My Favorite Chaperone By Jean Davies Okimoto

In “Se Habla Espanol,” Tanya Barrientos elaborates on her personal experience growing up in the United States. In the first couple decades of her life, Barrientos distanced herself from her cultural roots fearing that she would be judge and belittle. It was essential for Barrientos to fit in with the American society. Barrientos formats the short story where she is speaking from firsthand experience.

Ribbons (2011) is a free verse poem by ali cobby eckermann that effectively illustrates the thematic concern of having a dual national identity and being part of aboriginal - australian culture. The poet accomplishes this by a soulful tale, leaving behind the people she knew best and expressing herself being “tied” to the land forever, outlining her lifelong spiritual bond with the land and its people. eckermann reveals that a firm bond is established between her and the land wherever she may be through poetic devices and techniques such as poetic structuring, repetition, symbolism, and characterisation. Characterisation of the children as being young “anangu” is shown in stanza 1 of ribbons. Anangu, the defining term for australian aborigine is reflected in the children identifying their national identity as being part of australian and aboriginal culture.

All throughout Catherine Chung’s novel Forgotten Country, people choose not to let their feelings be known. Sometimes people want to forget the past and they think that their memories are too painful for them to be worth remembering. However, if one is silent about their feelings, it only makes them harder to be understood. When people cannot understand each other, they grow further apart due to misunderstanding and emotional distance. Silence can even tear apart families.

For example, immigrants get help from people who know how to translate. Maya had to translate what the principal was trying to say to her dad in the story My favorite chaperone. This shows how immigrants can use translators to get help because without Maya he wouldn't have known why Nurzhan was suspended. Another strategy immigrants use to comfortable with the new culture is by understanding it. In my favorite chaperone Maya's mom gave maya the bracelet she received when she was sixteen as a sign that she was growing up.

On September 11, 2001, tragedy struck the city of New York. On that fateful day, two airplanes were hijacked by terrorists and flew straight into the twin towers. Each tower fell completely to the ground, taking thousands of lives with it and injuring thousands more. Not only did that day leave thousands of families without their loved ones, it also left an entire city and an entire country to deal with the aftermath of the destruction. Poet, Nancy Mercado, worries that one day people will forget that heartbreaking day.

In the article "Promised Land" Elizabeth Bethel examines the response of both blacks and whites to the new constitution and social reforms which led to vast changes in how the country was run from a political and economic standpoint. Elizabeth Bethel shows us the obstacles slaves faced and the rapid change of the government as blacks gained rights in the years known as the Reconstruction. Following the Civil War, blacks gained many advantages such as: Working with their families, good working conditions, worked for wages, and some even owned some land for themselves. However, the years of the Reconstruction were extremely hectic as both blacks and whites fought for more power. Several violent acts were performed against blacks which reveals the whites' disagreement with black citizenship rights.

The Russian girl states, “Here I was with so much richness in me, but my mind was not wanted without the language. And my body, unskilled, untrained, was not even wanted in the factory. Only one of two chances was left open to me: the kitchen, or minding babies” (Yezierska). The Russian immigrant’s experience shows that in order to be successful in America one must adapt to its customs and practices. Eddy Isango the author of an online article titled Obstacles to the American Dream, quotes an immigrant named Laurent Kondohoma, “I’m here to learn English because the language is the biggest obstacle on my way to achieve my dream in America”, Kondohoma reveals that in order to attain the American dream one must learn the language of the dominate culture.

Growing up with two different cultures and trying to incorporate both within is the process of remaking an identity that is coherent to the live of a child that struggles within the corporation of two cultures that influence their mind-set. The study of Carola Suárez-Orozco and Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco in, Children of Immigration, the section “Remaking Identity,” the authors state the influence immigrant parents have over their children to maintain their cultural values. Not only does it affect the child 's self-identity, but being under pressure to keep a balance in their social lives outside of home. Being put under pressure to stick to one culture, these children are cautiously aware of when and where to switch among cultural behaviors that would look “normal” at home, and deliberately changing over to behaviors that will most likely fit in this community; this is a constant switch to make them look less “foreign.” Their cultural values cannot be broken down into one, as the study states that, “rather than using their parents’ standard, they apply the new society’s expectations about lifestyles …”

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.

For a nine-year-old who wants nothing more than to make her mother proud this was exciting. In the beginning, we can see her excitement and desire, “in the beginning I was just as excited as my mother, maybe even more so.” (Tan). However, as we follow the story we see her excitement quickly fade to sorrow and anger. The high expectations immigrant families place on their children is still a very relevant social issue and can be witnessed throughout the United States.

As reflected in the readings of Reading Popular Culture: An Anthology for Writers 3rd Edition, present-day advertisements expand far beyond the endorsement of a product. While the initial intent for various corporations surround the operation of selling and marketing products, many companies also find success in promoting masked messages. According to Jean Kilbourne in her article pertaining to the study of advertisement, she reveals the underlying tactics of commercialized business. As stated in the article “’In Your Face…All Over the Place’:

The main character, the principal character, the protagonist, all the same person whose name is otherwise known as Toby. Throughout The Trail, you will learn a lot about Toby, and get a deeper understanding for what it is he is going through. This is because the author, Meika Hashimoto, does a great job portraying Toby as the character he really is through his actions and character traits. One example of these character traits is him being extremely pessimistic, which is basically seeing the worst in everything, or believing that the worst is almost always going to happen. As expressed in the book, “Like a total moron, I literally exited my campsite and started walking back in the direction I’d come from .

The father tried to teach his daughter the culture through rice cooking, but she fails to replicate the method; whereas the brother avoids the cultural lessons by integrating himself into the local culture. This heavily suggests the brother rejects speaking the language and the culture, compared to the daily exposure of the Canadian culture and speaking English. The story “Simple Recipes” masks itself as a family having internal conflicts on the dinner table. While analyzing the story, it suggests the difficulty of integrating the local and origin culture in multicultural immigrant families.

Short Analysis Paper In the book, “Parting at the Crossroads: The Development of Health Insurance in Canada and the United States”, Antonia Maioni will examine the healthcare system, more importantly, health insurance plan in Canada, and U.S. Although Canada or the United States of America are neighboring countries, they have developed different forms of health insurance. In this paper, it will compare and contrast the historical methodology of the upbringing of the health insurance services in both Canada and the United States of America. It will further analyze the author’s perspective of divergences, and misidentification, between two different countries.

Immigrants that are new to the American society are often so used to their own culture that it is difficult for them to accept and adapt to the American culture. The language that is spoken, as well as the various holidays and traditions that Americans entertain themselves with, aren’t what most immigrants would deem a neccessity for their life to move on. Nonetheless, they still have to be accustomed to these things if they have any chance of suceeding in a land where knowledge is key. The story “My Favorite Chaperone” written by Jean Davies Okimoto, follows the life of a young girl who along with her brother Nurzhan, her mother known as mama, and her father whom she refers to as Papi have immigrated to the United States from Kazakhstan, through a dating magazine. Throughout the story each family member faces problems that causes them to realize just how different their life is know that they’ve immigrated..