Journal - Week 2

This was a fascinating read.  It exemplified all of what we assume about immigrants but more of what we don't realize.  What I tend to think of as an immigrant is someone that is Latino or Asian because they are usually a minority wherever I have lived.  And usually I assume that they all come as a family and are here in the U.S. because they wanted a better job, lifestyle, etc.  I am guilty of thinking of people from other cultures and places so lightheartedly and not realizing that there could be a reason that they came over here.  It is sad to think that there are child immigrants that come without their entire families and have to be separated in order to survive and live in a better place.  To not know the culture and the language of a new country is frightening to say the least.  As an adult, it is a scary thought to me.  To a child, it must be a nightmare.

As a child, my mother only spoke French.  She lived in the U.S. but the French culture is strong where she grew up and people mainly only spoke that language.  It was kind of a reverse situation: instead of my mother having to interpret, my grandmother had to do the talking for my mother when conversing with someone who only spoke English.  It is not that my grandparents didn't speak English with her, it was just the culture she was submersed in spoke French.  When my mother was growing up, she grew up different places overseas because my grandfather was in the navy.  She lived in Greece and Italy during her teenage years.  She experienced culture shock from not living in a place as comfortable as the U.S. Greece during the 1970s was going through a rough time and as a U.S. military family, the people of the country were not so welcoming to them.  Not only did my mother have to go through that, but she had to adapt to a totally different way of life; how people greeted each other, what was proper in conversation, what they typically ate for each meal, etc.  It was the same way there as it was in Italy.

Going back to the U.S. after quite some time in Europe took a little getting used to for my mother.  But she remembered what it was like when she was little.  Therefore, it was nothing too difficult to become re accustomed to.  I just think of the children coming from different places in the world and having to immigrate there on their own.  It takes a brave face and a lot of courage to be able to learn a different way of life and trying to fit in to something so strange from what they have previously known.