“The ‘F Word’” in My Eyes
"The 'F Word'", an essay about the topic of unfamiliar names in American culture, struck a little close to home, but not for the reason one may think. Of course. My name is Eva. It’s not unfamiliar to Americans. However, simply the topic of some Americans–those whose families have been in this country for several generations– not taking well to adjustments regarding this introduction of culture through lingual aspects was what really stuck out to me. I am an Albanian-American with a culture that some Americans have teased me about before. Even now, I get a little bit uneasy thinking about bringing Albanian food to school for lunch or speaking Albanian in front of my friends. This discomfort is rooted in my experiences as a young kid, just like Dumas’s.
I remember sitting in the back of my dad’s sedan as he drove my friend and me home from school in the second grade. My parents were both sitting in the front, striking idle conversation in their native language, Albanian. Once in a while, I joined in as they said something to me, responding in Albanian as well.
My friend turns her head to me with this look in her eye. It was a mix of confusion and… disgust? Something about her demeanor struck me as her being somewhat unsettled. She told me that we sounded like we were speaking gibberish. I no longer wanted to speak Albanian in front of her.
For years, I have had some people close to me that seemed to have thought that they were joking around with me tastefully when they said my language and culture were bizarre. It’s hard to avoid, especially when these people know nothing about such a culture. And, many times, I forgive this expression of ignorance - after all, it was their lack of exposition to my way of life that prompted this interesting opinion.
However, as Shambavi says in response to this topic, “Kids are just drunk adults”. This is no excuse, though, for grown, sober people who have said similar things to me. It hurts, and I’m sure many people at Troy High can relate to this discomfort since this community of ours is full of people from so many different backgrounds and cultures. That, to me, offers some solace.
First of all love the way my quote was apart of this post :)
ReplyDeleteI relate to this post a lot too, since I grew up speaking a language other than English with my parents, but if friends were around I spoke in English. After reading this post it made me wonder how my parents felt when I responded to them in English, if my friends found it weird, wouldn't my parents find it odd too?
I also really like how you connected your experience back to Dumas's, proving that most immigrant children went through the same experiences.
Nice job!
The ideas here are similar to what I talked about in my blog post, like having to change your name to avoid being antagonized by your peers. It's part of human nature to be averse to people different from you, but it is still important to push back against it and accept people regardless of their differences. I, for one, would love to learn about different cultures. I might find them strange at first, but then again, what makes something strange is the perception of it, and if I can change my perception, it might be completely normal eventually.
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