Funny in Farsi

Funny in Farsi A Memior of Growing Up Iranian in America by Firoozeh Dumas is all about her life growing up in California after her dad is moved there but is company form Iran. Being born in Iran she had not learned much English so when she moved to the United State she slowly learned and was the translator for her mother a lot of the time. In her younger years she moved around about every two years and eventually she settled in America after her dad retired from the oil refinery in Iran.Since she was light skinned and had dark hair she could pass for an America as long as she did ot speak because of her accent, this abled her in many ways. After living in America for some time Firoozeh realizes that no one can really say her name the right way because the English language does not use the same sounds that are in the Persian language. Also by taking an America name she would no longer have to spend endless amounts of time trying to explain to people how to say her name.Since she look ed like a young American girl with an American name she could pass for someone that had been born and raised there, that is until she had to open her mouth to say something. After people started to think that she was an American they started to say things that she had never known that they had been saying before, about immigrants from her country. Whilst she has changed her name some Americans that had been traveling in Iran had been taken captive and held for a period of time and while the news was going over the story people started to talk about the issue.By having the American name she heard things that the people really thought about the issues with Iran instead of the polite things they would say to stay off of the subject. Kazem, her father, got fired from his Job for being Iranian during this time and found it very difficult to find another Job. Eventually he stopped putting that he was Persian or Iranian all together and became Turkish, Just so that he could find a Job duri ng Just a difficult time. After all of the problems with Iran went away she went to college at the University of California at Berkeley where she met her husband a Frenchman named Francois.Since Francois was not from the Middle East he was not part of all the craziness with Iran, but he could easily pass for an American because of his white skin. Also if he ad never said anything to anyone no one would ever know about his accent, but then again no big event happened in France that would turn the American people against them. Even though Firoozeh saw the darker side of the citizens in the United States, she did not seem to think that the country was anything less than a blessing, and stayed in the United States as an adult.American attitudes and biases toward immigrants different from country to country and from person to person, some think one way and others think the other way. Normally the things that factor into how a person see's another person are how hat person was raised, wha t beliefs they have, and how strongly they feel about the subject. The biggest factor is the way they were raised because if you are in a household where the parents or grandparents talk about a certain race of people in a bad way, it's the same as monkey see monkey do.If a child over hears there father talking about those stupid Persians, then that child is likely to go and repeat it to a friend, teacher, nanny, or another Persian themselves. Mainly the behavior towards immigrants has been learned whilst the child was growing up or even as an adult eople tend to believe things that they hear, and repeat them to other people which then lead to more people thinking the exact same way as the people that has said these things in the first place.Stereotypes about people happen on a day to day bias, someone sees some that has been wearing the same Jacket all winter and of they think that they are poor and probably cannot afford a new coat. When in all truth that person could Just be wear ing their favorite coat or this one may be the warmest of all the coats they own, a person can never tell anything about a person by Just briefly seeing them in the same hings or at the same places.People think that is someone from one country will do something harsh, rash, dangerous, or illegal that all people from that country are going to do it, and that has never been the case. If someone from a small town goes and robs a bank does that mean that everyone in that town is now going to go and rob another bank somewhere else, no it does not. By grouping people together as being all the same that is Just putting them into one group for one reason are they going to be separate into which are more likely to do this and which are more likely to o that, the answer is no.Firoozeh Dumas was born in Iran and then around seven moved to the United States, but she never thought any less of the people her the whole time she stayed and now even as an adult she live in California. Even after all the hardships she faced form moving here not knowing English and having to translate for her mother, going back to Iran and then coming back again. She saw all of the bias and the problems that people have with other countries and immigrants, she grew up in a world where not everyone is accepted for whole they truly are.