Cultural identity as a social construct

by Anne Campbell (2000)

New Words
-He ate a substantial breakfast.
-He didn’t give an adequate answer to the question.
-These movies seem to epitomize the 1950s.
-The ostensible reason for his absence was illness.
-Steve’s father only saw him as a substitute for his dead brother.
-She made a wedding cake with five layers for her best friend.
-The poem encapsulates many of the central themes of her writing.
-He returned after 40 years of exile.
-I’d convinced myself that I was right.
-She has dual nationality.
-He was caught trying to flee the country.
-She sojourns in Paris for a month every summer.
-She was outspoken in her criticism of the plan.
-He has a flair for languages.
-Immigrants have been successfully assimilated into the community.
-The singer worked hard in the clear articulations of every note.
-He refused to conform to the local customs.
-A person’s wealth is often in inverse proportion to their happiness.
-His lack of education is a liability.

My Experience
The students in the case studies seemed to be successful. But I’m worrying about one of my students who is from Brazil. My school in Japan is located near a big Brazilian community. I was in charge of a Brazilian girl who came to Japan when she was 3 years old. She had a lot of friends and conformed to Japanese culture. She had no problem with speaking Japanese, so she communicated with her friends and teachers in Japanese. However, she couldn’t write in Portuguese which is her parents’ language and her Japanese writing was also poor. It was always difficult for her to get good marks in exams. I suppose that she couldn’t understand correctly because of her low language abilities.