Think about Amy Tan’s “Fish Cheeks” and its vivid description of the narrator’s embarrassment of her culture and family at the dinner with guests, and her later realization that she should celebrate her own culture and language. When we travel (or have people over), sometimes it’s as if we’re asking to make a fool of ourselves (e.g. don’t point, don’t give the thumbs up, don’t kiss people on the lips after they kiss your cheeks); we may not know what is or what is not culturally appropriate some situations. Have you ever been in a situation in which there was a cross-cultural clash or language misinterpretation? What happened? What was the experience like? Describe in detail. Post your freewrite by replying here.
Professor Joshua Belknap | ENG 1101 ML D105 | Fall 2022
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When I came here to the United States, my dad decided to put me in a High School, so I can go to Summer School. The High School has people of any part of Latinamérican, and I learn so many different things about other people’s culture. I have a friend that is from Paraguay and the words that she used, for me, were new. I didn’t know the meaning of some words that she used and sometimes I ask her what they mean. She explained everything and also she told me a lot of things about her culture and why she came to the United States. I spent a lot of time with her when I was in High School. We learn so many different things about each other in those times. Now that we both went to a different University, we don’t talk a lot of time, but for me, those memories that I made with her about our cultures. Another important thing is that our food was so different and sometimes she said that is something strange, but for me is delicious.
Since I’m Dominican situations like misinterpretations always happen with other Latinos, us Dominicans speak a very different Spanish than all the other Latin American countries and cultures. Some words might mean something for us and that same word in other countries it means the complete opposite or the definitions in both cultures are not even close to the other. For example, one time I was at school and while chatting with my soccer coach he said something in Spanish, he said “vayan a clase y diganle a la profesora la paja de porque estan tarde.” Which translates to “Go to class and tell your teacher the lie ofyou’re your late.” That word “paja” in his country means “lie” but it the Dominican term that word means something very different. It means, “to masturbate.” So, for the next 3 minutes we had to talk to our coach and say what the word meant for both of our cultures, and we were even more late to class.
I was young and ignorant the time I just moved to the U.S. One day, I accompanied my friend to take the Permit exam. I thought it was not difficult, so I planned to take one. Without any study, I directly signed up for the online Learner Permit Test. At the beginning, I made five mistakes in the ten questions. Later, I completed the remaining questions with an indifferent attitude, and I got all the correct answers. You know, I didn’t even know how far the word＂mile＂stands for. A flower has blossomed in my heart.
But not doing any kind of study made an embarrassing situation for me. After the test I was asked to have an eye test in person. A woman pointed to a stop sign and asked me what it was. I quickly replied, “It’s Red,” while thinking that was such an easy question. The woman frowned and asked me to be more specific, then I replied, “it’s a red hexagon!” There was another flower blooming in my heart because I knew the word “hexagon”. The woman didn’t say anything, I thought it meant I got right, so I just pointed to the sign beside her, which is “do not enter” and said that is red while there is a line. In addition, I describe ＂Slippery road be careful” as meaning “no drunk driving” in a way speak loud and clear, with no hesitation. Then, my friend stepped back, turned his head, and pretended not to recognize me. Meanwhile, the woman put her hand to forehead and gave me a driving instruction book. I sat down in a seat and began to read.
When coming to new york I had a lot of expectations of how buildings would look and how people would talk just because of the videos I would see online of how people would act and talk. One day my Uncle had decided to take me to a park in manhattan, now at the time I only knew how to play soccer I come from a family that only plays and watches soccer mind you I didn’t know how to speak english at the time and I didn’t know people. My uncle had told me to go over there and play with the kids they were my age and look hispanic so in my mind i thought they spoke spanish too but they didn’t and I tried to communicate with them but it didn’t seem to work but they did try to speak to me in english which I didn’t quite understand at that time but eventually I caught on to what they was trying to tell me and they let me join their game and yes my spectations were correct till
When coming to new york I had a lot of expectations of how buildings would look and how people would talk just because of the videos I would see online of how people would act and talk. One day my Uncle had decided to take me to a park in manhattan, now at the time I only knew how to play soccer I come from a family that only plays and watches soccer mind you I didn’t know how to speak english at the time and I didn’t know people. My uncle had told me to go over there and play with the kids they were my age and look hispanic so in my mind i thought they spoke spanish too but they didn’t and I tried to communicate with them but it didn’t seem to work but they did try to speak to me in english which I didn’t quite understand at that time but eventually I caught on to what they was trying to tell me and they let me join their game