Quotes About Assimilation

I do not pretend that all that white men do is properly Christianized...

I don't feel uncomfortable in America, but every once in a while, I'm reminded that people don't see me the way I see me. It doesn't change my life, but it gives me a consciousness about it.

I have an unconscious burglar living in my mind: If I read something, it's mine.

My understanding, when I think of immigration, is like... you know, this country was built on immigrants: the German, the Polish, the Italian, the Jewish, the Russians, the Eastern Europeans. So, all these people came in, and I don't know who decided like, 'No, that's it! There's a cap on it! No more people.'

I'm Asian-American, and I was the only Chinese girl growing up in a white school in San Diego. So I understood what it was like to be different, to always want to fit in and never feel like you ever could.

You know, even growing up going to school, I had teachers that were against bilingual teaching. I never understood that. My parents always had me speak Spanish first knowing I was going to speak English in school.

Having had to live through a period of integration into another country a number of years ago, I am keenly aware of the negative implications of stereotyping and the significant efforts required to undo its effects.

At first, it's unfamiliar, then it strikes root.

Unfortunately, I think I drifted so much growing up that I don't have a strong sense of identity. I don't feel at home anywhere, and because of that, I think I'm more of a chameleon.

To gain wisdom, you must not only acquire knowledge, but you must assimilate it within your being.

Raising donkeys in the midst of horses will not make them sprinters.

among roses, be a rose, among thorns, be a thorn

The author says his young son, adopted from South Korea, occasionally burps and says thank you but otherwise is doing all right.

I would say that I have an aspect of my personality which is that I have no personality. That's why I work as an agent. I have the assumed personality of the people I represent. I am like a sponge.

When I moved from Canada to Korea, I experienced a massive culture shock. I wasn't familiar with Korean culture at all and was very surprised at the hierarchical elements of Korean culture. However, at the time I was determined to succeed so I became a sponge and just soaked in everything I could.

I'm trying to be a sponge. People say, 'Well, that's what your rookie year is.' I still feel that way in my second year.

When I came to America in 1978, I was a huge sports fan - the problem was, my sport was cricket. Shockingly enough, no one wanted to talk cricket with me!

As a matter of fact, a national language which spreads beyond its own confines very quickly loses much of its original richness of content and is in no better case than a constructed language.

Actually, it's normal when you come to a new club and country: you need to get used to the language, the philosophy of the team, the squad, the coach.

I was brought up in black neighborhoods in South Baltimore. And we really felt like we were very black. We acted black and we spoke black. When I was a kid growing up, where I came from, it was hip to be black. To be white was kind of square.

Man is a pliable animal, a being who gets accustomed to everything!

Personality in man is what is "not his own" . . . what come from outside, what he has learned, or reflects, all traces of exterior impressions left in the memory.

Man grows used to everything, the scoundrel!

In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man will poke out his eye to fit in.