Like Birds, Like People
Did you know that a stork leaves its continent around mid-August for a warmer environment which will provide food for its soul? What is more interesting is that the couple storks do no travel together but separately. Could it be the same with people? 750,000 from 5 million children in Romania are affected by their parent’s migration. 80,000 families have at least one parent working in a different country and 24,000 families have both parents gone over the border. I have gathered data from 3 of those individuals that once endured the pain of loneliness for what seemed a better future. Two Caucasian college students at a large, urban public University in the United States and one Caucasian employee of a large aviation company from a large city-center in the Northeastern United States decided to share their feelings and personal experiences on their migration to United States.
Usually it takes years to adapt to a new culture, and still even after that, many feel uncomfortable or feel like something is missing. All three interviewers lived in America from the range of seven to eleven years and are still adapting to the American culture. Two of the students attended junior high, high school and college, and one student attended college. Even after going through years of education in a new place, still, adapting to a new place made it extremely difficult to make friends and do well in school. The language barrier did not allow them to fit in, when students at school were talking about music, brands, or movies. Being around a new culture everyday, an individual will start slowly fitting in and practice the new traditions, forgetting the old ones. At the moment the interviewers practice more American culture especially when they go out with their friends. Even though they are all Russians, they speak English, listen to English songs and eat American food. One student said that living in America is very good but he wouldn't want to be born here. Being born in Europe made him appreciate some thins in the United States more. For example at just 20, he bought his own car, which is something that would never be possible to achieve back in his country.”
Often, a lot of immigrants feel inferior to others because they are not used to a new culture and are still struggling, especially with language. Most immigrants are bilingual or multilingual which makes it even harder to learn a third or fourth language. Since the language barrier is a big issue in America, I decided to ask some questions on the language discrimination as well. Two of the interviewers speak two languages besides English and one interviewee speaks one language aside of English. Now speaking fluent English stops a person from making friends. One student stated that throughout his journey in America, he had a few good friends but they were the same nationality as him. The student always felt as if he was connecting better with people who would speak the same language. Maybe it was because he never really felt completely comfortable speaking English. Plus the jokes and anecdotes were hard to translate in English, and most of the time it wouldn't even make sense.” Another major issue most immigrants are facing is language bullying. Most of my interviewers got bullied because they were of a different nationality. One interviewer stated: “I brought European food in school once and many students started laughing at me. Also a lot of people call me a communist but I can never understand if they are joking or not.” “I am 6’1 and weight 200 pounds so no one would dare to mess with me, however in college often, I would say a word with a heavy accent and students would giggle” Many refugees do not communicate as much with Americans as they would with people who speak their native language because the barricade between speaking fluent English and broken English leads to mocking and disrespect from other individuals who are fluent in English. However, the saddest thing for me to observe about culture domination is how quick many immigrants forget their beautiful cultures. From all three interviewers I shockingly found out that they cannot fluently speak, write or read in their languages anymore. Also they consider themselves Americanized in ways that they love typical American food such as burgers, fries, sodas, enjoy watching baseball ( this type of sport is not usually famous in Europe ) and some work for American companies. Even though they speak English everyday and revolve around American society, still most of them listen to some European music and prefer some European food. However their playlist still contains mostly American music, their closet is filled with American brand clothes and that will never change unless they migrate to a different country. For many language and cultural domination will not be an issue to think about but it is that what defines a man. Without culture and tradition a man is just an ordinary individual, blindly following the society. In order to be unique and most important, have respect towards your motherland, it is very significant, no matter where you are, to remain in tact with the qualities you were born in, and keep in mind and heart all the beautiful rituals once practiced at home.
Picture Credits: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:White_Stork_(Ciconia_ciconia)_(5).jpg
Did you know that a stork leaves its continent around mid-August for a warmer environment which will provide food for its soul? What is more interesting is that the couple storks do no travel together but separately. Could it be the same with people? 750,000 from 5 million children in Romania are affected by their parent’s migration. 80,000 families have at least one parent working in a different country and 24,000 families have both parents gone over the border. I have gathered data from 3 of those individuals that once endured the pain of loneliness for what seemed a better future. Two Caucasian college students at a large, urban public University in the United States and one Caucasian employee of a large aviation company from a large city-center in the Northeastern United States decided to share their feelings and personal experiences on their migration to United States.
Usually it takes years to adapt to a new culture, and still even after that, many feel uncomfortable or feel like something is missing. All three interviewers lived in America from the range of seven to eleven years and are still adapting to the American culture. Two of the students attended junior high, high school and college, and one student attended college. Even after going through years of education in a new place, still, adapting to a new place made it extremely difficult to make friends and do well in school. The language barrier did not allow them to fit in, when students at school were talking about music, brands, or movies. Being around a new culture everyday, an individual will start slowly fitting in and practice the new traditions, forgetting the old ones. At the moment the interviewers practice more American culture especially when they go out with their friends. Even though they are all Russians, they speak English, listen to English songs and eat American food. One student said that living in America is very good but he wouldn't want to be born here. Being born in Europe made him appreciate some thins in the United States more. For example at just 20, he bought his own car, which is something that would never be possible to achieve back in his country.”
Often, a lot of immigrants feel inferior to others because they are not used to a new culture and are still struggling, especially with language. Most immigrants are bilingual or multilingual which makes it even harder to learn a third or fourth language. Since the language barrier is a big issue in America, I decided to ask some questions on the language discrimination as well. Two of the interviewers speak two languages besides English and one interviewee speaks one language aside of English. Now speaking fluent English stops a person from making friends. One student stated that throughout his journey in America, he had a few good friends but they were the same nationality as him. The student always felt as if he was connecting better with people who would speak the same language. Maybe it was because he never really felt completely comfortable speaking English. Plus the jokes and anecdotes were hard to translate in English, and most of the time it wouldn't even make sense.” Another major issue most immigrants are facing is language bullying. Most of my interviewers got bullied because they were of a different nationality. One interviewer stated: “I brought European food in school once and many students started laughing at me. Also a lot of people call me a communist but I can never understand if they are joking or not.” “I am 6’1 and weight 200 pounds so no one would dare to mess with me, however in college often, I would say a word with a heavy accent and students would giggle” Many refugees do not communicate as much with Americans as they would with people who speak their native language because the barricade between speaking fluent English and broken English leads to mocking and disrespect from other individuals who are fluent in English. However, the saddest thing for me to observe about culture domination is how quick many immigrants forget their beautiful cultures. From all three interviewers I shockingly found out that they cannot fluently speak, write or read in their languages anymore. Also they consider themselves Americanized in ways that they love typical American food such as burgers, fries, sodas, enjoy watching baseball ( this type of sport is not usually famous in Europe ) and some work for American companies. Even though they speak English everyday and revolve around American society, still most of them listen to some European music and prefer some European food. However their playlist still contains mostly American music, their closet is filled with American brand clothes and that will never change unless they migrate to a different country. For many language and cultural domination will not be an issue to think about but it is that what defines a man. Without culture and tradition a man is just an ordinary individual, blindly following the society. In order to be unique and most important, have respect towards your motherland, it is very significant, no matter where you are, to remain in tact with the qualities you were born in, and keep in mind and heart all the beautiful rituals once practiced at home.
Picture Credits: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:White_Stork_(Ciconia_ciconia)_(5).jpg