Cultural Clashes For an Immigrant Family
While trying to adjust to a new world in England, Ghada and her family had a lot to adapt to - even the diversity in food. There are so many tiny things that make up a culture, many of which we overlook. The key parts of defining a culture seem to be food, clothes, and architecture. Clearly, when moving from Palestine to England these three aspects took some adjusting to work on. Ghada describes how she compared herself to the way other women were dressed when she arrived in the airport. She then goes on to talk about how the carpeted floors were so alienating that they tore out the carpet to replace with tiles that reminded her of her old house. Finally, she talks about the food and the difference between what she was accustomed to eating and how the English cooked, "The tea tasted quite horrible because it was mixed with milk, a combination unheard of for us. Arab tea is strong, dark and very sweet and drunk from small glasses. To make this tea drinkable, we put in lots of sugar. Astonishingly, however, our hosts did not take sugar at all," (Page 178). While this seems minor compared to all the obstacles she has had to overcome since arriving in London, this passage stood out. The author was so surprised at the difference in the way they made tea that she chose to right almost a page on the difference between their tea and British tea. In Palestine, tea represents socializing and having guests over, as does it in England, too. The stark difference in the way it is prepared, however, just seems to be yet another reminder that they are not in there homeland. It must be so hard to be reminded daily that you are foreign to a land by little things everyday like food being prepared differently. While this is a minor cultural clash, I can only imagine how heart breaking it must be to have to adapt to little things like this simply because you are not in your homeland and therefor must change your ways to fit in with your new surroundings.
-Jackie Lozaw Elan
This was very interesting to me to and also her description about English pudding (pg-247). It is like when you travel a long distance and you get used to both time/weather change and all the social norms. It must've been very hard for Ghada to get fully accustomed to the English society.
ReplyDeleteI additionally would like to add Music as one of the defining parts of culture. On page 200, Ghada talks about how her mother perceives classical orchestral music as agonizing prattle, and only listens to Arab singers like Oum Kalthoum on the radio. This strikes me as being odd because classical Arabic music uses many of the same techniques as Classical European Music.
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ReplyDeleteI think when you are forced to leave home and leave your culture, the little things become the big things. The small things are what you hold onto and when forced to drink something normally you would never, you realize how far away from home you are. On page 377 "In marrying John she sought to belong to England, to fit seamlessly into English society, to adopt English culture as her own and rebuild her fragile sense of identity." She lost herself once she was displaced, and I think the small things are what made that happen.
Sorry Ms K, my computer wasn't working so I posted it when I got to my other household.
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