Indian American Communication : Indian Americans

Cultural ideology strongly influences a student’s decision in regards to schooling and future opportunities (Lawrence et al., 2012, pp. 79-80). Whether students specifically choose otherwise; and the students run the risk isolation themselves from the cultural practices and expectations of his family and friends (Thompson, 2002, p. 8). Within the schooling culture a child will feel the same feeling isolated (Ewing, 2013, p. 85). As previously stated by the interviewee, parental input is a vital component. Discussing beliefs about cultural ideology with parents can be incorporated into the children’s

For the purpose of this project, our group has decided to focus on Native American culture and their non-verbal communication patterns. We chose to focus on Native American culture due to their unique methods of communication. What makes this culture so distinct is the way in which they encompass their values into their communication methods. Their communication methods are unlike most cultures and are even utilized within Western culture in modern day.

Through learning, families values, community relationships, and the willingness to achieve. Culture can be easily seen - the behavior of people – is the smallest part of culture. The greatest part, internal culture is inside people’s heads. It is our way of thinking and perceiving. Most importantly, it includes the values and beliefs unconsciously learned while growing up. The collision of two cultures as people come together causes us to become more aware of the differences and similarities between cultural values. By understanding the internal culture and significant values, we have a system to analyze and interpret behavior. People from around the globe bring their cultures here to American and institute them into society. Although, the United States is a culturally diverse society, there is a dominant culture and others give up their culture (depending upon where they may live) so they can fit into mainstream society. My family as other African American families changed their ways to fit into society hoping to become socially accepted because of not being members of the dominant culture. As with most societal trends, family values in all cultures are in constant motion; the list of American family values is always evolving. African

Beginning in the sixteenth century, Europeans made the voyage to a “new world” in order to achieve dreams of opportunity and riches. In this other world the Europeans came upon another people, which naturally led to a cultural exchange between different groups of people. Although we commonly refer to European and Indian relations as being between just two very different groups of people, it is important to recognize this is not entirely true. Although the settlers of the new world are singularly referred to as Europeans, each group of people came from a different nation and with different motives and expectations of the new world. Similarly, the Indians were neither a united group nor necessarily friendly with each other. Due to the

In American Indian life, they believe their life is interconnected with the world, nature, and other people. The idea of a peoplehood matrix runs deep in Indian culture, in this essay the Cherokee, which is the holistic view of sacred history, language, ceremony, and homeland together. This holistic model shapes the life of the American Indians and how their sense of being and relationship to their history is strong and extremely valuable to them. This essay will try to explain how each aspect of the peoplehood matrix is important and interconnected to each other and the life of the Native Americans.

Growing up as an Asian American, I often struggle to identify my own cultural identity. Being the first generation of both my mother and father’s side of the family, I more than often get confused between American and Asian culture when applying them to society or at home. While being raised at home, I am largely influenced by culture and traditions from Asian parents and relatives. However, when I go to school or someplace else, I am heavily judged for practicing part of my Asian culture because it is entirely different than western or American. With that being noted, I began to learn and adapt to the western culture in hopes of fitting with society as well of trying to keep my Asian culture intact. As can be seen, this situation I dealt with is the same problem the whole Asian American community faces. Mainly focusing on younger generations like me for example, the Asian American community struggles to adapt to the western culture because they were raised with an Asian influence. Wishing to fit in society and be part of the social norms, the Asian Americans community faces issues that identify their cultural identity.

Parents are entrusted with their children and raise them the best they know how, even as the children follow their own path in life. The American culture encourages youth to make the transition to independency, to find

Immigrants’ refusal to appreciate a fused culture promotes division. Mukherjee questions the idea of immigrants losing their culture for American ideals: “Parents express rage or despair at their U.S.-born children's forgetting of, or indifference to, some aspects of Indian culture,” to that Mukherjee asks, “Is it so terrible that our children are discovering or are inventing homelands for themselves?” (Mukherjee, 1997, para. 28). Many immigrants experience anger when their children no longer hold the ideals of their home country. This tension produced within the household hinders the unity within a resident country’s culture and encourages division within families. Using herself as an example, Mukherjee provides another instance of anger directed at her from her own subculture: “They direct their rage at me because, by becoming a U.S.

Prejudice, bigotry, and stereotypes are all learned behaviors. Children, especially in America, absorb these stereotypes from what they see and hear from the adults in their lives. In Mukherjee’s essay, American Dreamer, she discusses the negative stereotypes of Indians saying, “Indians idealize the cultural continuum, the inherent value system of India, and are properly incensed when foreigners see nothing but poverty, intolerance, strife, and injustice” (358). The stereotype that Indians are nothing but poverty stricken living in subpar conditions is nothing but

Adolescents experience a developmental journey as they transition from child to adult, and in doing so are faced with many developmental milestones. Physical, cognitive, social and emotional changes are occurring during this tumultuous stage of life, and making sense of one’s self and identity becomes a priority. Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian addresses the challenges of adolescence in an engaging tale, but deals with minority communities and cultures as well.

Kinship is an area we talked about extensively in class because it represents a huge part of many people’s lives. This ideal is found throughout and delegates the lives of many individuals throughout thousands of cultures. In “Motorcycles, Membership, and Belonging” McCurdy says that if an Indian couple were to come to the United States for the first time they might be, “surprised by [the lack of] American social relations.” (McCurdy 2014:209) In this essay I will be describing how American views on kinship and social relations vary from those of Indians through both personal experience and learned information.

When I was seven years old, I emigrated from India to the United States. Coming to the states, I experienced a culture shock due to the different types of people, customs, and education system. The first time I stepped in the states, I saw people from all different nationalities, races, and ethnicities; a whole different type of world that was inconceivable when I lived in India. An eventful part of my life was transitioning from the school system in India to the school system in America. The expectation of a student and child in the United States was vastly different to the expectations placed by society in India. Sociological imagination and sociological mindfulness enabled me to understand how

Sindelar suggests that there is a phenomenon known as the Split-Feather Syndrome, in which “social, psychological, and emotional disabilities — among expatriated Indian people, i.e., those who were placed and raised in non-Indian homes” (2004). The Split-Feather Syndrome may be due to the extremities in culture difference between Indian and other cultures. For instance, the ideologies of child-rearing, family bonding,

Nitin and Priya are Indian American Immigrants and consider to be the first generation. The first generation Indian Americans are mindful of the apparent cultural differences. The family struggles with the battle of where modernity clashes with tradition, which Indian culture clashes with American culture, and this is where theory clashes with custom. The American culture develop the basis for interaction outside the home (www.people.bu.edu). Also, inside the home the first generation of Indian Americans attempt to preserve their cultural

When the average American thinks of Indian family society, we probably have a rough idea. Usually, envision a ragged group of people who are squatting in mud houses. While the structure of the American family and Indian may be different, the roles of each member of the family are rather similar.