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What has caused changes in the American family over the years
What has caused changes in the American family over the years
American family culture research essay
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My parents come from China, my mom grew up in Taisan and my dad grew up in Guangdong. Around age twenty, they migrated to San Francisco, California where they met and later got married. A few years later they had my older brother and then me with a seven year age gap. I lived there for about 9 years, then we had moved to Bottineau, North Dakota for a year and after that we moved and have been living in Ohio since then. We’ve prevailed a huge transition from moving to the suburbs from a big city. With my first language being Chinese, because my parents only spoke Chinese, I had to learn English through school. Also the large population of Asians in the area of San Francisco that we lived in spoke little to no English, …show more content…
so that made it hard for my parents when we moved to the suburbs in Ohio. At a young age, I had the chance to travel to China on tour, I’ve been to many different parts like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, etc. While being in these places I’ve been in many situations where knowing how to speak Chinese and basic words have helped me a lot. China has a lot of separated provinces, and each one of them uses different dialects, so the same words could sound different depending on which part of China you visit. Luckily I know basic Chinese, so I could depict what the natives say, unlike foreigners who have little to no knowledge of the language. Before moving to Ohio I didn’t know anything about this place and wouldn’t have expected the majority of the people to be Caucasians, so I’ve had to translate a lot for my parents.
Things like translating their mail, communicating with people, searching for things online, so in contrast to most teens I’ve had to help with setting up bank accounts, dealing with insurance, phone bills and more. At times difficulties arise for me because I don’t fluently speak it, but I’m learning and expanding my vocabulary of Chinese everyday by translating for my parents. Growing up with parents who constantly struggle with language barriers would be unideal to many teenagers. It definitely comes with burdens because my parents began to rely on me at such an early age, and with little knowledge of the world it became troublesome. Having to make decisions about those things get stressful because as a teenager, we never expected to deal with all these adult …show more content…
responsibilities. Before I started to translate, my brother did all the translating because being the oldest child, he carries all the responsibilities and had already started to grasp the awareness of reality.
When he went off to college, I had to start learning how to help my parents. When I first approached the situation of having to translate things from English to Chinese for my parents, I felt pressured to learn more Chinese. I thought if I couldn’t help them, they would struggle even more, adding onto the weight of the stress they already have. I did have problems with my parents always coming to me and asking me all these questions. I have my own problems in life and it just became aggravating to me at one point and I did get angry at the fact that they didn’t understand a lot of English. But I realized that being angry with it doesn’t help myself or anyone and I have learned to deal with it. Learning more Chinese helped me overcome these problems and being able to speak and translate it makes me unique because not many people have the ability to do
that.
Although his parents had no previous knowledge of America’s society, they were able to learn from watching films and reading books. When Liu was born, they decided it was a good idea for him to adapt to this new environment that may benefit his life with better opportunities that the culture provides. Some of these opportunities involved independence and a luxurious lifestyle that they thought was different than the Chinese culture. Liu took pride in believing that he was considered an Asian American when he perceives himself as a unique individual coming from two different cultures. He learns about the daily lives of white people and eventually made friends who were able to support and teach him to fit in with the society. During his life in America, Liu faced struggles and tries to overcome them by learning how to get along with white people, using the social-class to help him make connections with other white people, and getting involved with his internship which provided a good career opportunity while becoming an upper class person. Overall, Liu’s success in achieving his goals of individuality, career opportunities, and lifestyle as well as understanding himself about his Asian American
Chua believes that Chinese parents force their children to be academically successful in order to reach “higher” goals in life. She emphasizes this when she states “…Chinese parents have … higher dreams for their children…” (Chua 8). Although Amy set higher s...
While these essays are similar because they focus on the native languages used in America and the struggles of being a Chinese American in America, they differ in both their attitudes toward their mothers and personal reflections of being Chinese American. An individual’s background is where one comes from and how he or she was raised. Tan is a Chinese American. She has a traditional Chinese mother who speaks “broken” English. Tan states that, “It has always bothered me that I can think of no way to describe it other than ‘broken’, as if it were damaged and needed to be fixed[. . . ]”
I remember the first time I came to America; I was 10 years old. Everything was exciting! From getting into an airplane, to viewing magnificent, huge buildings from a bird’s eye view in the plane. It was truly memorable. After staying few days at my mother’s house, my father and I wanted to see what Dallas looks like. But because my mother was working the whole day, it wasn’t convenient for her to show us the area except only on Sundays. Finally, we went out to the nearby mall with my mother. My father and I were astonished after looking at a variety of stores. But after looking at different stores, we were finally tired and hungry, so we went into McDonald’s. Not being familiar with fast food restaurants, we were curious to try American
Growing up in a bilingual household, I have struggled with many things especially reading and writing. Reading and writing have never been my strongest points. The first struggle that I can recall, is when I was about six or seven years old. I was beginning my education at Edu-Prize Charter School. I was a cute little kid, in the first grade, just like everybody else. But in the middle of the school year, my mom told me that my great, great aunt, who lived in China, was getting really sick and old. So if I wanted to meet her, it had to be now. Being a little kid, I didn’t quite understand why she couldn’t just go see the doctor, take some medication, or let time heal her. Unfortunately, now I know it was my mom’s way of saying that she was dying. My parents made the decision that it was probably the best way for me to understand my Chinese culture, along with meeting my relatives on my mother’s side of the family. So for a month, I had to leave my dad, my brother, my school, and all my
The Chinese immigrant experience has traveled through times of hardships, under the English man. They have struggled to keep themselves alive through racism, work, and acceptance. Although many have come to Canada for their lives’ and their children’s to be successful, and safe. It could not be just given until adversity gave them the life they hoped to one day life for. In the starting time of 1858, the Chinese community had started coming to different parts of Canada considering the push and pull factors that had led them here. Because of the lack of workers in the British Columbia region, the Chinese were able to receive jobs in gold mining. Most Chinese were told to build roads, clear areas, and construct highways, but were paid little because of racism. The Chinese today are considered one of the most successful races in Canada because of the push and pull factors that they had come across, the racism that declined them and the community of the Chinese at the present time.
In the early years of my life, adapting to the foreign customs of America was my top priority. Although born in America, I constantly moved back and forth from Korea to the US, experiencing nerve-racking, yet thrilling emotions caused by the unfamiliarity of new traditions. Along with these strange traditions, came struggles with accepting my ethnicity. Because of the obvious physical differences due to my race, the first question asked by the students in elementary school was, “Are you from China?” These inquiries were constantly asked by several of American students until middle school which transformed to “You must be good at math” referencing the stereotypical intellect that Asian are perceived to have. Through continuous insult on my Asian heritage, I began to believe and later hate the person I was due to criticism made by teenagers which I started to see true despite all the lies that was actively told. This racial discrimination was a reoccurring pattern that
The first and second year after moving from China to the United States, I was afraid to talk to strangers because my English was not very well. I had to depend on my husband for dealing with my personal business, such as making a doctor’s appointment, calling to the bank, or questioning to DMV officers. Douglass says, “being a slave for life began to bear heavily upon my heart” (62). For myself, being a dependent and helpless adult is a shame. Moreover, I lacked of extra money to go to school to improve my English. Thus, I stayed home all the time to avoid embarrassment of talking to strangers. After a while, I realized that improving English speaking skills are the essential to gain my self-confidence. So, I spent time to read various articles on the internet and watched English dialogues’ videos on YouTube. As a non-English speaking immigrant living in the U.S., I inevitably encountered a series of difficulties to integrate myself into a new
Prior to immigrating to America, Nicole attended a public school in China where all of her teachers were Chinese natives. At Nicole’s school in China, however, English is a required course of study taught mostly by emphasizing English vocabulary, completing short one-page writing assignments, and practicing spelling. Learning English pronunciations and engaging in realistic English conversation wasn’t the goal for educators in China. The goal in China was to prepare students to pass their post-high school exam, which was their ticket into attending a university. The exam is highly demanding for Chinese students because it requires knowledge of English reading, comprehension, spelling and writing. For Nicole, the most stressful part of this exam was that students taking it
My neighbor is 87 years old and he been here for 75 years. He has experienced a lot of things and changes. He told me, when he was young, he lived in a small village in Guandong China. There is no electricity, so the place is dim and dark. His mother pass away, when he was 4 years old. He was raised by his grandmother. He didn’t have any sense of his father, because his father left for America before he was born. He told me the only thing that kept his family in China together was his father was making $25 a month working in a grocery store in Texas and he sent $15 of that home to China. It was a lot of money back then. He said the reason he
One awesome story my family has let me know is my family 's history. My maternal grandma 's guardians went to the United States from Ukraine by vessel around 1906 or 1907. They at first settled in Export, PA, in light of the fact that they had relatives and companions living there. My grandma was conceived in 1921 and was the seventh of eight youngsters. A year after she was conceived, they moved to Warren, OH, where they stayed until my grandma moved on from secondary school. The family 's religion was Ukrainian Orthodox. My grandma grew up communicating in Ukrainian and English. Ukrainian was talked in the home, and English was talked at school. My grandma began kindergarten at the age five knowing no English. She grabbed the English dialect from her colleagues. My grandma 's family did not claim an auto. Each Easter, they strolled around seven miles to go to...
I was born and raised in Tallahassee, Florida. My mother was born in Taiwan and moved to the United States to continue her education when she was in her mid- twenties. My father is from Fort Walton Beach, Florida. My parents have different cultures, and as a result they have completely different backgrounds. When I was growing up, I had a hard time reconciling these different cultures. It was difficult for me and my sister to know what to do in many social situations because our primary schema (our parents) would act completely different in similar social situations. When I would ask my parents for advice, they would give me contrasting suggestions. As I grew older, I started to realize that both my parents were right, even if they acted like opposites.
It was not hard on me on it more or so that they believed it was. For my mother, she gave fun, excitement and dreams. My Father gave me worry, worry I wouldn’t be able to succeed under her roof. Worry that I would not live the life he planned for me. So in return he got me every other weekend filled to the brim with books and requirements. If we went to a museum it educational museum, if we went the park I had to reach a certain height to be able to get off the swing. But I loved it, became the time I spent with him learning Isaac Newton’s three laws of motion, or reading one flew over the cuckoo’s nest and giving him a report at the end. It was the time I was able to spend with
I grew up in a predominately Hispanic neighborhood, where I was one of the twelve Asian students in my grade of three hundred and fifty and the only Chinese student in my class. I struggled to understand what my classmates, friends, and teachers talked about because they spoke primarily Spanish outside of the classroom, and I could barely count to ten. Fitting in was hard not only because of the language barrier but also the racial and cultural differences. Making friends with people who have little or nothing in common is difficult, so I attempted to copy whatever my classmates would do. I ate what they ate, watched what they watched, and played whatever sports they played. I took Spanish lessons with the family who lived below me, and in exchange I taught them a bit of Mandarin. By the second grade, I had eased into the community around me despite only having two close friends. They helped me to embrace my Chinese side while being assimilated. I could stop being someone I wasn’t, and I was not scared to be myself with them because they were fascinated by my unique characteristic from having Chinese heritage. I enjoyed living in Corona, since everything I needed was so close, and this i...
My family emigrated from the Dominican Republic when I was two years old. At the time, none of us spoke any fluent English. Due to their limited education,