Born and Raised to Sit Down and Keep Quiet

Beatrice, a 20-year-old Italian immigrant, speaks about individualism and having a voice in America:

Here, I feel like its less disciplined, like, in comparison to schools in Italy, here, I think people speak up more. For example, if students have a problem with the test, they will be more open to the teacher, saying like, oh, but you didn’t say this was on it….people speak up more, and they were taught that what you have to say matter, everyone has a voice. And I’ve never really been like that because I was taught to keep quiet and stay in my place. I feel like the ideology here is that you’re an individual and it’s very foreign to me that people fight back and say, ‘I’m an adult, I’m an individual, you can’t tell me what to do…’

This entry was posted in Beatrice from Italy, Immigration, Language and Norms, Schooling and Employment, Memories of the Native Country. Bookmark the permalink.

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