I was lucky enough to be born in America, but my grandfather and aunt had experienced tremendous hardship to escape from their homeland as boatpeople-seeking freedom in the U.S., where they were later granted political asylum. They finally became citizens of the U.S. through naturalization and are living a decent life here. However, they had experienced so many dramatic changes in their lifestyle and shocks through cultural differences before they successfully assimilated into their new life here. It was a high price they had paid in exchange for the precious freedom they had been denied in their native country of Vietnam.
Living in a country where cultural differences created no end of troubles and difficulties was really a hard and long-term struggle that my grandpa and aunt as immigrants had to fight for survival. Language barrier was a primary obstacle for them to overcome. Loneliness, homesickness, and adaptableness to the new and quite different society were the hardest and most tragic experiences that they had to face. Having to lose their strongest language skills and vocational skills, they found themselves completely at sea with so many changes lying in front of them. A cloudy future awaiting ahead, and continual waves of nostalgia hitting them hard had almost robbed them of their spirit. Grandpa's acute concerns were how to overcome the language barrier, learn new skills, and then get a job to survive. All of those negatives plus segregation, negative stereotypes, and discrimination that he painfully confronted made a major contribution to darken his already dark vision of a new life. A new life at a country where people said to be the richest and most modern society on this planet, where equal opportunities for human advancement was in existence. .
My grandpa suffered more dramatic changes than my aunt did, who was quite young at the time. She appeared to enjoy the new exciting life where everything was totally different from what she had experienced before.
