Minority Paper While I was on my missionary trip in Los Angeles, California, my group and I went to this informal Cajun style restaurant ran by all oriental employees. The name of the restaurant is The Boiling Crab located in Garden Grove, California on Brookhurst Street. We visited the restaurant on July 14, 2014 from 8 pm to10:30 pm, which was on a Monday night. The weather was around 60 degrees and windy around the time of sunset. The interior had a twist of modern and rustic look to it that kind of reminded me of Logan’s or Famous Dave’s, but was full of oriental staff and customers. I had a fun time experience such a different environment and cultural setting. In my reflection, I will be talking about reactions, my feelings and future development. When we finally got to go into the restaurant after waiting outside from about an hour, the smell was of Cajun spices that reminded me of Louisiana when I went there during the 8th grade for personal reasons. The atmosphere was of alien origin due to the entire restaurant being full of oriental people. Our waitress was of Korean descent, if I can recall, and the majority of the customers were also of Korean descent. My reaction at first, was wow that 's a lot of Asians! I couldn’t believe that we, the mission group, was going to be the minority in the restaurant at the time. When we entered the restaurant, a majority of the customers looked up and had this look of why are they here. In my mind, I believe they
While culture, in a general sense, can be defined as the collective arts and customs of a population, it is also important to consider the broader collective aesthetic of said community. Being such, it is necessary to understand culture before interacting or entering a society as this allows one to better understand tradition and the attitudes towards various aspects, such religion and customs. When I look at my own culture, there are various aspects that shape my daily interactions with society at large and how I approach a situation. As a white male of a higher socioeconomic standing, I am afforded some level of impunity and status within my contemporaries, this due to the history of America and the culture that has been developed. Being that I wish to attend Lund University for the study abroad experience, there are
The world culture has many different meanings depending on the person you ask. Each person has their own view on what they think culture is. To me, culture could be defined as different puzzle pieces that come together to create a person socially, physically and mentally. According to Chapter Three, Culture and the Culture-Learning Process, authors Cushner, McClelland, and Safford (2009) talks about culture and defines it as “Culture determines, to a large extent, people 's thoughts, ideas, patterns of interaction, and material adaptions to the world around them” (p. 61). This definition of culture explains that everyone culture is different based on their environment and influences around them. Culture starts at home and can then branch
The half-Chinese claims that this incident occurs with frequency in foods from other Asian countries. For instance, she introduces one interview and one episode of sitcom which are the personal stories of Maangchi's and Eddie Huang's. Both of whom are from Asia as well as have similar unpleasant experiences with Tam's. They felt shamed when white people complained about the smell of foods, which resulted in hesitation in presenting their original foods in public (2015, para 8-10). Tam's uses of primary sources as evidence is also effective since it shows this issue is not individual's matter, but immigrant families'. She feels sad about the fact that it has happened to a majority number of immigrant families and their everyday foods being treated in an offensive manner (2015, para.
As I contemplated on what my cultural plunge was going to be, it made me realize that I am lucky to say that I have been exposed and acquainted with maybe more than the usual. My ex-husband is Middle Eastern, I am Mexican, and I have homo-sexual friends, and have and had friends that are African-American, Caucasian, Japanese, Filipino, Jewish, and Korean. I finally chose to explore more of the Asian culture because although I have friends that are Asian I liked to know more about their culture. Being that I love to cook, I decided to go to an Asian market. As I searched the internet for suggestions on where to go, I found 99 Ranch Market to have the highest ratings. 99 Ranch Market is an Asian
White American women viewed Thai food as a quick getaway for viewing the Thai culture as they made variations labeled as Siamese (Padoongpatt 21). This relates to the argument because Thai cuisine was able to create a false sense of cultural knowledge; much like how people will claim orange chicken is their favorite Chinese dish, they are both things that White Americans claim makes them more multicultural. This leads into Padoongpatt’s next major point of changing geography. During the 1960 and 70’s, an influx of Thais decided to come into the United States, legally and illegally, with it came the uprising of both domestic access to Thai ingredients and Thai restaurants. This brought forth the fanfare of White Americans falling in love with the Thai people through their culinary treasures presented in their aesthetically traditional restaurants (Padoongpatt). This phenomenon can be attributed to the liberal multiculturalism found in the Los Angeles area because only through Thai cuisine was Thai America able to gain
Higashi and her husband both share a passion for eating at immigrant restaurants. She explains the many difference between the average fast food restaurant and immigrant-run restaurants. She dived into the atmosphere and how all the immigrant workers coincided with one another in order to have a great restaurant. Everyone ate the same delicious food and kids did not have those kids menus that one would find at American restaurants. She set the atmosphere to appear friendly and as if you were eating dinner at one's house. These type of restaurants seem way better than any fast food restaurant. When food is made by real people who care about what they are making, it shows. Nothing shows this more than when the cook herself came out of the kitchen
In the short story Fish Cheeks by Amy Tan, Amy was positively influenced by her mother who was very proud of her background and culture. In the beginning of the story when Amy gets to know that the minister’s family and his crush Robert were invited for the Christmas Eve dinner my her parents, she was very embarrassed of her relatives, culture and the food her mom made. In paragraph two, Amy says “What would he think of our noisy Chinese relatives who lacked proper American manners? What terrible disappointment would he feel upon seeing not a hasted turkey and sweet potatoes but Chinese food?” (Tan 1).
In Marie Sarita Gaytan’s “From Sombreros to Sincronizadas,” she argues that the authenticity of Mexican restaurants has become a social construct. Different types of Mexican restaurants are considered more authentic because of a stereotype we created in the early 1970’s. After its creation, people refused to accept anything but the “ideal” Mexican restaurant and would raise their noses to anything different from their ideas of authentic Mexican food. She states that to have any type of real Mexican food, you must have true Mexican spirit, which cannot be copied. All in all, Gaytan’s argument is that the idea of authentic Mexican food is our own and not everyone else’s. Real Mexican food comes from years and years of cultural development and
The media chosen for this essay is based on a currently running television show that is being aired on the American Broadcast Company or what is more commonly know as ABC. The name of these television show is called Fresh Off the Boat, which is a work of comedy based fiction set between the years of 1995 and 1997 in which the family of a Taiwanese family comprised of first, second, and third generation immigrants that move from Chinatown in Washington, D.C. to Orlando, Florida of the main protagonists is a son named Eddie Huang in which he is basically the narrator of the story. The father of the Huang family moves to open a country and western themed restaurant and the majority of the family begin to have issues assimilating into the Florida community almost entirely devoid of other Asians. Although the cultural aspects of how the family is not fitting in plays a prominent role in the narrative as told by Eddie other
When entering a grocery store, most people don’t take the time to stop and observe their surroundings, for their soul purpose at that instant is to purchase what very food they may need for that day or maybe even for that week. However, through all the haste of wanting to go in and out of grocery stores as fast as one can, most are unaware of the very culture that they too are now apart of, the interactions, both verbal and through people’s body language that they are experiencing, how people look and dress, even what is considered appropriate behavior although not specifically written down. Culture is all around us, and we all contribute to it, whether it is through our norms, values, symbols, or mental maps of reality (Guest 2014, 38-43). That is why through this assignment, I took the time to observe the culture experienced in the American grocery store Stater Brothers, the ethnical Filipino grocery store Seafood City, while also taking the time to reflect on my own personal views of what I thought was “normal” through my experience working in Northgate Gonzalez Market, a Mexican grocery store for three years.
An immigrant brings multiculturalism. This is because culture diversity can be reconciled with national identities which contribute different ways of art, language, traditions and behaviours. This can be analysed in the following. First of all, immigrants are associated ethnic diversity and cosmopolitan in their eating habits. For instance, According to Liu and Jang (2009 , cited in Mazzolari & Neumark, 2012, pp. 1134,1135) data collected from chinese restaurants in midwestern us city ,the coustomer of Caucasian were 60.2% while, Asion were 32.0%. Furthermore,Indian restaurant in Minneapolis/St.Paul. the customer of white american were 75% and 12% of customer were South Asian (Josiam and Monteiro,2004, p. 1134). From this evidence, it can be seen that ethnic restaurants simply serve new immigration from corresponding ethnic group and also expand natives’ consumption choices. The locals of
Chinatowns are there in many countries in the whole world, with the inclusion of United States, France, Australia, India, United Kingdom, Canada, South Africa, among others. They are often marred with spectacular allusion to the stereotypic Chinese cultures in most cases. Nevertheless, the scope of the display of these definitive Chinese cultural elements in the Chinatowns varies a bit from one country to the other. The essay considers this in comparing the situation between American Chinatowns and the French Chinatowns, using a personal experience in a Chinese restaurant in Cambridge, where I have been every Saturday, since February, with the Massachusetts Go Association’s members. It considers the following as points of argument: dress codes in Chinese restaurants; overall conversations and interactions; use of exotic languages; the precise restaurant service mannerisms and architectural dimension.
Chang’s Bistro. What they do before they head over there is dress us in disguises, they dressed up as “stereotypical Chinese children”. Cartman had a bamboo hat on and Butters had a smaller one on and they also wore clothing that a “typical Chinese child” would wear. Cartamn also told Butters that they had to talk like the Chinese. He told him that they have to say “Herro and Pwease” a lot
The concept of culture is something that defines many aspects of one’s life. From physical objects to different ways of thinking, culture adds significance to human life and makes groups of people distinct from one another. Culture is essentially a group of people who come together with similar interests and points of view. According to the Center for Advanced Language Acquisition of the University of Minnesota, “culture is defined as the shared patterns of behaviors and interactions, cognitive constructs, and affective understanding that are learned through a process of socialization.” From a more sociological perspective, culture is a way in which people come together in order to fulfill their needs. These shared patterns and ideas identify the members of a culture group while also distinguishing those of another group.” Culture is one of the things that sets the United States apart from the rest of the world. Not that the rest of the world is not cultural, but the circumstance here is different. Many people of different cultural backroads come to this country in search of a better life. As a consequence, the United States has become a place where many cultures merge together like a colossal pot soup.
Kroeber and Kluckhohn (1962) identify over 150 scientific definitions of the concept of culture. Indeed, many authors have tried to define culture and this is why there are so many definitions and that a unique one is hard to find. First of all, Kroeber and Kluckholn (1952) assume that culture is a suite of patterns, implicit and explicit, “of and for behaviour acquired and transmitted by symbols, constituting the distinctive achievements of human groups, including their embodiments in artefacts” (p.47). Later, Hofstede adds that culture is “the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one category of people from another” (Hofstede, 1991, p.51). This definition is the most widely accepted one amongst practitioners. For Winthrop (1991), culture is the distinctive models of thoughts, actions and values that composed members of a society or a social group. In other words,