Personal Narrative To Assimilate Into A Foreign Culture

I interviewed a beautiful and courageous woman, of African descent. Born and raised in Monrovia, Liberia on May 20, 1969. In addition, she has one biological brother and three step siblings. Currently she resides in Loganville, Georgia, where she lives with her two children. By the same token, she and her husband been married for twenty-one years to her loving high school sweetheart husband. Due to unfortunate circumstances, she lost her husband in the line of duty. Causing her to become a widow, continuing to survive life without her husband. When I conducted this interview, had one topic in mind that I wanted to learn more about her life as an immigrant and how did influence her life.

Throughout my life, I have struggled with accepting my cultural identity. My parents were born and raised in India, but I was born here, in the United States, and hence, born an American citizen.

Moving from Jordan to the United States was challenging for my family. I was the only child at the time and my parents primarily spoke Arabic in the house. The elementary teachers I had described me as a timid student, because I could barely speak English. I had difficulty with simple reading and writing, while other students went through class with ease. Needing extra tutoring classes and years of being in ESL was exhausting. However, learning how to read, write, and speak English fluently was only the beginning of my journey.

Coming to the United States, I completely changed my path going from an international school with Italian and British curriculum to an all boys, Catholic preparatory school. I desperately wanted to blend in but the small accent you could hear when I spoke English exposed me as unique and my peers soon referred to me as the ‘foreign kid’. I learned to grow up quickly in

I was always a precocious child, yet argumentative and rebellious. I did not want to accomplish anything following a pattern set for me. I wanted to forge my own way. This determination set me at odds with my mother, and has defined our relationship all these years. It has surely led me down my own irregular path in life, and placed me in position to be the family’s black sheep.

As I walked into the house, my parents were waiting for me in the living room. I did not know what was happening, but from the look in their eyes, I knew that was something wrong. My mother sat me down to tell me that my father had lost his business. The situation seemed so hectic; yet, the conversation felt like it lasted a lifetime. Finding out this news was detrimental to my family because my father had worked hard in America to build this business. I learned that my father had to give up his business and, as result my family had to start over, and find a new way to make a living.

I was forced to come to America at the age of 13, knowing only Spanish. My junior year career was not pleasant because of that factor. I started off with four classes that were meant to teach me English. I was distraught and confused. I left my friends, my dad, and my life to come here. I was not comfortable at all. I felt alone, but I was not alone, there was another 12 students with the same obstacles as me. Now at the age of 18 I am proud of what I overcame and I can truly say these three strategies assisted me while overcoming my obstacle, Lifelong learning, develop mutually supportive relationship and believing in yourself.

Coming to a new country is hard, especally when you don’t know the language- up until I started school, it hadn’t been a problem for me. With the help of my parents, I was abe to overcome the challenge and become a great student. When I was in 4th grade, I was blessed with the opportunity to go to a better school where I’d recieve better education for

My “outside” cultural influences I have: America is one of the most ethnically diverse countries in the world culturally. We have German-Americans speaking German, Filipino-Americans speaking Tagalog, Irish-Americans speaking Irish, Scandinavian-Americans speaking Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, etc., Welsh-Americans speaking Welsh, Japanese-Americans speaking Japanese, Iraqi-Americans speaking Arabian, Mexican-Americans speaking Spanish, and all Americans united in the common goal to create the best possible nation in accordance with our Constitution.

Un inmigrante siempre será un inmigrante.” (West Side Story) Once an immigrant, always an immigrant. Sixteen years ago my parents made an unthinkable decision. Leaving behind their jobs, families, and everything they knew to pursue life in an unfamiliar country; the American Dream. So, one fateful morning my mother said her goodbyes boarded a plane with me in her arms at barely a year old. My dad had arrived earlier, flying from Argentina to New York on his own. I was too young to fully comprehend the struggle it was to assimilate in a country where they did not speak the language. Once I got older, I heard stories of their experiences and began to understand first-hand what it meant to be an immigrant in America.

I’m juror number eleven I immigrated from Europe to the US I work as a watchmaker.I believe in the justice system in America and will see that it gets carried out fairly and properly. I’m quite, polite, honest, educated, and I’m observant to all the facts, I will take everything into consideration before making a decision on a verdict.As I said before Im quiet and poliet I keep to myself untill I am asked to speak or when details need to be remembered and I treat everyone one with respect. At first I believed that the defendant was guilty but as we deliberated I came to see that there was a reasonable doubt that the defendant was innocent.

Sometimes I feel like I live in two worlds. one world or life is when I was in Puerto Rico where life was effortless and elementary,lots of leisure, and so much more fun. but i also have my world and life here in Boston where is not completely obscured. in boston it is where i am asked to identify myself. it is where people ask me what am i? i have always responded with “ i am puerto rican and black.” that sounds about right my mother is puerto rican and my father is black. most people act like it is strange for me to look and talk the way i do yet not be what they thought. in either world i have never really thought deeply about my ethnic origin because i always said i am puerto rican and black american that is it and nothing more needed to

My father left my mother as a young immigrant, he left me at a young age, I only had my mother and my little sister. I couldn’t imagine the world without them, so when I discovered I could potentially lose my mother, I almost fell apart.

I interviewed my uncle who is a 1.5 generation immigrant. He immigrated to the United States at the age of eleven, along with a few of his siblings and parents. To preserve his identity, I will use the pseudonym, Jose. Jose is from a small town called El Cerrito Colorado in Jalisco, Mexico. Learning English for Jose has been an ongoing struggle that he has been continuously working on. His experience moving to the Unites States and living here would be considered selective assimilation because in spite of the burden it has been for him to learn English, he has been able to become successful and gain a great education.

What is culture? Culture is the idea of what is wrong or right, the concept of what is acceptable within our society. Culture serves us as a guide, taking us to the "right way" and helping us to make sense of things that surrounds us. There are many different cultures around the world. A lot of them are similar in specific ways and others are just completely different, this difference explains why we think that people from different backgrounds are "weird".