Asian Americans Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Asian Americans - Essay Example This objective, however, proves a challenging initiative, burdened by the negative heritage of history and by existing cultural gaps. According to Jandt (2004) the Asian-Americans represent a diverse group of cultures and people from many countries - Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Laos, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, and Pacific Island nations. Initially the US legislation excluded Chinese and other Asians from US citizenship (Jandt, 2004) and this governmental policy impaired the assimilation process of Asian subgroups at the very beginning. Asian-American's resistance to assimilation is a natural process. For one thing, it is visible in first generation immigrants who sometimes lack documentation (Wikipedia, 2006) and whose dreams about the bright future are not met by reality (Jandt, 2004). This disappointment leads to greater uncertainty, and avoidance of socialization. Additionally, language barriers impair the social status of the Asian-American group in USA. For example exactly because of language deficiencies Korean-Americans use English language that can be viewed as rude and exploiting by customers and employees (Jandt, 2004). This has lead to misinterpretation of Korean's behavior, hence to the isolation of the group by the American society and other subgroups. Further on, other behavioral patterns that are interpreted by other cultures differently hinder effective communication. For example, Korean-Americans are reluctant to develop friendships with strangers, regard inappropriate smiles as superficial (Jandt, 2004). Especially in the services sector, where communication with customers is critical, keeping such distance makes the Korean culture look confusing and inappropriate. Tradition that is visible in medicinal practices, rituals, clothing and other cultural tokens is another source for misinterpretation of culture (Jandt, 2004). While rituals and habits are regarded as healthy by one culture, the US culture may condemn them as inappropriate, unhealthy and even dangerous. There is the example of a Vietnamese father who treated his sick child, as per Vietnamese tradition, with coins rubbed in hot oil. The father was imprisoned and subsequently committed a suicide (Jandt, 2004). Such tragic incidents do not only prove the necessity for mutual understanding of group specifics, but lead to the presumption that at minimum partial assimilation is a natural process, whereby the smaller cultural group adopts the norms of the larger group. This is so because practices that are regarded as extreme and health damaging by the US culture are unlikely to be tolerated by people and legislative authorities and pressure is exercised to change those tokens that contradi ct common US norms. Today attitudes towards Asian Americans vary greatly. There is a common conception that Asian Americans have not faced racial discrimination as African Americans and Latinos (Wikipedia, 2006), but this idea is based on the fact that these immigrants do not report such incidents. As a result, even reported incidents do not receive adequate