Personal Narrative- A Lesson in Culture Shock
“ You want to be the same as American girls on the outside.” (Tan, Amy) Like Tan in her narrative “Fish Cheeks”, everyone has had a time in their lives when they wanted to fit in at school or home. Sometimes it is hard to try to blend into the surroundings. Moving from Boston to Tallahassee has taught me a lot about such things like honor, pride, and self-reliance. Such is related to us in Wilfred Owens’s “Dulce et Decorum est” which is about his experience in World War I. Sometimes experiences such as moving can teach more about life than any long lecture from any adult. As the old saying goes: “Actions speak louder than words.”
Growing up in Boston for thirteen years did not prepare for what life had in store for me. I moved here two months before I was to begin the eighth grade. Culture shock does not even begin to describe what I felt. Where had my parents stuck me? Why did we have to leave our apartment in the city to move to what I refer to as “The old acreage house” in the boonies? Moreover, like many middle aged people going through their mid-life crisis: Why me? I know what George Orwell must have been feeling in “Shooting in Elephant” and “The Hanging”. He was of European descent and he was in the middle of Burma experiencing an “Anti-European” feeling. Isn’t it weird the way fate cold possible mix two totally unrelated things together?
It certainly got worse after September 11. Who knew that many of the people who I would later become friends with or classmates of could be so hateful?
“Hey are you Muslim?
“No, why?
“If you are, I’d hurry up and leave the country- Osama Bin Laden.”
Let me give you a little taste of my background. My mother happens to be...
... middle of paper ...
... will help the migrant workers as much as I can since there is very little that I can do lawfully at my age.
For many people like myself, I lean more and better from experience. Life is a great teacher although there may be some lessons that take time to learn. Life shapes who we are and who we become and certain states of affairs seem to guide us in a certain direction. Dealing with these certain events in my life has driven me to work harder and persevere. The immigrants often cannot do much but work in the fields and I was lucky to have been born in this country. I have the opportunity to get a higher paying job even starting at minimum wage. These people have been my driving force to use in life as a tool to further inform people but also as a reminder of where I have been and where I am going. All of this I have learned thanks to a good instructor:
Life.
Becoming Americans in Paris set out to display the influence Paris had on American culture, overall it achieved that goal. Blower utilizes personal sources such as journals, newspapers, and personal accounts to create a highly descriptive story. One advantage of her book is her use of both French and American sources, this provides a holistic view of Americans in Paris. Along with the holistic view it also allows the reader to understand what each side takes away from the same event. Showing the American side is key to this process as it is the American identity that is being changed by these
In Joel L. Swerdlow’s 2001 essay, “Changing America,” he writes about the current cultural differences among kids in high school. He goes on to talk about how you can gather a large variety of kids, coming from all over the world, yet they still somehow manage to develop the same “American Teenager” attitude toward life. The essay talks about how people used to view America as a “melting pot” of nations, and how over time that view is starting to change.
He feels that students who want to fit in finds a sense of haven in a college where there are limitless possibilities of being part of a group of “us” rather then them. “Throughout human history, most people have lived around some definable place – tribal ring, river junction, or Town Square. The reality is that modern suburbia is merely the latest iteration of the American dream, David Brooks” Before the construction of the first transcontinental railroad so called the pacific railroad many people lived within the resources of the town square, on the contrary people seek to find something new for them self as a means of traveling to the outer most terrains to express freedom to freely go as they please. In addition the similarities between a sense of us and the freedom of individuals who feel the need to go beyond the borders of their comfort zone is expressed through their decision to face uncertainty weather the choices they made is beneficial or
Many immigrating to the United States develop ideas of themselves and their own identity in order to fit the form of America they have been coaxed into believing. In “A Thousand Years of Good Prayers”, Mr.Shi displays these expectations and false prophecies of character when he naively concludes, “America is worth taking a look at; more than that, America makes him a new person, a rocket scientist, a good conversationalist, a loving father, a happy man”(189). Mr.Shi not only perceives America as a place of pure prosperity and freedom, but also anticipates a society where he can recreate himself. Arguably, these limited ideas of America can foster one 's desire to improve as an individual, however this often results in a further loss of identity because they are unwilling to accept their true self. He longs to exist within the form of American society he fantasizes because he envisions himself as a more developed and well rounded person that he feels communist China has kept him from
Having to live in a culturally diverse country such as the U.S. would influence many interpretations and adaptations to lifestyles from all over the world. Due to this, it has become customary to develop a social stereotype just being in a certain part of the world. But, everyone does their own things a little differently than the next, speak a little differently, eat different foods, and live their life a different way - but it works out. Two great example of this is in In A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor, and Why I Live at the P.O. by Eudora Welty. These two short stories seek to expose myths about family relationships. Most people would assume that many Southern families are close knit and that there is a healthy relationship between every member. Welty and O’Connor challenged those stereotypes with their two short stories. It goes to show that although family relationships aren’t always perfect and these two examples show how these families fail to recognize the importance of each other.
"Spinal Cord Injury Facts." Foundation for Spinal Cord Injury Prevention, Care & Cure. June 2009. Web. 20 Jan. 2012. .
Earlier Science was treated as an institution but now, it includes many things like "scientific experiments, "theories" etc. The authors argue that this knowledge should viewed in terms of "socially constructed" and not the one known as "scientific truth". This article points that in the social constructivist view, the 'science' it is just another system of knowledge which contains empirical researches and studies. It is basically concerned with what is "truth", how it has emerged, accepted and explained in social domain. ...
Knowledge is something that can change day to day, which can be learned through both the natural and human sciences. Knowledge changes in the natural sciences when an experiment is conducted and more data has been gathered. Knowledge changes in human sciences when patterns are recognized in society and further tests have been conducted. Does our knowledge of things in the natural and human sciences change every day? I think that our knowledge grows everyday but does not necessarily change every day. The areas of knowledge that will be discussed in this essay are natural and human sciences. In History we can see that at one point something that was considered knowledge then transformed into different knowledge, especially in the natural sciences. However, in the past, due to lack of technology, it might have been more of a lack of knowledge that then turned into knowledge on the topic.
The Natural Sciences explore the knowledge we gain through the physical world such as ch...
In the beginning of “I Only Came to Use the Phone,” Maria sets herself up to be trapped after her car breaks down, and she gets on the bus. “Maria looked over her shoulder and saw that the bus was full of women of uncertain ages and varying conditions who were sleeping in blankets just like hers.” (72) this should foreshadow that something is not right to Maria, but she just goes with it. Maria is the only women that talks on the bus, she is not acting like the other women at all. “She was less certain when she saw several women in uniform who received them at the door of the bus, pulled the blankets over their heads to keep them dry, and lined them up single file, directing them not by speaking but with rhythmic, peremptory clapping.” (73) Maria realizes once again that she is out of place and that she should get out of here as soon as possible. The first line of the poem Exile, “The night we fled the country,” (1) this family is taking a risk as they are leaving their country illegally. The family is setting themselves up to be trapped if they get i...
Why would someone want to sit in front of a computer or sit at a desk all day when you could be around babies and always be in action? My passion in life has always been towards infants and children. This has led me to the path of choosing a career involving them.
Coming to America, by far was not what I expected. However, after living here for four years, I have learned to adjust to the surroundings. I was not mentally prepared for the culture change that I was exposed to in the beginning but as days turned into months and eventually into years, I realized that I grew accustomed to the culture and eventually became a part of it. I have gotten accustomed to calculating distance by miles and not kilometers, temperatures by Fahrenheit not Celsius, weight by pounds not kilograms. I have also been influenced to see beauty in different content unlike home where thick women are considered beautiful, healthy and happily married unlike here where everyone is trying to lose weight to enhance their beauty and health. However, not even a decade in America can make me forget the extremes I experienced when I first arrived.
Science is everywhere; you always see it in every day life. Like when you get a ride to school from your parents, watch TV, talk on the phone, and listen to music, that’s using science. When you pass buildings science was used to build them.
As a teenager, you are always told that you are either “Too old for this” or “Too young for that.” It always seemed to me that my parents wanted me to grow up and be independent, but they also wanted me to be their baby forever. The problem is, sorry parents, you can’t be a kid and an adult at the same time. Shocker, I know, but it is the honest truth.
First we should look at science and some of its topics. Science can be defined as knowledge about or study of the natural world based on