Distances have many meanings from symbolic to literal,but it just relies on a persons view to see if these distances can be positive or negative. In the memoir, The Distance Between Us, by Reyna Grande, it tells the story of a young girl who had to go through the experience of immigration to America facing the challenges and sacrifices that came with crossing the border. While also trying to find how to feel, from living in Iguala with her friends and grandmother in poverty to living with her father in Los Angeles with dad, and his new girlfriend. Reyna Grande journeys through physical, emotional, and cultural distances, which ultimately change the course of her life. ( Insert a gud transitional sentence here ) Throughout the memoir she tells and demonstrates how these distances, whether they were physical, emotional, or cultural distances, would also make …show more content…
For instance, in the memoir Reyna and her siblings called a number that appeared during a commercial, although not quite understanding it, but called nevertheless due to seeing Santa telling them to call, and after calling where confronted by and were later confronted by her angered father who exclaimed”What’s this? Who in the world did you call? Why is the bill so high?”in which Mago responded “We didn't know we would get charged for the call.” This first example can show the reason the Grande siblings called was because the commercial was set in English. This can be seen as a cultural distance because if they knew what the “Santa” on the T.V was saying they might not have called at all. Another way this can be seen as cultural distance is because these kids didn't know that in El Otro Lado you had to pay to make phone calls, unlike in Iguala where you don't have to pay to make phone calls. Furthermore, after going to school and getting a hygiene inspection by the school nurse, Reyna would be forced to go home and deal with lice problems. She would then continuously talk to herself saying
According to the case "Cameron is faced with a problem where someone steals money and pictures." He tries to not let the problem happen again by being direct (using low context culture) But he ignores there beliefs and how they see things. In Addition, when he talks to La Ani the stepdaughter of La Anan he talks to her directly and explains what has happened. This shows that people can be in the different country and still don't have to change their cultural
Culture is a unique way to express the way one shows the world and others how different each one is. Culture affects the way one views the world and others. This is demonstrated in the stories “Ethnic Hash” by Patricia Williams, “Legal Alien” by Pat Mora, and “By Any Other Name” by Santha Rama Rau. These stories come together to show examples of how people of different cultures are viewed by others as different. Mora, Williams, and Rau all have very unique styles, and this is shown throughout the following quotes.
“Mama looked at Esperanza with eyes that said, “forgive me.” Then she dropped her head and stared at the ground. I will consider your proposal,” said Mama”. (Ryan 45). Shortly after her dad died, Esperanza’s mother has been asked to marry Tio Luis, (her husbands brother). This not only affects her mother, it affects her as well. One shouldn’t have to go through certain situations. It’s difficult because it may seem like her mother has a choice, but she truly doesn’t. If the culture wasn’t Mexican, aspects would be completely different. “She watched and wondered how she would fit into this world”. (Ryan 101). If it were a different culture, Esperanza wouldn’t have to marry a stranger, and her family wouldn’t have to speed through their problems. If the culture was American for instance, Esperanza wouldn’t have to get married at a young age.In this novel, English is often used. “Please, Mama,” she begged, “You must eat more soup”. (Ryan 170). When they fled to California, they experienced new things. In America, the majority of citizens speaks English. Esperanza and her family are exposed to a completely divergent culture. In Mexico, they’re used to perceiving spanish, but since they’re in America now, they’re perceiving mainy
The article shows her ideas with a specific focus on the Latino community in English-language country. The writer said “After my first set of lessons, I could function in the present tense. Hola, Paco. De que color es tu cuaderno? El mío es azul”. (Barrientos, Tanya p.64). This is evidence throughout the article that she said such as this sentence and writes some words in Spanish that she don’t know. The writer was born in a Latin American country, and feels like a Latina (the brown-skin) even if she was raised in the United States and does not speak Spanish anymore. In addition, this article also serves as inspiration for people with different backgrounds that suffer from the same problem, helping all the people that face the same problem. I’m also have same experience. I’m growing up in Shandong province, but born in Guangdong province. It is so far from Guangdong to Shandong. And China is an old country, the culture and habit is not similar from place to place. If there are a few mountains between two cities, the language is total different. So every time when I come back to my hometown, the citizen, especially my grandparents, which growing up in tradition, will call me “yuasangia”, which like the writer’s struggles in American. However, the different is that this noun just for others province people who live in or travel to my hometown. Every time when I say my hometown language
The author demonstrates a personal example of how communication became a barrier because of the way Tan had to assist when her mother would speak. Tan would often have to relay the meaning of her mother’s message, because her mother’s “broken English” was difficult for others to comprehend. When Amy was younger, she remembers having to act as her mother on the phone, so that people on the other end would treat her mother with the respect she deserved. On one occasion, when her mother went to the doctor to get her CAT scan results on a benign brain tumor, her mother claimed that “the hospital did not apologize when they said they had lost the CAT scan and she had come for nothing” (Tan, 544 ). It was not until Tan had talked to the doctor that the medical staff seemed to care about any of her mother’s complications. Tan seems to come to the conclusion that a language barrier affects both sides. Not only does it affect Tan, but it also appears to affect the people around her. For instance, this happens when Tan changes her major from the stereotypical “Asian’s become doctors” to an English teacher. She eventually learns to write fiction and other writings that she was constantly told she would never be successful at.
Her emotions and internal battles are made tangible to a lesser degree through the fluent and descriptive language, but obviously no amount of intimate emotions can be conveyed easily without the use of First Person Point of View. The structure of the novel is somewhat like a diary, making it seem like she is revealing her innermost thoughts and feelings, which vary and change erratically as she reveals the nature of her relationship with her father.
Another way it is seen that culture influences one's views, is through moving. When one moves to a new place their cultural identity impacts the way they view their new surroundings. In the essay “Where Worlds Collide” author Pico Iyer portrays this idea of how cultural identity influences perspectives of those who move. In this essay as foreigners come to LA, it is said that they find the snack bar where a “piece of pizza cost $3.19 (18 quetzals they think in horror, or 35,009 dong)” (62). Because the foreigners come from a place with a completely different culture, to them pizza that costs $3.19 is extremely expensive. This is a good representation of how when moved, people view the world and their new surroundings based off of their culture. While in American culture, $3.19 for pizza
There are an abundance of influential and incenting writers like Reyna Grande whose books are motivationally encouraging. Reyna Grande is an award winning novelist and memoirist who was born in Iguala, Mexico on September 7, 1975. She receives much recognition and awards for her works, including having them publish internationally. The Distance Between Us, a memoir of hers, is coming-of-age story that reveals the growth of Grande from youth to adulthood, and the changes she had made to overcome her past. Her story brings inspiration and is relatable to readers making it intriguing for them to want to read it.
If you are a European American traveling in Italy, the cultures will seem very different. One of the biggest is the concept of time! Italians will usually be late to appointments and not think anything of it. Americans are always frantically running. They don’t want to be late to work or an event. Even if they are on time, they feel late so they need to come earlier. Neither is right or wrong, it is the culture that makes them different. Communicating across cultures is challenging. Each culture has set rules that its members take for granted. Few of us are aware of our own cultural biases because cultural imprinting begins at a very early age. And while some of a culture's knowledge, rules, beliefs, values, phobias, and anxieties are taught, most of the information is learned subconsciously. The challenge for communication has never been greater. Worldwide business organizations have discovered that intercultural communication is very important, not just because of increased globalization, but also because domestic workforce is growing more and more diverse, ethnically and culturally. We are all individuals. No two people belong to the same culture and they are not going to respond in exactly the same way. However, generalizations are valid to the extent that they provide clues on what you will most likely encounter when dealing with members of a particular
Unsuccessful intercultural encounters can sometimes result in tremendous consequences like losing business deals, breaking relationships or even destroying blood ties. In fact, for those who have watched the documentary “Daughter from Danang”, the idea of the last consequence would emerge vividly and hauntingly. The documentary, directed by Gail Dolgin and Vicente Franco, tells the reunion between a daughter and her long-lost birth mother. The reunion, which is expected to be an exhilarating experience, unfortunately becomes a painful one with heartbreaking moments. The failure of this reunion can be attributed to a number of reasons, but the most visible one is perhaps the issue of cultural differences. through the lens of intercultural communication,
Additionally, she stresses that the values of her childhood helped her to develop respect for different people. Her father influenced her a lot to feel comfortable just the way she is around her hometown; ...
Some cultural differences may not seem as if they could act as a barrier but within countries language can make or break a relationship. In Mali where all of Katherine Dettwyler’s research takes place language is quite an important thing to them. The people of Mali instantly believe that any toubabou, white person, only knows how to speak in English which quickly surprised them when discovering the Dettwyler in fact can speak Bambara, their native language. Being able to speak their language made it easier ...
To help me understand and analyze a different culture, I watched the film Selena. The film tells the life story of the famous singer Selena Quintanilla-Pérez. Not only does it just tell personal stories from her life, it also gives insight to the Mexican-American culture. Her whole life she lived in the United States, specifically in Texas, but was Hispanic and because of that both her and her family faced more struggles than white singers on the climb to her success. Even though the film is a story about a specific person, it brought understanding into the culture in which she lived. Keeping in mind that these ideas that I drew about the Mexican-American culture is very broad and do not apply to every single person in the culture, there were very obvious differences in their culture and the one that I belong. Mexican-American culture identifies with their family rather than individualized or spiritual identities and the culture has gone through significant changes because of discrimination and the changing demographics of the United States.
. This story embodies how the author saw her experiences that she had lived through.
The language I speak at home with my parents and grandmother is different than the one I use with other people. Sometimes it is hard for me to speak Mandarin to family members because I cannot think of the word I want to say, which makes it hard for me to communicate with them. My symbolic culture can be slightly different from my other family members. For instance, my parents disapproves of tattoos, but I see them as a way to express oneself. Our material culture is different too, we all have different taste of what we like to wear. When I got my nose pierced it was considered a deviant act to my