“Lost in Translation” by Eva Hoffman is the same as “The Struggle to Be an All-American Girl” by Elizabeth Wong: the story of difficulties which teenagers meet in immigration. Eva came to Canada from Poland at the age of thirteen. Her parents were Holocaust survivors. In contrast, Elizabeth was not an immigrant herself; she was born in the USA to an immigrant family. Even though Eva and Elizabeth had different backgrounds, both of them experienced hard time during their adolescence. A comparison between Eva and Elizabeth reveals some differences.
Firstly, Eva and Elizabeth have different attitudes towards their native cultures. Eva appreciated and tried to preserve her homeland culture. She wanted to protect the close and warm relationship in her family. She wanted to keep even the sadness that symbolized the memory of the past. She did not want to exchange all these values for “hygienic smiles and equally hygienic feelings” (p. 106). In contrast, Elizabeth did not want to be associated with Chinese culture, which she found embarrassing. She did not understand why she had to spend a lot of time studying what she viewed as a difficult, useless language instead of playing with her friends.
Firstly, Eva and Elizabeth have different attitudes towards their native cultures. Eva appreciated and tried to preserve her homeland culture. She wanted to protect the close and warm relationship in her family. She wanted to keep even the sadness that symbolized the memory of the past. She did not want to exchange all these values for “hygienic smiles and equally hygienic feelings” (p. 106). In contrast, Elizabeth did not want to be associated with Chinese culture, which she found embarrassing. She did not understand why she had to spend a lot of time studying what she viewed as a difficult, useless language instead of playing with her friends.
Secondly, Eva and Elizabeth had different circumstances in their family lives. They had different relationships with their parents. Eva’s mother felt lost and confused by life in new country. She was unable “to tighten the reins” (p. 105), so Eva wanted to protect her. At the same time she suffered because of misunderstanding when her mother calls her English, for she needed support not criticism during that hard period of life. In contrast, Elizabeth did not need to sympathize with her authoritarian mother; she kept a passive struggle with her mother until she was allowed to drop out of the Chinese school. Besides, parents’ authority was challenged in both Eva’s and Elisabeth’s families. However, the difference was that Eva , feeling her mother’s weakness, tried to protect her, while Elizabeth tried to win in the struggle with her mother about Chinese language. In addition, both Eva and Elizabeth had younger siblings, but Eva influenced her sister to respect their parents, while Elizabeth used her brother’s protest for her own purpose.
Finally, the girls had different attitude towards the host cultures. Eva experienced culture shock because communication skills in her home country were quite different from those in Canada. She had to learn new social behavior, often feeling embarrassed and misunderstood. However, step by step, she adapted to new culture and accepted it. She even made a successful career in linguistic sphere. Elizabeth experienced so called reverse culture shock when she refused to accept the Chinese culture and protested against being involved in it. On the other hand, she did not need to adapt to the host culture for she was born in the US. She enjoyed the English language and the American lifestyle. Nevertheless, even though she made successful career as a writer too, at the end of her story she said that she was sorry about the loss of her identity.
Therefore, their stories have some differences despite the fact that both Eva and Elizabeth were teenagers growing in immigrant families. They had different backgrounds and different attitudes towards their native cultures. Also they had different situations in their families and different views on new cultures. However, their examples give us hope to overcome all obstacles on the way to success.
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