Poranee Natcha-Spons Analysis

Decent Essays
When our American culture is described through the eyes of another culture, things we Americans see as common are highlighted and are broken down telling the different meanings to others. The Thai author Poranee Natadecha-Sponse navigates us through cultural differences by comparing and contrasting both the Thai and the American culture.
American salutations kicked off the essay and how Thai’s would find it difficult in which context to reply accordingly. Privacy of Americans is strange to the Thai culture, Thai’s are used to being open and direct with others while Americans do not discuss personal information with just anyone. With Americans having jobs at a young age, having their own room, and moving away for college, it shows how independent

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    “We are at almost every point of our day, immersed in cultural diversity: faces, clothes, smells, attitudes, values, traditions, behaviors, beliefs, rituals”, Randa Abdel-Fattah. Have you ever sat down to think how many cultures are there in the world? In one community there might be more than one culture among the community. You would probably go crazy trying to count all the culture in the world. In today world, culture plays a major part of our lives.…

    • 724 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    #1I can understand the position of Natadecha-Sponsel because both of us are not from America. What I and Natadecha might have notice about America is how lucky they’re. In the text she said “and those who have achieved wealth and fame do not celebrate it publicly as much as in American society.” Natadecha is saying that American’s don’t notice that it’s not good to show off because in Thailand they don’t celebrate it because it is looked as greed. She compares the American culture to Thailand culture to get her readers to look more closely at American Culture.…

    • 343 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Some of us have repeatedly taken for granted what our culture has to offer. Certain individuals spend too much time pretending to be something they are not and too often forget to embrace the fact they are special in their own way. Others constantly judge people because of where they come from. Many think they are better than others and discriminate upon them heavily. Society has played a huge impact on the acceptance of cultural diversity over time and influenced negative beliefs to many in order to portray the view of a perfect individual.…

    • 1976 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the book The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down it goes over the beginning of the life of Lia Lee. She is a young Hmong child who has unfortunately been born with epilepsy. The family had come to America to escape the tyranny going on back home where they had been forced out of their homes. When arriving they already had kids and they kept having more and more. Lia was one of the last born, or at least for a while.…

    • 1112 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    It is not just a learning experience in the classroom, but also outside. Turkle thinks the opposite due to technology. In Turkle’s essay she explains that “adolescents don’t face the same pressure to develop the independence we have associated with moving forward into young adulthood”(238). In the section of “Degrees of Separation”, Turkle talks about how in today’s world, it is harder to learn that sense of independence because they always have to tell their parents where they are going and need to respond when their parents text or call them. When parents do this they are not teaching their kids how to become independent and…

    • 1572 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    We live in a world full of borders. Every time we glance left or right, we notice that we are surrounded by borders whether they are the physical, mental or cultural. The physical borders are geographic borders that determine the territory we live in or the territory in which we can walk about as a citizen, these borders separate one place from another. The mental borders are limited to our imagination and our thought process, our mind dictates us what is right and wrong, it separates one thing from another. The cultural borders are the borders that separate one culture form another.…

    • 1396 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    We current college students, are the future, and we need to learn how to use our minds to become more independent…

    • 827 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    American Dream; to Some, Not What it Seemed “The Americans” by Viet Thanh Nguyen offers the distinct view of a self-contradictory America that while allows the freedom of movement towards success is also an exclusionary destructive nation. “The Americans” follows a family divided by their views of being an American as each member comes to terms with their identity and being open-minded to others’ differences. “The Americans” shows that America can be a place where people of all different backgrounds can live freely and work their way to success. James Carver grew up as a black man in Alabama constantly having to deal with racism and the feeling of non-belonging. Carver struggled with his identity until he found his place as an aerial bomber in the US Army.…

    • 950 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Culture explains every part of a person’s life. It is the knowledge and characteristics of a particular group of individuals, defined by factors such as religion, language, social habits, cuisine, music, and arts. The world is full of people that belong to different cultures but they are sometimes forced to relate and interact in various ways. The Americans and the Chinese are examples of people with different cultures as anthropologist Francis Hsu illustrates. Hessler shares the sentiments in his book titled Hassle`s River Town.…

    • 1149 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Our culture defines us at a young age and it is engrained within us without choice. With the help of understanding this and evaluating how this affects our perceptions of other cultures, we can also understand how other cultures look at us as well. The writing Body Ritual by Miner puts into perspective of how we view our culture or how other cultures may view ours. There are different practices and rituals that can seem odd and our norms dictate and affect our understanding of them. We can examine different cultures such as the one in Madagascar to truly relate how much our norms affect how we think and perceive others that are different from us.…

    • 834 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    It is clear that in this article the author, Blommaert, understands that culture, and intercultural communication, is no longer just about culture and communication between different religions, and/or races. It is now about the communication and culture between different genders, ages, social classes, professions, workplace, religion, consumption, hobby, media, etc. Blommaert understands that individuals now need to be able to read different social situations and adapt to fit in, or else be deemed “socially awkward”. The author also understands that knowing the…

    • 1156 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The two comparative texts, Paradise of the Blind by Huong Thu Duong and Buchi Emecheta’s the Bride Price explicitly reflect changing values and perspectives of the modernistic 1970s and the post colonial era of the 1930s respectively. Through the exploration of familial and traditional values and the affect on the individual, the authors portray the struggle of the clash between tradition versus modernism. The books further reflect that an individual’s identity and their deeper understanding of the world can be investigated through the interactions of external forces and the bonds established within their community. Duong and Emecheta notably explore family values as a beneficial force in attaining one’s place in society though can lead to…

    • 1428 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Some say they understand 80 to 90 percent. Some say they understand none of it, as if [Tan’s mother] was speaking pure Chinese” (Tan 635). Because of the way American’s divide themselves into cliques, some people do not get the chance to pay attention to what others say. Tan evoked the emotion of sympathy when she mentioned that in many situations her mother has been treated differently because of the way she talks. There were countless times that this happened to her mother as in “people in department stores, at banks, and at restaurants did not take her seriously” (635), and…

    • 1004 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Cultural differences are meaningful in order to communicate effectively with people of other cultures. Sometimes, communicating cross-culturally could mean transforming and redefining your identity to adjust for them. Since I have been here in Canada for four years from the Philippines, I have redefined my previous identity and somehow adjusted it according to Canadian values. In this short essay, I will discuss the difference between the Filipino culture and the Canadian culture in terms of family and politeness, and how I transformed my identity to communicate effectively in Canada. First, family is an integral part of the Filipino culture, whereas in Canada, divorce is legal and broken families are common.…

    • 446 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    1. What are the similarities between you and the person of that different cultural group (while responding to this question, please identify the cultural groups and briefly share your rational for selecting that specific individual)? First, let’s define culture. Edward B. Tylor defined culture as, “the complex whole which includes knowledge, beliefs, arts, morals, laws, customs, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by [a human] as a member of society.” (Tylor, 1884)…

    • 1017 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays