Photo Credit: D Sharon Pruitt
Oh yeah, I dated this international style! So, I’ve decided to start linking some of my favorite reads at the end of the week – there’s a million and one things I run across that seem like they’d be of interest to the readers of this blog, but I never have time to write a whole blog post about each one. Thus, Friday Connections. I’ll try to group links each week into subjects. Let me know what you guys think!
Children and Language
- Native language shapes the melody of a newborn baby’s cry – A recent study has shown that babies – at least German and French monolingual babies – cry differently. Moreover they cry differently from birth, suggesting that they’re already listening and responding to different language cues in the womb. Other studies regarding babies’ brains and languages can be found at the bottom of the page (apparently there are some really neat cognitive effects to raising a kid bilingual).
- The Bilingual Dilemma – This older article from the Indian-American magazine, Little India, discusses the particular difficulties South Asian parents have in raising their children bilingual in the U.S. The biggest thing I drew from the article is how difficult it is to raise children who both understand and respond in the non-English language in the US – even when both parents are perfectly fluent in both languages! I’ll definitely be looking into this further when Aditya and I start thinking about kids.
- Raising Bilingual Children series – While looking for information about learning Hindi, I stumbled across this series at Omniglot about raising children bilingual (or multilingual). It went straight into my bookmarks – the list it has at the end of other resources is great!
- Then there’s the following Dinosaur Comic:
Alt-Text: “Lots of languages have ‘ba’ sounds for dads too. ‘Baba’ in Persian, Swahili, Turkish, and Bangla, Mandarin Chinese, ‘abba’ in Aramaic, and ‘ba’ in !Kung. In other news, !Kung (the language AND the people) is/are too awesome to just be mentioned in the title-text here; their language uses CLICKS, that’s what the ‘!’ is!”
Alt Alt-Text: “the great things about babies is that you can never be racist against babies, because you were totally a baby once. the only difference is, YOU grew out of it.”
South Asian Fashion in the Home
- Using cotton saris as tablecloths – the right sari looks really great in a casual environment!
- Blankets stitched from multiple old saris in Calcutta slums – the price being charged here is a little outrageous, but the blankets are incredibly lovely. Perhaps a good idea for DIYers…
- Vintage Hindu posters – I’ll admit that the majority of Hindu posters of Indian gods and goddess are a little too bright and colorful for the style of our home – they’d simply look out of place. However, some these vintage Hindu posters (available for purchase in NYC)are really striking, so I’ll be on the lookout this coming trip to India…
- Orange and gray color combos – a few striking rooms from Apartment Therapy. The rooms aren’t South Asian, exactly, but remind me very strongly of a modern look combined with South Asian colorfulness.
- How to: Paisley Wall Decoration – Aditya wasn’t a huge fan of the look, but I really like it (and would probably do it in a bathroom or another small space if Aditya didn’t object).
Cross-Cultural Controversy
- Let’s find the racist! And then let’s shame the racist! – A very considered, thoughtful response to the news regarding the Louisana judge who refused to marry a mixed-race couple because, well, he didn’t think it right. Jen Chau pushes us to think beyond the knee jerk “that’s so racist” response, and look at things a bit deeper.
- The Model Minority Image: Balancing Praise and Caution – Dr. Le digs into the “model minority” label that Asian Americans are often stuck with – it’s typically meant as praise, but does it also serve as a backhanded put-down to other minorities?
- The Painted Man – A blog about the making of a soon-to-be-released graphic novel of “a collection of coming of race memoirs that finds a dad confronted by racially charged questions posed directly by his young son and the people they come into contact with.” I’m really looking forward to reading the final product of the stories of this mixed-race family.
Finally, to lighten it up, I have a really cute video about an animial “odd couple”:
13. November 2009 at 9:02 am
Ohhh this is great! I’m really interested in the “raising bilingual children” stuff too.
Here is an article I wanted to write about this week but didn’t have the time. It is about Somalis that are being trafficked and then abandoned in Nepal. It seems like a random place to bring people too… but I guess it is a growing problem. The Somalis think they are paying to be taken to Europe and wind up stuck in Kathmandu.
13. November 2009 at 12:13 pm
Great links! I like this idea for Fridays!
16. November 2009 at 12:33 am
for the non-linguists out there, /b/ is just the voiced version of /p/ – they are very close in sound. also, /m/ is part of the same group of sounds (labial consonants, sounds you make with your lips)
maybe babies just make labial sounds first in all languages, and like the comic says, parents think they’re talking about them, and so they socialize the little ones to associate those sounds with mom and dad… another way language shapes culture, although it’s usually the other way around.
22. November 2009 at 9:07 pm
Goriji,
I am very curious to know about relationship dynamics in your Indian American Household, with regards to the cultural differences in customs in India and America.
More specifically,
In India, people invite each other over and unexpectedly drop in and hang out and do things together. In the US its more planned, and
“khatirdari” is less common in this DIY land.
How does it work in your family?
How do you handle all the social obligations of an Indian wife?
Cheers.
LF.
23. November 2009 at 4:12 pm
LF…
I hope you don’t mind me jumping in, this happens all the time at my house. Not as much as it used to because a lot of our friends are more established now in the community and don’t feel the need to drop by as often, but when we first moved I used to have people at my house 6 out of 7 days a week. It could get really exhausting. Most visits aren’t really planned, and I know there have been times when someone has rung our doorbell and I really didn’t want to answer, but they could tell we were home because the lights were on or something. I remember once or twice I stalled as long as possible before offering tea to a guest (almost to the point of being rude) because I knew if they had tea they would stay longer rather than just dropping in, saying hi and leaving, but eventually I had to offer (thats what the guest was looking for) or I’d look like a jerk.
I don’t mind the visits in general, and 85-90% of the time its totally fine and even welcome, but every now and then I wish we lived in the middle of the woods were it would be hard to find our doorbell
Likewise, I take full advantage of this, and feel no shame in dropping in on others who would do it to us. Even people in different states if I am driving by! I’ll call and give a 5 min heads up and say, “hey, are you home? I’ll come and have some tea!” Usually its really fun, and if I knew someone was driving through and didn’t stop by I’d probably be a little sad.
24. November 2009 at 2:59 am
Americanepali,
Your blog and comments are awesome and much appreciated.
Please do jump in. Again, Indians usually find it insulting if their boundaries have NOT been violated obscenely in the name of togetherness and community. (:D). None have been violated here I assure you.
I saw your blog as well, and found it to be really nice. I did see the mention of upstate New York, and it reminded me of my own alma mater of RPI, Troy, NY.
Its good to know that you enjoy Indian visitation habits and have started adapting them as well.
Have you learnt to take things with a pinch of salt as well?
Are you able to relate to the quintessential South Asian “Chaltha Hai” attitude (Let’s wing it/everything goes!)?
I guess that is the true test of the adaptation of an american girl married to a South Asian guy. When she is able to “Chalao”/Wing things and circumstances better than the south asian S.O.
24. November 2009 at 12:05 pm
here you go LF: http://americanepali.wordpress.com/2009/11/24/letting-go/
24. November 2009 at 3:14 am
Guys, nice and detailed responses all;
“How do you handle all the social obligations of an Indian wife?”
From my previous post, again I’d like to bring the question up, and ask more specifically,
That the Indian bahu is “supposed” to do a bunch of stuff like cook, clean, wash, entertain the guests, manage social life etc. etc etc. Its all voluntary though, no pressures in modern day families.
How;s your “Bahurani” experience been like? Do you guys do all of that?
If YES then, any idea where I can get myself a similiar bahu? U guys got some cute friends?
……6-2 fair, punjabi, “America Returned” nanotechnology scientist seeks ……
Cheers,
LF.
4. December 2009 at 1:03 am
For future people skimming through (I know LF already knows this), I wrote a post to answer his questions: Intercultural Hospitality in Our Mixed Home
3. December 2009 at 4:23 am
Excellent post! And I was THRILLED to see that someone other than myself and the people who took Cultural Anthropology with me at Irvine University had heard of the !Kung people!!!
Here is an excellent book to read, it was a part of our study course work. I finished it in one week…it was impossible to put down once you started.
The title is: Nisa, the Life and Words of a !Kung Woman.
http://www.amazon.com/Nisa-Life-Words-Kung-Woman/dp/0674004329
3. December 2009 at 9:29 am
Hi Auroracoda… good book! I read it back in high school. Did you read the follow up book as well? “Return to Nisa”– although that one is more about the author and her own struggles than an ethnography about the !Kung.
I was really into ethnographies in high school because I was a huge nerd. My 10th grade English class read “Guest of the Sheik” about living in Iraq in the 50s, and after that I was really intrigued. I guess that is how my interest in other cultures began!