How Culture Affects English Language Learners
Learn more about: How culture Affects English Language Learners.
This Journal entry from the International Journal of Business and Social Science discusses how both Chinese and Middle Eastern culture affects students who immigrate from those respective regions in schools in the West. The article talks about stereotypes that already exist and how the expectations that are placed on Chinese students such as the expectation that Chinese students possess a higher acumen and academic skillset than Western students are damaging to students, especially to those who immigrate from a region of China with less developed school systems. This article helps explain some of the acculturative stress and maladaptive perfectionism of Chinese students and explains why both of those are culturally influenced.
Derderian-Aghajanian, Ani, and Wang Cong Cong. “How Culture Affects on English Language Learners’ (ELL’s) Outcomes, with Chinese and Middle Eastern Immigrant Students.” International Journal of Business and Social Science, Volume 3 No. 5, Mar. 2012.
Interracial Couples and the Trouble of Migration
Learn more about: Glocal Mobilities.
Glocal Mobilities is a study that followed 60 different interracial relationships, all of which had at least one member of Asian descent and all of whom were migrants. This study highlights the attitudes of the Asian migrant and shows how their views on certain aspects of life in a different country change depending on different variables. For example, couples that migrated with at least on young child, all had plans of returning to their home country or countries at some point in their future. This study helps explain how Zhuang’s homesickness and feelings of loneliness could have also been heavily influenced by her culture and the point of her life in which she moved and found her lover.
Luke, Carmen. “Glocal Mobilities: Crafting Identities in Interracial Families.” International Journal of Cultural Studies, Sage Publications, 2003, Volume 6
The Opium Wars
Learn more about: The Opium Wars.
While Zhuang’s journey with her lover is a primarily interpersonal one, the very bit of recent historical context that explains the somewhat rocky relationship between the British and Chinese is what occurred during the opium wars. This article details the relationship between England and China dating back to trade wars caused by a mass release and addiction to Opium in China caused by the British. These wars were a result of imperialism in England in the late 1800’s because the Chinese had an incredibly isolationist approach to trading with western countries, but the British had a huge demand for tea that only the Chinese could provide. The British introduced opium to China’s middle and lower class communities so that they would become addicted and the demand for opium in China (which England had in abundance) would be as high as the demand for tea in Britain.
Allingham, Philip V. “England and China: The Opium Wars: 1839-1860.” England and China: The Opium Wars, 1839-60, www.victorianweb.org/history/empire/opiumwars/opiumwars1.html.
John Quigley ’19