I met Goustan almost two years ago when he came to California on a school trip. The program he was with is called Horizon du Monde, and their goal is to help broaden the horizons of students all over the world. Most schools justify this vacation as a school-related trip by saying it will help students better their English. A week before he was going to arrive he started to email my father, but I would email him back. I was surprised at how well his English looked, he was able to write about his school experiences, music tastes, and everyday life. One could really tell from the way he kept writing that he was most likely an extrovert. Goustan stayed with my family for about two weeks and was almost completely surrounded by English-only speakers. Being so …show more content…
After a couple of days, he seemed to realize how far away from home he was and suddenly got quiet. He spoke of being overwhelmed by having to translate every word he heard, that thinking about how to respond correctly make him too nervous to speak, and being away from his family made him incredibly lonely. He was able to explain why speaking became so hard, saying “When somebody is speaking you remember you learned those words and pronunciation, but when I have to speak I am searching [for] my words, the best way to pronounce [them], and wondering if the words are in the correct order.” My family could see by the end of the first week that his affective filter was rising out of his control, so I tried to make him feel more at home. One night we sat and talked about what a normal night with friends looked like, in doing this he realized that we were not that different. We broke out the video games and continued to talk about school life, fun slang words, and weird foods we had tried in each other's countries. This calmed him down, and he became one of the funniest people I have even
...o assimilate into the society by entering school with a more acceptable name, but Gogol refuses. The acceptance of the society has pressured him to change his name in college, and to hide Gogol from the society. Till the day Gogol understands the reason why his father chose to name him Gogol instead of an Indian or American name, Gogol experienced a lot of changes, as a second generation American immigrant. Gogol has been assimilated to different culture than he ethnically is. At the end, through family, Gogol has come back to his roots. Gogol was not given an Indian name from his Indian family or an American name as he was born in America, to emphasize an individual try to assimilate into a different culture, but in the end, he is still bonded to his roots as the person he ethnically is.
Throughout Richards early childhood development he quickly understood that in order to succeed in America he would have to learn to confidently speak in English. Richard is Hispanic American and although he was born in America, Spanish was the only language that he was exposed to as a young child. He grew up in a home where Spanish flowed freely, but he soon realized outside of his home the language that he primarily knew was foreign. His parents spoke fluent Spanish along with all of his relatives. The brief encounters he experienced of his parents speaking English were only in public places and the proficiency was very poor. Rodriguez’s home was as a safety net for him and his Spanish speaking family with they are his only real connections to the outside world. It wasn’t until Richards encounter with his teachers that he and his family was heavily impressed on the importance of developing a public language. After the encouragement of the visit home from a teacher as a family
When I stepped out of the hot, airless plane into the bright, dazzling sunlight beaming down across the burning concreate, I felt excited and nervous. Holding my beach bag in my hand and slipping my Ray Ban sunglasses on with my other, I flip-flopped down the airspace. Overhead I heard the screams of gulls and the chatter of the small fluffy birds. I suddenly realized I had arrived to Hawaii. This trip was such an unforgettable vacation for me because I got to witness the beauty of nature that Hawaii has to offer.
An individual’s background is where one comes from and how he or she is raised. Tan is Chinese American. She has a traditional Chinese mother who speaks “broken” English. Tan states that, “It has always bothered me that I can think of no way to describe it other than ‘broken’, as if it were damaged and needed to be fixed[. . .]” (Tan 43). Tan is an American school girl. As Tan listens to her mother use that type of dialect, it causes her perception of her mother to be distraught. Tan believed it “[. . .] reflected the quality of what [her mother] had to say” (Tan 43). For instance, department store clerks, bank employees and restaurant workers will ignore her mother when they can not understand her. Tan is a writer who loves the use of language. She says, “Language is the tool of my trade. And I use them all-all the Englishes I grew up with” (Tan 41). She is able to adapt her dialect to her audience. With her mother, she uses “broken” English; with her colleagues, she uses correct English grammar.
Gogol basically grows up his whole life not feeling comfortable with his identity and who he is. Gogol doesn't feel like he belongs in his parents Bengali family, and he somewhat feels like he is living in between cultures sometimes. Growing up in America has made him feel like an outsider because his parents were always doing things in their culture. Throughout the book Gogol makes great efforts to find out who he really is and he does that by moving away from home. Gogol’s definition of home changes whether it's by getting a new girlfriend or moving to a new place he's not familiar with.
More importantly though, Dominic’s carefree attitude taught me not to be too self-conscious about my language difficulties. Because of him, I began talking to people again and tried my best to tell stories, crack jokes, and ask questions, even when I did not always understand the answers. My English speaking abilities began to flourish as I now considered my vocabulary to be a tool box used to make myself noticed. Soon, I was known as the "Foreign Kid" around school, a title I was oddly proud of. People started recognizing me in the halls, I made new friends, I talked as much as I could, and eventually I became
He also talks about if his teachers did not push him to speak English, he would not have learned the language as easily. He stated, “I would have felt much less afraid. I would have delayed- for long postponed- having to learn the language of public society” (Rodriguez 4). His teachers forced him to learn the public language, but that also encouraged his family to learn too. Now knowing the public language, they speak it more fluently and regularly.
Such drastic change, some referred to as “ culture shock”, does not necessary only apply to adults, but also dependent children. Just as an adult immigrant, a child faces similar problems in his new life in this brand new environment. The challenges arise not only because of these difficulties
One awesome story my family has let me know is my family 's history. My maternal grandma 's guardians went to the United States from Ukraine by vessel around 1906 or 1907. They at first settled in Export, PA, in light of the fact that they had relatives and companions living there. My grandma was conceived in 1921 and was the seventh of eight youngsters. A year after she was conceived, they moved to Warren, OH, where they stayed until my grandma moved on from secondary school. The family 's religion was Ukrainian Orthodox. My grandma grew up communicating in Ukrainian and English. Ukrainian was talked in the home, and English was talked at school. My grandma began kindergarten at the age five knowing no English. She grabbed the English dialect from her colleagues. My grandma 's family did not claim an auto. Each Easter, they strolled around seven miles to go to...
In the beginning of the book toward Gogol’s early life, the reader may make the observation that Gogol is more American than Bengali. In Gogol’s teen years he shows more admiration for being American than Bengali when he listens to his new American tape rather than his Indian one. On Gogol’s birthday, his father sees the “Lennon obituary pinned to the bulletin board, and then a cassette of classical Indian music he’d bought for Gogol months ago, after a concert at Kresge, still sealed in its wrapper” (Lahiri 78). Even since Gogol was little he had always been a little different considering that he was born as an American, unlike his parents. His parents carry on their Bengali traditions and for the most part avoid becoming full Americans. As for Gogol, he continues to act, think, and be American before any tragedy is present. Lahiri writes, “But Gogol never thinks of India as desh. He thinks of it as Americans do, as India” (Lahiri 118). Gogol is American and he knows it, he doesn’t mind thinking like one either. As Gogol is more American than his parents, he is simply dragged away due to hi...
There I am, starting my first varsity basketball game while only being fourteen and a freshman at Ballard High School in the suburbs of Louisville, Kentucky. The loud and rambunctious crowd driven by the rowdy student section yelling chants and jumping up resembled the same atmosphere as a Chiefs game at Arrowhead Stadium. As the other team comes up the court, I run up to to the ball handler to try and defend him. However, about three steps before I get to him, I heard a pop in my knee and fell to the ground in immense pain. As I grabbed my leg while squirming around, I was scared because I had no idea what had happened to me or what was going to happen. Fast forward a few months, I am laying on a table in a doctors office while facing the bright ceiling lights, I couldn’t keep still and desperately trying to ignore the dreary situation. I was trying to focus on staying warm in the oddly cold room, but the events from that one night kept running through my head— The pain, my overwhelming fear, and my mothers frantic face when i was being rushed to the hospital. The doctors told me I had torn my ACL and part of my meniscus. I can remember the innocence of my response to the news: “So
I got home and began thinking about my options to make my life a bit more interesting. I went through the usual options of having a nice vacation in the Bahamas, moving to a new country, or just getting a new car; yet, they all fail to peak my interest. I wanted something extravagant to happen, like a zombie apocalypse or a nuclear war, for all I cared. I began surfing around the deep web, looking at all the illegal things it had. Then I saw an advertisement on the screen, “Is someone causing a problem in your life? Hire one of our special members to take care of them.” My interest was piqued. I clicked on the ad, only to find it was a ‘hire a hitman’ website. Then, out of the blue, I had an amazing idea to hire a hitman on myself. It would
Now you know our friend’s experiences -Rodrigo, Rubén, Jessica, Nieves, Ms. Rena, and all the rest of them. And you also got to know how they are related to English language; their difficulties, advantages, points of view and ways of thinking. Fortunately, this might mean you are now aware of the relevance English has in our current context. Although some people may still say that learning English is just an option, we are now able to stand our ground and claim that English is now a tool, a means … and an open door to a whole new world of experiences, people and resources which were not so easy to access
bad as I expected it to be. The queue seemed to flow by. Like fish in
Throughout someone’s life they will go to many places with their family, friends, another relatives. I have been on a few vacations that have made a lasting impact on my life. But one of the most memorable vacations I have experienced was with my cousins. I went to goa beach. Most of you probably don’t know about that beach but it is a very famous one in south India. I enjoyed myself to the fullest. The beach environment was enlightening. I would not have wanted to take this trip with anyone other than my cousins. We had a great time on the ocean sands and swimming in the ocean everyday made this vacation unforgettable.