What works in America :: Culture Cultural Essays

What fancyt life in AmericaJennifer Mancinis parents were born in Italy and immigrated to America just beforehand they had two daughters, Jennifer and her sister. They left a country whose culture stressed adjoining family ties, usanceal food, traditional ways of preparing food, and strict social customs. It is Italian tradition that family stick together through the hard times parents are evermore there for their children and children are always there for their parents. When the Mancinis came to America, they were forced to abandon legion(predicate) of their customs in fact, any they held on to was a bit of the previous(a) language and their Italian food. Through the experiences she and her family perk up endured, Mancini believes that people eventually testament assimilate to a more mainstream culture over time, even if they didnt plan to or want to.Just like the centenarian saying goes When in capital of Italy do as the Romans do. Although most immigrants are reluctant to stray from how they have learned to live, it will help them to give up much of their old ways and accept the dominant culture America has to offer. Rejecting or simply non being able to stray from ones previous culture results in negative responses from the mainstream American culture. Ronald Takaki, a professor and historian at the University of atomic number 20 at Berkeley, shared his view of immigration along with personal experiences in his essay entitled A Different Mirror Takaki, a southward generation Japanese-American, describes how his appearance erected a barrier between himself and an American. His experience begins wrong a cab on the way to a conference on multiculturalism. The driver and Takaki chat for a few minutes until the middle-aged lily-white man in the front seat notices something odd, his passenger experiences foreign stock-still speaks perfect English. Takaki explained to the driver that he had lived his entire life in The get together States and is a true-blooded American. Takaki tell us that, Somehow I did not look American to him my eyes and complexion looked foreign (589). The cab driver immediately mistaken that a foreigner had entered his car because Takaki did not look like all the other Americans that ask for a ride. His eyes were slanted and his complexion a little darker than the norm, too dark and slanted to be from this country. That is the difficulty with immigration in America today. The American people often are not open enough to get past the differences found amongst ethnic backgrounds.