The beauty of Celebration

The Beauties of Celebrations

Although there are many Muslims living in the United States (for years), some of them still face difficulty inadapting new things from their new culture. In the beginning, all of us feel exposed to everything. Some of us face language problems and some face financial problems, but the hardest part is to celebrate religious events. The beauty of celebrations just seems like a dream in the United States. Ramadan and Eid are the two main religious events for Muslims, and the best way to enjoy them is to celebrate with traditions and with family. Ramadan is the holy month for Muslims in which Muslims fast from Fajar prayers (before sunrise) until Maghrib prayers (after sunset). After the completion of the holy month, Muslims celebrate Eid. In the United States, it seems nearly impossible to relish these holidays like we did in Pakistan.


The first problem I observed is that the Muslims hardly have a time for prayers. Prayers play an important role in every Muslim’s life and this gets extremely important during Ramadan. Muslims pray five times in a day. The first is Fajar that Muslims perform before sunrise. The second is Zuhr after sunrise. The Asr is after Zuhr before sunset and the Maghrib is when sunset. The last is Isha, at night before going to sleep. In Ramadan and on Eid people like to pray in mosques, but because of their jobs they are not able to match the exact time. It seems impossible to find a time for prayers even on regular days. In Pakistan, students get three days of vacation for Eid and one for last Friday of Ramadan. On the first day of Eid, we have Eid prayer for which people go to mosque, and women usually pray at home. In the US because of the busy schedule, people often do not get the time to eat something for the fast. They get too busy in their work, and are not able to recognize time.

Food plays important part in almost every culture and traditional foods make Eid and Ramadan more enjoyable. In Ramadan, we usually eat food like vegetables or chicken curry with rice or phulka (a kind of bread made by wheat flour) in the morning before sunrise to begin the fast and appetizers and fruit salad after sunset to end the fast. On Eid, we make different kind of traditional food like Biryani, Tikka(spicy roasted chicken) kebabs and desert. One of the deserts that we make on Eid is “Sheer Khurma”. This is because in Pakistan we usually serve sweets in celebrations or in moments of happiness. In the morning before going for Eid prayers in the mosque, we eat this desert because it is a Muslim’s belief that it is good to eat sweets before going for prayers of Eid. In Pakistan, my mother always tried to fulfill the demands of my siblings and me by making dishes of our choices. In the US, her life has been too busy as she sometimes does not even get the time for making a single dish. In Pakistan, we had enough time to cook food and enjoy it but in the US it is like a dream. We will always miss that taste.

Having relatives and friends around you is another important part that doubles your happiness. This is also a great part of Eid when we visit our relatives, greet them, and go out with friends. Children get extra love of their parents and grand parents during this time. On Eid all the younger kids, get Eidi (money or gifts) from their elders like aunts, parents, and grandparents. There is a huge gathering on Eid day. We enjoy the whole day with cousins and relatives. In Pakistan, I always went out with friends on the second day of Eid but in the US, I didn’t enjoy Eid as I did in Pakistan. Here I miss my relatives and friends with whom I enjoyed the celebrations and shared my feelings and happiness. Here I don’t have those elders from whom I will get my Eidi. I miss the love of my grandparents, aunts and all those friends and cousins with whom I spent my childhood.
Eid is a holiday we all wait for throughout the year. In September, we had our first Eid in the US but it was not same as Pakistan. Although we had a holiday, still we were not able to enjoy it fully. We had Sheer Khurma and we went to the mosque for Eid prayers, but we did not have our relatives and friends to enjoy the day with. I always felt like princess in Pakistan on Eid because of my friends and family. Holidays, prayers, and the food that your mother cooks on holidays are the things that you can only enjoy in your country without any worries, but all that changes once you come to a country that is completely different from your own culture.

"I Miss You" Doesn't Mean the Same

by Thalyta Borges

You get in and out of a car while you get on and off a bus. Sweetmeats are candies and sweetbreads are not sweet and have meat. Does it make sense? English is a crazy language. Why do they call it eggplant if there is no egg in a eggplant, or why a wise man is the opposite of a wise guy? Once we get used to this language we understand it, but still, some words just don’t make any sense and that what has been lost for me. I miss my language. Sometimes I get myself thinking while the world is turning around that if I were a polyglot I could say “I miss you” in Spanish, Italian, English, Chinese, French or even Greek, but because I’m Brazilian, and my first language is Portuguese, no matter how many languages I speak, deep down words will never have the same meaning.

First of all, learning a new language is the same as re-learning to think. Yes! Everything changes or almost everything. I had to learn that I have a silver car, not a car silver. The structure of sentences changes. Adjectives go before the noun, but sometimes they go after, depending on which language you are learning. A singular subject takes singular verb, and a plural subject takes a plural verb, but sometimes it is confusing. While in other languages, there are over 1000 irregular verbs, and they have different form for each pronoun. I remember how I learned the English alphabet when I was over eighteen years old. I felt like baby, learning that A, B, C song and singing as I was a little girl in kindergarden. Although I think for babies it is easier because they are learning something for the first time, but what about adults that already learned their native language completely.

We actually can translate words, but the meaning of words and phrases can be lost through the translation. For example, in Portuguese we say Eu amo você, and it literally means I love you. Even though the translations seem to be very simple because eu means I, amo means love and você means you. When we say it in a second language to someone, it doesn’t really have the same meaning. We usually tend to use our native language to declare our strong feelings or when we are desperate. I’m pretty sure most of the time bilingual people count money, pray, or even make love in their first language. I have particular example of a word that there is no translation for in English. This word is Saudade, in portuguese Saudade is a nostalgic souvenir, and at the same time, soft, of people or things that are far away from you accompanied by a desire to see them again. In other words, it is a feeling that a time in the past was good and now you miss it. I don’t miss speaking portuguese because I have a couple of Brazilian friends around Chicago, or I can just call home and talk in portuguese. What I’m saying is that my words are being lost in translation, and I will never be able to find them in United States.

My sense of belonging has also gotten lost. I used to think that one day I could be, at least, a fake “American” by living here for many years, but I realized that I can’t. I will never be able to feel comfortable here. I thought that it would be easy to immerse myself in this culture, what I love, or in this language. I must confess that I get frustrated with the language, specifically English. The order of sentences doesn’t make sense sometimes, and some words don’t make sense at all. I would never guess that sweetmeats are candies, and it was odd to learn that I park my car in a driveway and while I go to school I drive on a parkway. On the other hand, portuguese are so perfect and exclusive. Words make sense; we don’t just take two single words and make one unrelated to those two, and we do have name for things, a real name that makes sense.

Words are being lost! I’m getting lost. I really miss “my words” and expressing myself. I know I will never be able to express my feelings to my american friends and speakers. And no matter which part of the world we are in, I believe that one simple “I miss you” or whatever words we can say this phrase in an other language will never have the same strength and meaning as my own word. Maybe those words are not enough to express my feelings about how much I really miss someone or a lot other things in my native country. That is why I have more saudade because I have the right word to use.

Lost in Translation - EVERYONE WANTS TO BE FOUND

(A book by Bill Murray & Scarlett Johasson)

Lost in Translation by Sin Sze Yeung

What direction?

　　“The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress. The only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn and change.” I have been in the United States for two and a half years, but I still feel like I am lost in translation. I found that I have had difficulties adapting to the weather, learning languages and dealing with culture shock, but the most difficult part of this new experience is education. Education has made me feel lost in translation since I arrived in this country.


　　The educational system in Hong Kong and United States is totally different. The education system in Hong Kong has been described as "spoon-fed". It means students just need to learn what the teacher “feeds” them. It is totally different than United States education system. In the United States, students have to discuss the learning material with classmates, and also get a chance to discuss and argue with teachers in the class. Since I was already accustomed with the old system of study, I don’t like to talk too much while doing my work. In mathematics class, I just spend my time taking notes and doing my classwork and exercises. If it is not necessary, I won’t talk to my classmates until I have a question. The only time that I will have commutation with my classmates is when the teacher assigns us to have discussions based on the lesson. These actions may affect my studies for being too individual.


　　Having classmates that come from every continent with different culture has also made me feel lost too. At the beginning, being with them was full of observations and new discoveries. However, I found that it is hard to understand their habits, beliefs and viewpoints. I had experienced this difficulty before. I had heard people telling jokes, but somehow I didn’t understand why the person thinks it is funny. This is because those jokes were based on the person’s culture and background. I can accept the foreign culture and adapt to it, but it is hard understand what the real meaning inside my classmates’ minds are. In class, people will chat with each other about their life, their habits or things they did. They talk and laugh with each other, but I can’t get into their group. It is because we don’t have the same habits, and most of them think my lifestyle is different from theirs. It is because I don’t watch US dramas, I have no interest in sports and I go to church. That’s why I feel lost in school with my classmates.


　　The different style of studying is the main reason that made me feel lost in translation in my new country. In Hong Kong, the purpose of studying for most of the students is just getting a high grade in order to get into the best school or a job. Students study to get a high grades, but they tend to forget what they had studied or learned after that. Teachers and parents want students to get a higher grade, so they will put pressure on students to make them do their best. In the United States, the focus of education is different. The United States government strongly believes that the purpose of studying is like the quote we always say, “Education can change our life and the world.” Education is also an expression of diverse teaching philosophies, cultural and social lifestyles. Students use their knowledge from studies to change their life and make their life successful. Education for Hong Kong students is to get a good grade. In the United States, students are supposed to become intelligent. Since there are no teachers or parents to force pressure on me if I don’t get a high grade, it has become my excuse of not trying my best in my studies.


　　For now, I am still having a hard time in education in United States. The US educational system, change of classmates and new study style has made me lost in my translation to this country. I don’t know when I will overcome this obstacle, but I will try my best to prepare my road to the university degree first. I don’t want to be the only child that is left behind in the society, lost in translation.