Where Worlds Collide By Pico Iyer: A Cultural Analysis

Culture has many strong, distinct effects on the viewpoints of people. There are those that discriminate other races because of their culture. Culture influences the appearance of a person and in this period of time, appearance is essentially everything. Culture makes people heavily judge others in the world because of their appearance, their race, and the languages they speak, which is part of their culture.

People are often viewed differently because of their linguistic differences. It is hard for some people to understand those that speak with accents and that makes those listening having various opinions about that speaker. In the except of “Hunger Of Memory,” it was mentioned that Richard Rodriguez would speak english that he did not

know very well and it ended up with a “distinct tone” which made the “listeners usually lower their heads, better to hear what he was trying to say” (Rodriguez). For example, America is a diverse country, therefore there would be a lot of languages that are spoken throughout and people would feel closer to those that speak the same dialect because they feel like they are also part of their culture.

Actions also play a part in speaking different languages. There could be people that do not understand you and will still help while others would not, also signs help people with directions but if they do not understand then they would go against the law and “may be impounded” which was mentioned in “Where Worlds Collide” by Pico Iyer. Doctors are able to help but if they do not understand what you are saying or you do not understand, then they could not help you and might give you something you are highly allergic to. Another example could be that someone with a language barrier would be harder to express their own feelings and personality. When someone is talking in their secondary language, it is harder for them to be well spoken out. In “Hunger of Memory” by Richard Rodriguez, Richard was explaining how his father would be able to “sound light and free notes he

never could manage in English” in Spanish. Strangers would deduce those that speak a language harshly, as an aggravated man but in reality it is not their primary language. In theory, those that have trouble announcing words that they are not strongly educated in, could be thought as an aggressive man, as nice as they may be. People that speaks different languages would most likely also be a person of another race.
Different cultures also have different races that may be viewed in a distinct way.

In America at this time of history, Racism is a very hurtful topic. People have a judgmental view on a race after one person out of millions, conduct a matter. Many actions are against one’s race when not all of them act as those that have acted negatively. Communities of cultures has made a stereotype of each race and it affects those that are innocent from those thoughts. Stereotypes are when a “feature” of a specific race is applied to the rest of the same race. Stereotypes nowadays are what helps a society opinionate a single race or culture. Some stereotypes that are common and is what thought by many are that “black men and women are very aggressive” and there are some people who live by those stereotype and try to avoid all blacks even though there are some that do not follow this stereotype. Race also has to do with the history of the country that makes a culture have different viewpoints. There are cultures that have slaves and they are of a different race. As time passes and they are no longer slaves, they are still considered as a minority by some, like how many Americans consider Africans are a minority just because they use to be slaves. Many cultures are not diverse and have only one race in that specific culture, but if there may be one person with a different race, people could either view that positively or negatively. For instance, in the story “Introducing my son: An Indian

father’s plea” by Robert Lake, it mentions that Wind-Wolf would not help out with their culture’s ritual because “it’s weird” which he has taken account from those at his school and how they viewed him.
Cultures gives a distinct appearance that helps people judge others and the world. The difference in appearance help others evaluate your personality. Appearance also helps people become friends with others and the more friends you have, the chance you have at becoming popular and judged is lessened, like Wind-wolf doesn’t have friends because everyone would just “make fun of his long hair” (Lake). In his culture, long hair is something that means masculinity but since he is in a different culture, he is judged for having long hair as being feminine. In this generation, there are also societies being judged by their outfits and what brand they could afford. It is considered, in this time period, that people are poor if they do not have nice clothes to wear or their clothes are not very tidy. People with unattractive clothes are usually left alone and seem as if they are very “nerdy” in the sense of their personality. They are the ones that feel left out and since they do not have people near them, others would believe that they are irrelevant and will not try to spark a conversation with them. Cultures also have appropriate wearings for those that follow the culture. For example, Shia muslims often wears turbans and after many terrorist attacks by the muslims, many individuals sees people wearing turbans as a threat to the country and are often worried. People’s skin tone also influences others that they are of a race that they have heard stereotypes about. Their skin tone gives their appearance an opinionated judge about them and also with their personality. There has been debatable personalities between races that are considered as stereotypes and is commonly thought first before their true personality from how they look.
People are viewed differently by one’s appearance, race and their linguistic differences because of their culture. A community has their primary language and those that do not speak that language is usually looked at with disgust and they could be of a different race which gives the community more things to judge them by instead of their own personal traits. A society’s culture could help make a statement about another person in general with a stereotypical thought. Lastly, a culture could judge others in a positive or negative manner by how they look or how others look at them.