Vietnamese Immigrant Experience

I have lived in two different worlds. The duality of the immigrant experience is a battle that every first-generation child has to wage. As I conquered my language barrier, a whole new world full of traditions and customs opened up. Seeking acceptance from my peers, it was hard not to adopt their culture and ignore my own in the process. However, abandonment was not an option in a family with a strong cultural identity. While there was nothing wrong with either culture, finding middle ground proved to be an ongoing journey.

Richard Rodriguez, author of “Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood” grew up speaking Spanish at home for the beginning of his life, and having the great connection with family that most hope for during their lifetime. This all suddenly changed when he entered school. Starting at a young age, Richard was surrounded by all English-speaking people that he could not communicate well with. The only instances where English would be would have been during public outings, and interaction with others. At home, his parents also struggled to speak English making the situation even harder on Richard. Fortunately, Richard had encouraging teachers jumpstarted his English learning curriculum so he would be better equip to interact within his community. As he started becoming more and more fluent in English, his native Spanish language started to drift. Richard began to realize that the connection at home slowly dwindled away as he was increasing his English speaking at school. Richard began to sense a lack of safety in his own home. His involvement in public conversation; using his newly learned language, effected his life so much to the point where he had to choose between

Amy Tan and Richard Rodriquez both grew up in Northern California, to immigrant families. Amy Tan became famous for her book, “The Joy Luck Club” that later became a movie. Richard wrote “The Hunger of Memory.” Before they became famous though, they both struggled to learn English. In “Mother Tongue.” and “Public and private Language,” they describe what it was like trying to learn English, while holding on to their native language. It wasn’t easy for either of them.

The following voice project will discuss second generation Vietnamese Americans struggling with cultural expectations. In this assignment of exploration of literature, I will be discussing Karin Aguilar-San Juan book Little Saigons: Staying Vietnamese in America. Little Saigons: Staying Vietnamese in America, is a book exploring place-making and identity in Vietnamese American communities. Throughout the chapters the author had a clear argument. She stated that retaining one’s identity in an American immigrant community requires more than simply passing down cultural traditions between generations or remembering the past by retaining one’s language. She suggests that in order to retain their Vietnamese identity, Vietnamese Americans use elements of the physical domain as well as social relationships to reflect and preserve their Vietnamese histories.

During the Vietnam War, another war broke out known as the Laotian Civil War. An organization and communist political movement called “Pathet Lao” from North Vietnam was trying to overthrow the Royal Lao Government. While this was happening the CIA recruited the Hmong led by general Vang Pao, (who were an ancient hill-tribe from the mountains of Laos) as a secret alliance, to help aid the Royal Lao Government. (Batson, 1991, “Birth of Pathet Lao” Para. 16) The United States and Hmongs involvement in this are now what is known as the Secret War, for it was kept a secret by the United States government. Eventually, the Royal Lao Government was taken over by Pathet Lao. The Secret War ended the same war as the Vietnamese War in 1975 but the continuation

At the age of____, I left everything behind in Armenia and migrated into the United States of America to start a new life. Even though I love my paternal land and do not forget where I come from, the fact that I could pursue a career and become a productive member of the society encouraged me to move to America. To my great misfortune, I was persecuted for being politically active in my own country and I could no longer fight with the authorities for violating my civil rights. I had the potential of facing more dangerous situations than I was already in at the time. I am my parent’s first child and they instilled their best efforts into providing the best education for me. They did not receive higher education and I was the first in my family.

As a child I would always see my parents work hard for every dollar they made. When I reached my teenage years I realized that it was because they were immigrants to this country and took whatever job opportunity they could find. I also came to realize that I was an immigrant, and that life was tougher for not having the proper documentation. This year I fell into the biggest hole of my life. I learned that I was not going to get financial aid because of my legal status and my mother was also diagnosed with a tumer last month. I fell into a depression thinking I was not going to be able to go to college. My mother also could not get her surgery until she had insurance which she could not get because of her legal status. As I laid crying I came

instead I was tossed a red bag of orange triangles that looked completely inedible. I was confused to say the least. It hit me then that although we both speak English, there was still a barrier. School was no better. Although I was adjusting, I became tired of being treated like a parrot, repeating words back while people listened in amazement. However it wasn’t until fourth grade that I understood how strange my accent was. Once my teacher found out where I was from she would make me say “tomatoes grow lovely to my garden” over and over to practically every teacher in the school. I knew she didn’t mean any harm in it, but by the end of the year I was weary of being known as “that British girl”. I therefore decided to hide my identity. Once fifth grade started, I began speaking in an American accent. It wasn’t that difficult and I sounded like everyone else. I stopped telling people where I was from, and became comfortable with this American identity I created. However, I still felt guilty. Although I enjoyed the peace, I felt like I was betraying myself by hiding my

Honestly, it’s very difficult to find a place for me to be accepted as a being of Lao. It 's hard to explain because where I live in a predominantly neighborhood where racism exist on a standard level. Due to my race, some of the people are hesitating to accept me for who I am. However, I had an opportunity from my parent to influence me toward understand Lao culture and tradition. Therefore, for me being a member of the Laotian-American makes me feel a sense of appreciation of my race. It helps me defined how I think of myself and shapes many experience I had; therefore, it has shaped who I have become. I am very proud to be who I am and of the culture that I have been born and raised in. Even though, everything is different in custom culture and religion I am honor to still be one of them. For me personally, it seems that I must always prove myself to educators. I must show them that being a member of a minority doesn’t automatically make me different from others. And Although attending school is very difficult, there are still time that I must never give up to become successful.

When people view my brown skin they assumed I can speak Spanish fluently. When Hispanic people talk to me, I try to answer back in Spanish. They stare at me with a confused face and tell me that I don’t talk well in Spanish and that I don’t have an accent. It hurts me on the inside because I feel that I don’t belong in the country that I was born in, which is Mexico. I was only six years old when I first came to the United States. I left my native country as a result of wanting to observe an unfamiliar place. I wasn’t expecting that when I stepped into a strange country that I would lose my culture and language. The reasons that I lost and am trying to find my culture and language is school, family,

Growing up in an immigrant household in America, was difficult. I didn’t live, I learned to adapt. I learned to adapt to the fact that I did not look like any of my peers, so I changed. Adapted to the fact that my hair texture would never be like any of my peers, so I changed. Adapted to the fact that I was not as financially well off as my peers, so I changed. Adapted to the fact that unlike other people who have families of four, I had a family of seven and numerous amounts of close relatives. That my parents, although lived in America for quite sometimes grew up in Nigeria, so English was not their first language so I adapted and changed myself in order to fit into societal standards. I learned to understand and interpret my parents’ native Igbo dialect but left that part of myself at home so that people will view me as the perfect American citizen.

Reflecting on my development as a first-generation immigrant, I can attribute a large portion of my characteristics and aspirations to my experiences growing up and to the role model whom I have admired, my mother. More specifically, being exposed to the tireless work ethic of a single parent who had to overcome the dual pressures of assimilation and poverty has imparted in me a respect for the ideals of continual self-improvement and advancement. My mother’s sacrifices have always been to better our family’s situation and to provide me with the best education opportunities. Recognizing my mother’s hard worked and what she has given up for me, I put my best foot forward in every situation to honor her. Looking back at the hardships such as racial discrimination and language barriers my mother had to transcend, as

The culture of a country is defined by its own beliefs, its ways of life, its arts and other factors. Cultural differences are important because it distinguishes people living in a certain country from other countries. The differences between American and Vietnamese culture are striking, and they deserve rigorous examination.

I was born in a country six thousand miles from here, Mongolia. The better half of my childhood was spent playing soccer in the street with the neighborhood kids. I was content, surrounded by my loving family and amazing friends, until it all changed with an abrupt decision. I had reached the age where I had to think about my future beyond high school, whether I would go to a college, and where I want to be in life. Mongolia was not the most ideal country to achieve success, thus my parents decided to move me to the United States. With that, came both good news and bad news. Good news, I had a chance to start my life over. However, moving to a whole new country does come with its challenges. The first couple years were the most difficult times

Self-awareness is an initial step to understand the variations of cultures. It could help an individual to realize the essentials of his or her own culture that are usually neglected in daily life. In this essay, I would like to explore the Vietnamese culture under my own reflection and express my opinions about cultural variation discussion in international environments. At first, there is a variety of important factors that influenced Vietnamese culture but family is the most important point. In fact, a typical Viet family includes grandparents, parents and children living together under a same roof. The number of children in family is often high due to the old concept that more child more laborer. It could be easy to understand because Vietnam is an agricultural civilization based on the cultivation of wet rice. Although this situation is changing in urban areas, it still exists in rural regions where farming takes the primary role in people 's income. Vietnamese people also have a close relationship with their relatives. They are frequently living in a same village or commune in order to support each other. Moreover, they try to have a good relationship with their neighbors because of an old saying “Sell far relatives and buy close neighbors”. In a typical Viet family, children are taught to be well-behaved and respectful towards their parents, grandparents and relatives. In terms of the relationship with other siblings, they have to be in accord and love each other.