ipl-logo

Ethnographic Interview Paper

924 Words4 Pages

We were in Palm Spring on the weekend of November 21 for the swim meet. For my Ethnographic Project, I decided to interview one of my daughter’s swim friend’s mom and my friend, Linyun. We talked about it before and the meet was the best place for this interview. She is approximately 45 years old lady, married with an Indian-American guy. Her back round of culture is Chinese and she is from Taiwan. Even though her husband is Indian, he has Western culture because he’s grow up here. They have a 12 year old daughter, Aseata. Linyun came to the State in 2009, while her daughter was 7. She met her husband and got married in Taiwan. They lived in Taiwan for 8 years and decided to come to the State for her husband’s work and their daughter’s education. …show more content…

Children have lots of opportunity to do compare to Taiwan. Her daughter competitively swims and plays piano. In Elementary school there is no pressure kids can grow independently and they enjoy their childhood. Since she is a housewife, she learned that, here parents involve at school and spend too much time with their kids’ outdoor activities. That makes her think nobody works. She likes that Americans like to help people in need. She feels so happy at Christmas time when she donates foods and toys to the people in need. She misses her relatives especially her father because he is old, he cannot come to visit her. She visits home every year and she says every time she goes back home, she feels that this is the last time she will see her father and that makes her so sad. She misses her food and convenient like public transportations. In Taiwan she can go everywhere with a taxi, a bus, or a train. When she came here, she had to learn how to drive. She thinks here, in the State, if you don’t have a car, and especially if you don’t know how to drive, you stuck at home and you cannot do anything without a car. She made many friends with different cultures here. She has lots of Asian friends also and they get together most of the times. She cooks Chinese, Indian and Western foods. She and her husband has some conflicts. Her husband is really old and she has to do many things by herself and she doesn’t like it. He wants her

Show More
Related
1125 Words | 5 Pages

she may feel as though it is her job to take care of him especially because he is financially dependent on her, and 5. her culture makes her feel like her value roots from her

Read More
196 Words | 1 Pages

In “Are ethnographies ‘just so” stories?” by E. Paul Durrenberger, in this article he makes an argument about the form of culture being an artifact, and even science is a form of culture. He first points out the development of how culture came to term of being an artifact. Durrenberger says, “If we want to learn about a culture, we study its artifacts, especially the ones that say something about social relations and the culture itself” (60). This is significant because we can’t just have someone make up a story if they never studied or seen with their own two eyes to prove of what is real or not. The second point that he made is that science is a form of culture.

Read More
970 Words | 4 Pages

In the realistic fiction book, The Red Umbrella, by Christina Diaz Gonzalez, the main character Lucia needs to remember how to celebrate her culture when moving to America. In the realistic fiction book, Inside Out and Back Again, by Thanhha Lai, the main character Kim-Ha needs to show her culture even though she thinks differently and is

Read More
430 Words | 2 Pages

Family in Chinese Culture As shown in Amy Tan's short stories A Pair of Tickets, Immortal Heart, and Two Kinds, one can see the importance of family in Chinese culture. In the piece A Pair of Tickets, it is shown how hard Jing-mei's mother Suyuan looks for the twin babies she is forced to leave behind. Her effort is shown when Jing-mei's father recalls the travels, saying, "We went to many different cities, back to Kweilin, to Changsha, as far south as Kunming. She was always looking out of one corner of her eye for twin babies, then little girls" (Tan, A Pair of . . . " 163, 164).

Read More
1141 Words | 5 Pages

She has had challenges to overcome during her transition to America. The challenges that she must overcome are the same ones other refugees usually most combat. This is called the universal refugee experience. Once challenge is that most refugees usually leave their belongings behind as they leave their homes. Another challenge that most refugees

Read More
1066 Words | 5 Pages

This disagreement quickly became a source of resentment and anger for both of them, but Jing-Mei and her mother were unable to resolve this conflict because of their different backgrounds and experiences. The story showcases how relationships between mothers and daughters can be strained because of differences in culture and a lack of communication. One of the difficulties between Jing-Mei and her mother is their different cultural backgrounds, which is supported by two points from the story. Firstly, Jing-Mei and her mother both disagreed on the opportunities that existed in America. According to Singer, Amy Tan uses “two entirely

Read More
429 Words | 2 Pages

“After losing everything in China…She never looked back with regret. ”(Chunk 1 ¶3). Jing-Mei’s mother is a Chinese immigrant with the typical ‘everything is better in America’ mindset. Jing-Mei, being raised in America, had more of an American mindset. “You want me to be someone i’m not…I’ll never be the daughter you want me to be!”

Read More
838 Words | 4 Pages

Cultural differences is something important to the author herself that somehow helps her to become what she is really today. In the beginning of the novel, there are many traumas deal with cultural differences that the author undertaken. One of the traumas she experienced is when she 's in the United States living with Melvin and his mother, she felt like "she doesn 't want to wear American dress" (Le 16,17). This is understandable when a six-year-old girl wanted to keep her Vietnamese traditional culture. And because she is young,

Read More
737 Words | 3 Pages

Jing did not feel as if she was Chinese, since she lived in California; she felt more American. Once the train entered China she felt as if she was becoming Chinese. “The minute our train leaves the Hong Kong border… And I think, my mother was right, I am becoming Chinese” (241). Jing is excited to visit her relatives there

Read More
1635 Words | 7 Pages

She can’t seem to bare on having the image of being invisible to others who do not understand where she is from. Somehow she likes to be different from her surrounds, because she understand and speaks two different languages, but she cannot find the comfort she always wanted. A sense of unity towards her family and the people around her is the comfort of expressing on what she feels and

Read More
1197 Words | 5 Pages

The article “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior” was written in 2011 by Amy Chua, who is a professor at Yale Law School in the United States of America. The article follows significant themes such as the upbringing of children and perfectionism. In the article, the author, Amy Chua, explains the differences between the upbringing of children by respectively Chinese parents and Western parents.

Read More
1026 Words | 5 Pages

In The Joy Luck Club, written by Amy Tan, we are introduced to Suyuan and her daughter Jing-Mei “June” Woo. As with any relationship, there is conflict between Suyuan Woo and her daughter, as it seems that Jing-Mei doesn’t understand her mother’s Chinese culture and ambitions. In the Chinese culture, women are seen as inferior and often lack basic rights such as the right to marriage or financial holdings, thus deprived of their potential. This is why the rights in the U.S. are seen as privileges to Chinese women, among other minorities, and why Suyuan endeavored for her daughter to become a prodigy and excel in anything and everything. Yet as Jing-Mei was forced into this ideal, and the more her mother tried to enforce this idea, the further she begun to despise her mother for attempting to turn her into a “fraud”.

Read More
937 Words | 4 Pages

Jing Mei, while portrayed as an obedient child, is only willing to listen to her mother to a certain extent. Throughout the story, it is consistently hinted that Jing Mei would eventually explode against her mother as an attempt to free herself from her mother’s chains. In addition, after the fiasco at the piano recital, she eventually derives further from her mother’s wishes as she “didn 't get straight A...didn 't become class president...didn 't get into Stanford...dropped out of college.” (54). On the flip side, Jing Mei’s mother is a stereotypical Chinese parent who is fully determined to ensure her daughter’s success in a new environment.

Read More
1309 Words | 6 Pages

This peculiarly specific list showed that as a first-generation American, she was constantly scrutinizing the small actions that her mother demonstrated, and she was embarrassed, although it is not likely anyone else ever noticed. However, as she got older, Jing-Mei realized the fact that she was “becoming Chinese.” She still did not truly understand her mother or the beauty of Chinese culture, but her acceptance was the first step of the long excursion of

Read More
554 Words | 3 Pages

There are many challenges that immigrants face throughout their lives. Many immigrants are able to come to the U.S., but it is not easy as it seems. One challenge that immigrants go through is being able to have respect that the U.S. citizens have. Another challenge that immigrants face is being able to adapt to the new environment. People who arrive in the U.S. might not be able to speak English.

Read More

More about Ethnographic Interview Paper

Related Topics

Open Document