place. However, some immigrants only have a chance to adopt a new culture. Some immigrant family’s children were born in a country other than their native country. In Fruit of the Lemon, Faith is a person who lived her whole life without her native culture which was hard for her to understand her fellows race. Yet, she could not stands watching her people get hurt in front of her. Before going to Jamaica, where she clears her mind about the confusion, she had about the whole culture problem that led to her depression, she was

We believe that teachers and parents are struggling to make their students and children involved in a different community from their original community. Because these students have different cultures, languages and values from their teachers who are doing their best to meet the needs of all international students (Shurki & Richard, 2009). The schools across the country today are looking for ways to welcome and assist immigrant families because they become a big part of their communities. So how these effect on each of students, teachers and parent?

By being forced to comply with the cultural norm of the country you are being denied of the opportunity to explore your own culture. Not being allowed such a vital part of your identity might lead to a lack of self-understanding. It is extremely important to be able to explore one’s culture, to know what you subscribe to and what you do not. That way you figure out whether you identify with the culture or not, thus creating your own sense of cultural identity. Identity development is highly important, and being stripped of it creates an abundant number of problems. Depression being one of the largely common ones. This is also associated once more with discrimination and stereotypes. In a study conducted by the department of Psychology of the New York University on how culture affects immigrant population, it could be seen how identifying with one's own ethnic group relates to the state of their mental