Chinese Assimilation Analysis

Assimilation of immigrants in another country is a long and complex process. To better understand why one minority group assimilates easier than the other, cultural differences and backgrounds of both countries (the country of birth and the country of entrance) are supposed to be viewed and analyzed. To take a closer look at the issue of assimilation, Chinese ethnic group has been chosen, because studies show that Chinese “have not become integrated as rapidly as many other ethnic minority groups”(Fong, 266). As an illustration, Amy Tan describes difficulties her mother faces in the everyday life as a first-generation Chinese immigrant in America due to linguistic issue. Her “limited” or “Broken” English does not let her fully assimilate into

The difference between them is that Amy was born in the United States; therefore she uses English as a primary (or majority) language, and Chinese as a secondary (or minority) language, while her Mother, who was born and raised in China uses two languages in the absolute opposite way. Colin Baker indicates that minority or majority languages can be used for the different purposes. For instance, majority language more likely will be used for “schooling, mass media and internet, business and commerce and correspondence with government departments”, whereas minority language will be used in more intimate and informal situations, for example with family at home, with members within the community or for religious purposes (67). Baker claims that “different language situations usually make one language more prestigious that the other. The majority language will often be perceived as the more eminent, elegant and educative language”(68). In case of Amy’s Mother, minority language (English) is used for public and business communications, which causes prejudices and preconceptions among members of society she assimilates into (Americans), who use majority language (English) for these