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Writing 220 Welcome to America! I am truly convinced that I could write entire volumes of books on experiences I had as an immigrant to the United States. Fresh off the boat at only twelve, I had no clue how the American way of life worked. I had to adapt quickly or be left behind socially and academically, and now I stand with my feet in both the American world and the Romanian immigrant world. It is this community and adaptation that make up my discourse community. The young Romanian generation of immigrants have to carefully balance the Diaspora they are part of and the bigger world around them, and this is often done through language. The adaptation I quickly had to go though is foreign to most, and it was brutal. I did not know the rules of the new place, but I knew when I broke them, as the laughter soon followed. Many people helped me figure out the strange new land of America and who these people were is often surprising. The show “Friends” was the first glimpse I had at American culture, and I watched this for months after arriving. I learned common phrases, social faux pas and American humor, and this foundation helped me when I set out into the brutal world of Sixth grade. This world was a place where no one is quite sure if those around them are laughing with them or at them. It was not the ESL teachers who helped, as they kept trying to convince me to skip my homeroom class, one of the most helpful places for me, and go rhyme words like cat and bat. And more often than not it was not the teachers, some of whom simply got louder when explaining concepts that I did not understand, but the students who instead used different words or motions to explain the idea. Such as when I did not understand the word “visual” from an assignment page, my peers gave me examples of what a visual was, until I understood. Another important aspect of this discourse community is knowing how to speak the language of the old world, as when dealing with our elders and family members who came here when older. The Portland Pentecostal Romanian community is deeply religious and conservative in the conventional sense, but liberal in some surprising aspects. So when speaking to older Romanians, I must at once remember the traditional rules of Romania and the new rules of the U.S. and change my language accordingly. The young immigrants often cannot help but be more liberal than their elders, but we must also respect them, so our language changes so that although we are liberal, the elders do not know it. We might say something like “I don’t drink, but I think people should have that choice”. This might be taken at face value by the older generation, but the younger ones would immediately know that yes I do drink. This is often done because we were raised in this community to respect white hair, but we are also constantly surrounded by American society which says fun is to be had thorough drinking, so this is our way of balancing the two worlds through our language. Young Romanian immigrants also speak a mix of Romanian and English. This would not be understandable to Americans and even to some Romanians who do not speak English. In an everyday conversation with my sister I might say “We need to go to Sefoy, ca nu am pîine, si pateu. Do you wanna vi? Bani?. This is normal and only a small group of people would understand what I am saying. Some young Romanians often slip into this when speaking to their parents, as they cannot speak pure Romanian anymore. Or they might slip into it when wanting to hide their meaning from Americans. One day at the coffee shop two Romanian men came in and one of them was wearing his jacket unzipped and had nothing underneath. His hairy chest was completely on display. I smiled when I saw it and so did the hairy man’s friend, who then proceeded to tell his friend to “put away the forests of Eastern Europe”. This made him zip up, but the American customers were not aware of his embarrassment. Other times though, we purposefully slip into Romanian so that we can talk badly about Americans who happen to annoy us. So although we are restricted in our lifestyle, hypothetical discussions about politics are considered great fun, and we sit around for hours doing that without anyone becoming offended even if their ideas are openly called stupid. All topics can be openly discussed, and I can be a liberal in thought, but acting it out is looked down upon. And just as the younger generations of many immigrant diasporas often are forced to find a good balance between individuality, community and family, we must also find a good balance in our language when dealing with the American community around us. Coming from the Romanian perspective, we must be careful as most of the issues people find offensive to them personally are the same ones that are considered the most fun to discuss. So not to offend we usually avoid the topic, or when discussing it we keep it very brief, as someone is bound to be hurt. My roommate for example always thought that I was attacking her when talking about politics, when actually I felt like I was attacking ideas and not people, as is our custom to do when we talk politics. But being an immigrant means knowing what its like to not only learn a new language, but to deal with many other issues that come along with being thrown in a completely new world. So often young immigrants develop great patience for those who just arrived, as we have gone through that process. So when speaking with new arrivals, our language changes as well, as we try to speak slowly and clearly and not become frustrated when they do not understand. Another strategy is changing the words and motions in the hope that maybe they can understand those instead. It is also important to compliment the new speaker on the improvement they are making. In my experience, I loved having people notice the headway I was making, and this made it better to go through. So I as a non-native speaker of English am part of a discourse community that understands the struggles of being fresh off the boat and our language changes when dealing with that situation as well. Being part of this discourse community definitely changes the way I speak to people and how I act around them. I know in which way American culture is relaxed, and so act accordingly when around Americans. I also know what Romanian and European culture is like, so my behavior changes accordingly then as well. The language obviously changes, but the way I speak also changes. Part of being Romanian is being brutally honest with each other, and the funnier the honesty the better. For example, I worked in a coffee shop where older Romanian men gather on a regular basis. One day Luie told me I was very pretty, only to have the others instantly make fun of him. His business partner said in front of everyone that he is old enough to be my grandfather, and that if Luie is going to hit on me he at least needs to wait until I am done preparing everyone’s coffees so that I do not accidentally vomit in them. Luie laughed along with everyone and was not offended or mad. These kinds of jokes are perceived as mean by some in American culture, so often young immigrants use other types of jokes or humor when around Americans. We often also deal with sad or uncomfortable situations with humor or sarcasm. And while this is fine when around other Romanians, Americans think we are heartless or strange when making a joke after a sad moment, so our language changes in those situations as well. The careful balancing of the two worlds is enough to drive anyone crazy, and it takes years to reach the perfect equilibrium, and often the two worlds spill into each other. But many awkward moments and explanations later, the ways of the two worlds are learned and one is part of this discourse community. Language is an important part of that balance, and only when one knows both languages well can do well as part of this discourse community.
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