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Chinese Assimilation Analysis

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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 …show more content…

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

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ENG 122: 5-2 First Draft of the Critical Analysis Essay In the article “Eat Turkey, Become American,” Marie Myung-Ok Lee uses her family memories of Thanksgiving to share with her readers, with personal details and historical data, her family's migratory trajectory to the United States, and their experience living in a small town in Minnesota. The author also discusses the country's immigration system and how their Korean background affected her parents' process of obtaining citizenship. And how, despite a part of the city's population being racist and xenophobic, a group of people from the community where they lived joined forces to save a doctor from being deported. The article's main claim to illustrate the difficulties of immigration in a family is persuasive because it explores how children perceive a foreign culture, highlights the problems with the immigration system and xenophobia in the nation, and suggests ways the community can work together to help other immigrants who are experiencing a similar situation.

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Because of this lack of English education, we fail to assimilate the students to be functioning members of the United States. The way we are able to assimilate students is to create better programs for students who are learning English; that way, when it is time to enter the workforce, they will be able to understand what it takes to move ahead in this country. The article states that “Good bilingual immersion programs provide such an environment by giving English speakers and English learners ample opportunities to interact in and out of the classroom.” Assimilation relies on the need to acquire the social and psychological features of a group. Most Latino students in schools today hold a very small grasp on our language and our social system, which is partly due to the rampant segregation.

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701 Words | 3 Pages

Richard Rodriguez and Gloria Anzaldúa are two authors who both immigrated to America in the 1950s and received first hand experience of the assimilation process into American society. During this time, Rodriguez and Anzaldúa had struggled adjusting to the school system. Since understanding English was difficult, it made adjusting to the American school system increasingly difficult for Rodriguez. Whereas Anzaldúa, on the other hand, had trouble adjusting to America’s school system due to the fact that she didn’t wish to stop speaking Spanish even though she could speak English. Both Rodriguez and Anzaldúa had points in their growing educational lives where they had to remain silent since the people around them weren’t interested in hearing them speaking any other language than English.

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696 Words | 3 Pages

Assimilation is different for everyone. Whether it is going to a new school, joining a club, or even moving to another state or country, most people experience assimilation at least once in their lives. The book, Breadgivers, by Anzia Yezierska, is a good example on the assimilation process and how different it can be for people. Sara is a young girl who moved to The New World, otherwise known as New York City, with her parents and sisters from a small village in Poland. From the start, she knows she must assimilate to this new country that she now lives in.

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887 Words | 4 Pages

Both during and after moving to a new country, immigrants face many hardships. The process of obtaining citizenships is difficult in itself, but even when citizenship is earned there are still challenges. One major difficulty some immigrants may face is dealing with xenophobia. Immigrants who experience xenophobic prejudice can find adjustment to a new life very difficult. In contrast, those who are treated with kindness and as equal citizens find assimilating to a new culture easier.

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1271 Words | 6 Pages

“What is beneath my skin. Inside my bones?” (Tan 40). This is a familiarly asked question by many Asian immigrants, and many find it difficult to answer. The rich historical culture of Asian assimilation is a complex and intriguing subject.

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Amy Tan's goal has changed slightly. While the Author wants to show the effect language has on one's daily life and how we perceive others who are different, she also wants to show how the language barrier affects our society overall. The first key point I identified after active reading was the sentence beneath the title. "Don't judge a book by its over, or intelligence by her English".

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1686 Words | 7 Pages

Assimilation is usually meant to indicate what happens to immigrants in a new land. However, “rejection, loneliness, discrimination—these were the byproducts of living in the United States” (Ghymn 37). In Marilyn Chin’s essay on assimilation “How I Got That Name,” the speaker acquaints the readers how she got the American name “Marilyn.” The tension between the two cultures is evident, for the speaker is treated as “Model Minority.” Her race and ethnicity define her; in fact, the stereotypes inscribed with her race restricted and cage her significance in the society.

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301 Words | 2 Pages

For many new immigrants coming to America, it is difficult to adjust into the new society. Many come to America without the basic knowledge of English, the new immigrants do not have the ability assimilate to American society because of the lack of possible communication between the immigrant and an native. Non-English speaking immigrants that come to America face harsh challenges when trying to assimilate to U.S. society because immigrants are often segregated into ethnic communities away from natives, Americans do not know basics of words of other well known languages, and the lack of government funding education programs. Assimilation into a new society is difficult enough, but when the society pushes any new immigrants to separate part

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943 Words | 4 Pages

In her writing, Tan often describes her experiences as the child of Chinese immigrants, growing up in northern California and living in American culture. Tan explains how she has learned to embrace the many Englishes her mother speaks and how her background has also caused her to have different Englishes. While others classify her mother's English as "broken" she finds no fault in it. In Tan's view, just because something is broken does not necessarily mean that it is in need of fixing. In her essay, author Amy Tan addresses the connections between languages and cultures in describing the different Englishes her mother uses.

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598 Words | 3 Pages

hang-rae Lee exposes the inner and outer conflicts the immigrants go through in the United States with his novels. Immigrants or first generation immigrants are under oppression to assimilate into American society and culture. Isolation follows to whom fails to participate in assimilation to the society due to the language barrier or cultural differences. Therefore, immigrants fall into confusion between their original culture and adapted culture that they suffer an identity crisis. In Chang-rae Lee’s first novel, Native Speaker, the protagonist, Henry Park, tells the story as a first-person narrator with flashbacks.

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Life Changing Positions Immigration can be a controversial topic that many governments are feuding over today. As politicians argue, the real battle occurs as each individual immigrant determines how they will approach their new country. Immigrants must choose if they will assimilate to the new countries values, languages and traditions or maintain their home country’s customs. In the article, “Two Ways To Belong In America,” the author, Bharati Mukherjee, contrasts her and her sister Mira’s experiences along with millions of other American immigrants as they face betrayal, racism, and hardship.

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775 Words | 4 Pages

This specific theory is an alternative to straight line assimilation. It is a combination of straight line assimilation including the ethnic disadvantage model. It suggests that there are three possible paths of integration that the children of immigrants might undertake. Either upward mobility, downward mobility, or horizontal mobility. For instance, let’s take into consideration Pedro Flores.

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554 Words | 3 Pages

This shows that immigrants are struggling to cull cultures and new environment. Richard Rodriguez, also states “ I was talking to the Laotian kids about why they don’t like the Mexican kids ( Rodriguez ). This also relates because Ms. Tran also said, because of her race, she did not get along well with others. This shows that assimilation is also one of the most significant problems that immigrants face. Others may say that discrimination is the most significant problem.

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1020 Words | 5 Pages

They feel and become left out when they are with their community’s group of friends. In addition, some older children who came to the United States have a hard time learning a new culture because it was a culture shock to them. There are two major things that become problems in their journey to adopt a new culture; barrier to language and living their lifestyle. While adapting new culture, they have a difficult journey because of the bully, discrimination, and racism that they encounter. Some of these situations that Chin refugees face can be related to how Faith faces her problems with cultures and

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