Over 40 million people in the United States are foreign-born immigrants. They represent 13 percent of the total population resided in the country, and they are increasing constantly. However, over the past few years, many immigrant languages have declined in number. Strong pressure of monolingualism towards immigrants has led to extinction of their mother tongue. Bilingualism in the United States has been changed over one or two generations, from monolingualism in a minority language to monolingualism in English1. The second generation immigrants have been afflicted by this kind of coercion of monoculturalsim. Caroline Hwang, a freelance writer and editor who was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, illuminates the difficulty of growing up …show more content…
They often told her that if she wanted to, she could be president someday2. They encouraged and wished her to be a great person, but they kind of tried to let her fulfill their version of American dream on the other hand. When she asked her mother about mispronunciation of her last name, she said "So what if you can't pronounce your name? You are American,"3 This infers that her mother wants her to be fully assimilated, to ensure that she reaped all the advantages of this country. However, even though Hwang's parents left the home country, they don't let the next generation to forget or disregard their origin and ethnicity: "Though they raised me as an American, my parents expect me to marry someone Korean and give them grandchildren who look like them."4 Although the author lives her life as completely American, her parents have her do the filial duties by marrying someone Korean. It is very ironic that they actually want something from their home country because they didn't even let their daughter pronounce her last name …show more content…
She says "I identify with Americans, but Americans do not identify with me. I've never known what it's like to belong to a community."5 She cannot think of herself as an American, because, first of all, she doesn't look like typical American people, which are the white people, even though she acts exactly the same like them. She can not think of herself as Korean either, because, even though she looks like them, still she has little knowledge about the culture and the language of the country, that she can’t even pronounce her name right. When her mother gives her such an attitude about mispronounce of her name, it really left her unsatisfied. She said “my cultural identity is hardly that clear-cut”6 Another big problem that makes the second generation immigrants be even more confused is the choice between ‘pleasing their parents and being true to themselves’. Because of her parents' sacrifice of moving their whole lives for them, she can't help feeling pressure — she owes them the fulfillment of their hopes. She described her life as "a planned life of
The collective autobiography edited by Alice Pung “Growing Up Asian in Australia” and the short story collection written by Maxine Beneba Clarke, “Foreign Soil” both illustrate the impact of family and cultural expectations on one’s identity. Both authors emphasise how the personal desires and beliefs of individuals brought about by the expectations imposed by their family, their culture and the society on them can serve as a motivation to change and establish their identity. The desire for acceptance and love can motivate an individual to satisfy a certain expectation. Similarly, pressure brought by individuals around a character may bring them to feel obligated to meet standards.
Sara says, "I remember once asking my dad if he felt like he belonged in America. He said he didn't know. He said he always felt like an outsider, like he was always observing but never really participating" (Saedi 4). This demonstrates how difficult cultural assimilation can be for some people, particularly those who have strong ties to their cultural heritage. Sara's father's experience demonstrates how cultural assimilation is a difficult process, with individuals facing unique challenges based on their cultural background and personal
Very few, if any, immigrants have the chance to learn English before traveling to the U.S. Because of this barrier, it is nearly impossible for organizations such as the Border Patrol to warn, aid, and communicate with them as they travel to the U.S. Although there are helpful signs along the border, they are written in English and are therefore indecipherable. Furthermore, the language border hinders an immigrant’s ability to survive in American society once they arrive. English is the written and spoken language in almost every city, thwarting immigrants’ opportunity to find jobs and interact with others. As they struggle to communicate, they become ostracized and do not fit in.
According to Karen Dabney’s Oral Performance/Aural Traditions: Cultural Identity in David Henry Hwang’s Trying to find Chinatown, “a common problem Asian Americans encounter is generic racial identification by outsiders, rather than precise recognition of their ancestral and ethnic roots.” Benjamin feels that Ronnie surrendered himself to his adopted country and has failed to preserve and protect his heritage and
Families serve as children's principal settings for cultural and racial transmission, serving as their primary crucible for socialization, “What it all comes down to is that the family is the unit of cultural preservation. This is true for all families, but for immigrants, it is particularly bittersweet; to do one thing means something else is excluded” (Lee). Lee says that she felt lost at times for not knowing about her family's history before migrating to the United States, "Because our parents never spoke about Korea, we felt as if we’d landed in the middle of the Iron Range of Minnesota via spaceship" (Lee), and for not practicing the culture of their country of origin, “They (author’s parents) insisted that we were not Koreans or even Korean-Americans, but Americans”
For a nine-year-old who wants nothing more than to make her mother proud this was exciting. In the beginning, we can see her excitement and desire, “in the beginning I was just as excited as my mother, maybe even more so.” (Tan). However, as we follow the story we see her excitement quickly fade to sorrow and anger. The high expectations immigrant families place on their children is still a very relevant social issue and can be witnessed throughout the United States.
Richard Rodriguez’s “ Aira: A Memoir of Bilingual Childhood” and Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue” both exercise the three common rhetoric devices – pathos, ethos, and logos – to appeal to the audience and to make their arguments within the text more valid and comprehensive. Both authors write about their experiences and struggles with immigration and the assimilation into the public identity and society, but their reactions to these situations are similar and different in several forms and aspects, including how they were presented to the public identity, how they reacted to the public identity and assimilation into the society by facing their challenges, what their family connection was, and what credibility they have. While both authors did resist
Firoozeh writes about her life as an Iranian immigrant to America. Her family is treated with kindness by neighbors when they come to live in America and get lost on their way home from school: “…the woman and her daughter walked us all the way to our front porch and even helped my mother unlock the unfamiliar door,” (Dumas, 7). Firoozeh and her mother are not discriminated against because they are immigrants who don’t speak English, the Americans help them despite their differences. Had the neighbors not been helpful and patient, Firoozeh’s journey home would have been somewhat traumatic and daunting. While this a rather specific isolated example, it can serve as an analogy for all immigrants’ experience.
The “Japanifying Korea” efforts are depicted as once again detrimental to society; however, it appears that in this film, Korea ultimately saves Japan in a metaphorical stance. The uncle of Lady Hideko adamantly attempts to adopt Japanese styles, culture, and modernization that it brings; this is evident in the Japanese-inspired architecture of the uncle’s property, which incorporates English and Japanese styles in a Korean landscape (Park 0:03:30). The property as a whole is product of the forced infusion of British, Japanese, and Korean styles and culture, which develops the allegorical basis of tension and issues that the film tackles. The uncle is perversing Korea and Korean culture, ultimately making circumstances worse, which is metaphorical for the criticism of Japanese imperialism in Korea.
Because of her mother, the girl often emerges victorious after participating in matches. Furthermore, when her daughter is curious about Chinese torture, Mrs. Jong instructs, "Chinese people do business, do medicine, do painting. Not lazy like American people. We do torture. Best torture.”
Immigrants that are new to the American society are often so used to their own culture that it is difficult for them to accept and adapt to the American culture. The language that is spoken, as well as the various holidays and traditions that Americans entertain themselves with, aren’t what most immigrants would deem a neccessity for their life to move on. Nonetheless, they still have to be accustomed to these things if they have any chance of suceeding in a land where knowledge is key. The story “My Favorite Chaperone” written by Jean Davies Okimoto, follows the life of a young girl who along with her brother Nurzhan, her mother known as mama, and her father whom she refers to as Papi have immigrated to the United States from Kazakhstan, through a dating magazine. Throughout the story each family member faces problems that causes them to realize just how different their life is know that they’ve immigrated..
But even when they didn’t learn English themselves, their children grew up speaking it. Thousands of first-generation Americans still strive to learn English, but others face reduced educational and career opportunities because they have not mastered this basic skill they need to get ahead. According to the 1990 census, 40 percent of the Hispanics born in the United States do not graduate from high school, and the Department of Education says that a lack of proficiency in English is an important factor in the drop-out rate. People and agencies that favor providing services only in foreign languages want to help people who do not speak English, but they may be doing these people a disservice by condemning them to a linguistic ghetto from which they cannot easily escape.
Yoon highlights the disagreement between individual aspirations and traditional norms through this exploration. Yoon also illustrates the opposing views on the importance of family names between the United States and Korea. The importance of cultural differences is demonstrated in the novel, influencing the formation of personal identity that contributes to the ongoing conflict between personal and traditional expectations. As the narrator is explaining the history of Min Soo’s thought process to name her children, the narrator briefly mentions, “In Korea, the family name came first and told the entire history of your ancestry. In America, the family name is called the last name.
Ellen the most assimilated person in the Sung family. She is in cultural dualism and an identity crisis. She is
She has a secret language in which she does not want to expose to her mother and family because the native language that she already knows should be the only language she should only speak. “Over the years, my brain has banished Chinese. I dream in English. I talk to myself in English. And memories—not only those about America but also those about China; not only those carried with me but also those archived with the wish to forget—are sorted in English.