Living With Different Customs, Practices, and Values Essay -- Immigrat

Living With Different Customs, Practices, and Values One of the greatest aspects of people from anywhere in the world is culture. Customs, practices, and values are all apart of culture that identify who we are as a person and where we come from. Being a stranger in a strange land has its basis of showing where you have come from and what your cultural backgrounds are. It is just as important to express the culture from where you have come from as it is to practice the culture to where you have immigrated. It is 1988 and it is time to say to goodbye to all my friends in Russia. The long and awaited day has come for me when I would be immigrating to America. The different customs, the different language, the different practices, and values are amongst the major differences that I was so worried about yet so anxious to experience. Upon my arrival to the United States it was like nothing I have ever seen before. There really wasn’t much of this middle men in education where a student would just do â€Å" average â€Å" in school. It was basically all or nothing. Life was very difficult to come by for most people. Even though some people such as my mom’s parents were both doctors the average starting salary for them would be around $1,500 dollars a year. And most prices were the same as they are in America. However education in Russia even through college was free. However it was very difficult to be accepted to a fine state college. Only the richest people were able to af ford to purchase a car and those people were considered to be the richest of the rich being well of. Going into business was what made many very successful in life however it was very risky. Many times what is known as the Russian Mafia would come into business and d... ...rought up with. Through Randal Bass’s essay, and my own personal experience I have realized that all people are different than others. Especially myself who has immigrated to a foreign country. Each person has his/her own values, customs, practices, and way of life. According to Randal Bass, although language barrier can be a great problem it should never let any one not be able to live their own life. The English language can have several meanings to certain words and people have to work with each other to be able to understand each other. America is all about working hard and striving to achieve. It is a place of freedom and opportunity and that should not be taken away from any person. Works Cited: Bray Randall. â€Å" Borders as Barriers: Otherness and Difference, â€Å" Bordertexts: Cultural Readings for Contemporary Writers. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1999.

Native Americans in the United States Essay

The Navajo’s land was very precious. They lived in a huge expanse of land. They lived in large chunks of Utah and Arizona. They also inhabited small parts of Colorado and New Mexico. They had a similar climate all year around. The climate was arid to semi-arid. They had very hot summers and very cold winters. The annual precipitation for most of their land was less than 10 inches of rain. The average temperature range was 40 degrees Fahrenheit to 55 degrees Fahrenheit. They also had natural resources. They had coal, uranium, oil, natural gas, minerals, petroleum, agriculture, and herbs. ? LAKE NAVAJO ? FOOD: The Navajos had various amounts of food. They grew corn, beans, squash and melons. They hunted and ate Kaibab squirrels, black tailed jack rabbits, small pigs, peccary, horses, buffalo and sheep. They baked kneel down bread, Navajo cake, Navajo pancakes, blue â€Å"dumplings†, blue bread, hominy cookies, and squash blossoms stuffed with blue corn mush and pinon leaves. They also steamed and roasted corn. They harvested wild fruits and vegetables such as pinon nuts, corn silk, wild berries, wild onion, Navajo spinach (bee weed and pig weed), wolf â€Å"berry†, wax currant, sumac grapes, juniper oranges, yucca bananas, and Navajo tea (telesperma). They also traded for deer, squash seeds, tumble mustard seeds, pinto beans, goat, goat milk, and goat cheese. In special occasions they would have wild edible clay, wild potatoes, mimosa, sagebrush, and juniper ash. ? NAVAJO PANCAKES ? SHELTER: The Navajos had different homes than other native tribes. They lived in small clusters of families spread around. There’re 2 types of hogans (what they lived in), the winter type and the summer type. The winter hogan was more closed and padded for the cold but; the summer hogan was more open and less padded for the heat. They were both miserable and crude structures. The reason for them living in such poorly built homes was because they were nomads (so they could easily leave in a moments notice). They considered the outdoors as home. They used there â€Å"house† for storage, warmth and sleep. They said they wouldn’t get attached to their â€Å"homes† like white men (Americans). Hogans were round â€Å"houses† built with sticks, packed with earth and covered with brush, animal hides and whatever else they could find or was available. The front door always faced east to catch first light. They later built more advanced and bigger hogans made out of logs from pinon trees, and mud. ? NAVAJO HOGAN ? CLIMATE/ GEOGRAPHY INFLUENCE: The Navajo’s climate and geography affected them. Geography caused them not to have the same food or clothing in all parts of the Navajo land because some stuff didn’t grow everywhere and, the terrain made them wear different clothing according to altitude weather. Climate caused them not to have the same food, clothing or shelter all year around either. Some stuff could only be found a certain season. In the winter they had to wear more layers but, as for in the summer they would wear less, and like a said before (read shelter) there was a winter hogan and a summer hogan. ? CLASSIC TERRAIN ? LOCATION OF HOMES: ? NAVAJO’S CURRENT HOME ? NAVAJO’S ANCESTRAL HOME ? BIBLIOGRAPHY: Carey, Harold Jr. â€Å"Navajo People† Donald Snyder. (July 29, 2011) Outskirts Press. October 28, 2011 Donn, Andale. â€Å"Native Americans† Phillip Martin. (2007) October 27, 2011 Eck, Pam. â€Å"In Kido Indianans† Diane Dwenger. (April 22, 1998) October 28, 2011 Erdoes, Richard. â€Å"The Native Americans: Navajos† Sterling Pub. Co : New York; 1978: 15, 21, 12 James, Cullen. â€Å"Veterans Recall† Navajo Times; #24, October 29, 2011. 1,2 Kallen, Stuart A. â€Å" Native Americans of The Southwest† Lucent Books: San Diego; 2000: 12, 1, 11 Knysh, Brian. â€Å"Kid Port† Elizabeth Flynn. (1998) October 27, 2011 Lewis, Orrin, â€Å"Big Orrin† Laura Redish. (1998) October 27, 2011 Rossi, Ann. â€Å" Native Americans of The Southwest† Benchmark Education: Pelham; 2008: 16, 32, 10 Miller, Gay‘s 5th and 6th grade students. â€Å"Navajo. † Miller Gay. (October 23,2011) October 27, 20011 Yurth, Cindy. â€Å"Budding Filmmakers Debut† U. S. A Department of Defense; #3 October 29, 2011. 1,2 ? FUN FACTS: They Call them selves the â€Å"Dine† (the people) They drew petroglyphs Their reservation size is about 13 million acres (the largest in the U. S) They also have the largest membership size compared to other Native Americans membership’s size. (They allow up to 30 people from their extended family into the reservation. ) ? EXTRA: ? NAVAJO BOW & ARROW ? NAVAJO POTTERY ? NAVAJO PAINTING ? NAVAJO TOMAHAWK.

The Chief Causes Of Obesity - 1110 Words

The Chief Causes of Obesity As we all know the obesity has become a great problem for many people around the world. A research shows that 34.9% of adults in the United States are obese, and the money used for health problems relating to obesity has greatly increased. The estimated cost was $147 billion in 2008, and the cost for obese people were $1,429 higher than normal people (cdc.gov). There are a lot of factors which makes many Americans obese. The chief causes of obesity are bad food choices and the reliance on the industrial food chain, and the government, the food companies and people are responsible for it. The main reason people started making bad food choices because they do not know the information of the food they eat. Most†¦show more content†¦If there is no healthy food in those places, people have no choice but to eat what is available. In his article, Zinczenko says â€Å"Lunch and dinner, for me, was a daily choice between McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Kent ucky Fried Chicken or Pizza Hut† (391). He also emphasizes that he weighed 212 pounds by age 15 (392). There is little food choice for parents who’re working and also â€Å"latchkey† kids who are left at homes, so they started eating fast food which is convenient and easily accessible. Therefore, eventually they become the victims of obesity. In addition to people making bad food choices, there are food industries which care only about their profit but not peoples’ health. Most of the obese people are from the poor community. They eat fast food because it is so cheap and it also contain a lot of energy rich ingredients. As a result, they become obese with the increase cost in health care. In â€Å"The Omnivore’s Dilemma†, Michael Pollan explains that from the beginning of the industrial food chain to the end, â€Å"It’s All Corn† (10). Corn is involved in production animal feed, HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrup), processed food an d even fuel (45). Therefore, big companies invented genetically modified corn seeds to ensure producing the best yield of corn every season and sell it to farmers, and farmers started growing corn instead of healthy