The Friday That Changed My Life

Every individual, no matter who they are, will all face challenges that result from their backgrounds and cultures. Born in Calcutta, India and later moving to the United States, Amin Ahmad was an individual who discovered this harsh truth first-hand. In his essay, “I Belong Here,” Ahmad reflects on his experience of being treated differently from those around him based off his cultural background. He analyzes the emotional barrier that forms between the journey of immigration and the continuous feeling of inferiority based solely on the desire to belong. The article is written to provide a different point of view; one focused on introducing to the world the challenges and emotions immigrants face after starting the journey towards a new life.

Every individual, no matter who they are, will all face challenges that result from their backgrounds and cultures. Born in Calcutta, India and later moving to the United States, Amin Ahmad was an individual who discovered this harsh truth firsthand. In his essay, “I Belong Here,” Ahmad reflects on his experience of being treated differently from those around him based off his cultural background. He analyses the emotional barrier that forms between the journey of immigration and the continuous feeling of inferiority based solely on the desire to belong. The article is written to provide a different point of view; one focused on introducing to the world the challenges and emotions immigrants face after starting the journey towards a new life.

Unconsciously, we all speak different languages; we categorize the way we speak by the environment and people at which we are speaking too. Whenever a character enters an unfamiliar environment, they experiment with language to find themselves and understand reality. For immigrants, language is a means to retain one’s identity; however, as they become more assimilated in their new communities their language no longer reflects that of their identity but of their new cultural surroundings. When an immigrant, immigrates to a new country they become marginalized, they’re alienated from common cultural practices, social ritual, and scripted behavior. It’s not without intercultural communication and negotiation

First and foremost, new immigrants encounter copious issues to fit in the new society. The major concern among these problems is the language barrier. The excerpt from ‘Newcomer’ written by Mehri Yalfani 's highlights the challenges that Susan, an immigrant from Iran, faced throughout her course of understanding and speaking English. According to the story, both the hesitation to be fluent in an alien

The process of assimilating to a new culture, environment, and language is never an easy task for immigrants settling in America. Whether forced to make such decisions to relocate to America or doing so by their own desires, all immigrants have had to survive the physical and psychological challenges encountered along the way. Foreigners are not only challenged by having to adapt to the physical surroundings, but they are also challenged by the unfamiliar social and cultural environment. The academic report “Living in America: Challenges Facing New Immigrants and Refugees” edited by Katherine Garrett, identifies a variety of problems foreigners encounter according to conducted studies and interviews with immigrants in ten cities across the United States. The narrative essay “Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood “by Richard Rodriguez tells a story about the troubles Rodriguez and his family faced while first

After landing in Mexico and meeting up with the people I would be working with during a three-day mission trip, we were crammed into a bus and spent the next two hours getting to know each other. We were there to build homes for a multitude of families in the town of Xochimilco, Mexico. When we arrived late in the afternoon, we were led to an empty school where we would spend our nights. Sleeping on the floor next to school lockers with bugs buzzing in my ears in a country I did not know well was an interesting experience to say the least—but that was just the beginning. At dawn, the real work began and so did a change in my thinking that had a dramatic effect on my perspectives about life.

Thomas waved on another immigrant, his clothes already clinging to his skin in the sweltering mid-July heat. This Thursday seemed to be busier than days prior, but perhaps, he thought, he was simply hot and tired. He had been stuck in the same seat for several hours, asking each individual questions and moving them along into the proper queues. His interpreter, a young woman by the name of Louise, had been sitting alongside him tirelessly translating the words of the foreigners into English. She was quite intelligent for a woman of her age, and stuck out among the other interpreters as well. Most only knew one language other than English, but she knew three: Russian, Polish, and Italian. She learned from her father, who was a professor at

Bharathi Mukherjee’s later novels Jasmine(1989), The Holder of the World(1993) and Leave It to Me(1997) comprised her last creative phase conveniently termed here as the phase of immigration. By now she has travelled a long distance in terms of thematic perception and character portrayal. Beginning with an expatriate’s uprooted identity in the early 70’s, her creative faculty explored the transitional dilemma of characters in early 80’s, whose acculturation bids were occasionally thwarted by the complexity of cultural plurality in the adopted land. However, after the publication of The Middleman(1998), the process of cultural acclimatization appears to be complete and the characters betray the confidence of an immigrant, almost a naturalized citizen, in facing the challenges of human life.

This book, and the lessons Mrs. Song taught through it, were some of the most eye-opening experiences of my academic career. Mrs. Song was immensely fond of multi-faceted ways of teaching. She took us on a field trip to the refugee offices in Nashville, TN where I learned that most people do not understand how difficult it is to integrate into American culture, and also how important it is to adjust wholly. These experiences have fueled my desire to learn more about refugees in my community and how to serve them. Following this Nashville visit, Mrs. Song introduced us to her friend who was a refugee from Liberia. She currently owns a local sewing shop, and she invited us to her shop to discuss her life and journey as a refugee. My eyes were opened to the hardship, courage, and perseverance required of immigrants. Learning of their hardships encouraged me to persevere through difficult situations.

I was twelve years old when my family decided to move to America and I can still recall the memories when I left India. I was horrified. What worried me most was going to a new school where I would have to communicate in an unfamiliar language. I feared that other kids would look down upon me for my inability to speak English properly. However, in the essay “Mother Tongue”, the author Amy Tan gives a different, a more optimistic outlook on the various forms of English that immigrants speak as they adapt to the American culture. Using simple language to develop her argument, she casually communicates to the audience rather than informing, which helps the audience understand what is being presented. Tan’s mother plays an important role in her outlook of language because she helps her realize that language not only allows one to be a part of a culture, but also create one’s identity in society. Amy Tan shares her real life stories about cultural racism and the struggle to survive in America as an immigrant without showing any emotions; which is an enlightening experience for the audience. It reveals how a non-native English speaker handles everyday situations.

The next day, we go to a local ministry and work to give free meals to several hundred refugees. During this time, I converse with incredible people of all ages and occupations from across the Middle East and Africa. I hear their stories and share their tears and triumphs. My Persian heritage and my Papa Sheik’s journey connect my story to theirs. Throughout the remainder of the week, I continue to serve in similar

When adapting to a new culture, many find it hard to assimilate into their new world while still holding on to their past life. Finding yourself in a new place with a new language and unfamiliar faces is challenging for immigrants. Jhumpa Lahiri, an immigrant herself, sheds some light on the Indian culture in her book, Interpreter of Maladies. She conveys many challenges that immigrants face when moving away from their homeland in a myriad of short stories. These short stories introduce similar themes of immigration and adaptation through different experiences. Two of Lahiri’s short stories, “A Temporary Matter” and “Mrs. Sens”, do a great job in showing similar challenges of cultural differences in two different ways. They introduce characters

Jhumpa Lahiri’s second story “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine” presents the relationship between an Indian family and their friend Mr. Pirzada, a Bangladeshi migrant. The narrator of the story is a ten year old girl Lilia who is not aware of the history of the Indian subcontinent related to freedom struggle, civil war of East Pakistani etc. We see that Mr. Pirzada, Lilia’s father and mother take dinner with one another while at the same time they listen to the evening news. Though they are now in America but they want to know what is going on in their native places. It shows their longings for their respective countries though they are

American immigrants live a double life balancing two different cultures. In a collection of short stories, Jhampa Lahiri, author of Interpreter of Maladies, illustrates Indian-Americans caught between two identities. First, in Lahiri’s “Temporary Matter”, she uses commonplaces such as death, divorce, and pain in a story about an Indian couple living in America. In order to show that people of different cultures share similar issues, she writes about experiences commonly felt by a given audience. Shukumar and Shoba’s marriage is failing due to the loss of their child at birth.

An accident last year changed my attitude towards life . That accident had a great impact on me , it taught me to treasure what i have and to treasure those people around me more . Although the accident was not life threatening , it was still the scariest thing i had ever been through in life . It was an accident that no one would have expected and wanted it to happen .