Experiences of Life as an Immigrant. Cross-cultural analysis of Eva Hoffman "Lost in Translation"

As far as subcultures are concerned, I would like to give some examples that explain the different subcultures that we can find in the book. Although there is not a unique definition about subcultures, we could say that, in its broad sense, it is composed by people within a same culture who differentiate themselves from the larger culture’s group they belong to according to different way of thinking, customs and idea. An apparent subculture is the middle-class society in Poland during the 1950s. During the post-war, Poland’s society underwent a change from predominantly agrarian society to predominantly industrial one. As far as the social order is concerned, the displacement affected Poland’s class structure and ethnic composition. In fact, after the war most of the middle-class population was forced to emigrate. Those who survived the war fell victim to loosing their social status. Eva’s family decided to move to Canada in the hope of a better life. Eva’s parents were aware of the fact that after the war and the change of regime, there was no future for the middle-class in Poland. Related to this point, Poland during the 1950s was a Communist country and its society was considered to be individualistic. In fact, according to Hofstede, Poland culture promotes individual values over collective ones. An example of individualism among Polish people could be seen when the Rosenberg gives hospitality to Eva and her family. “After a week of lodging us in his house, Mr. Rosenberg decides that he has done enough for us”. This shows a high level of individualism from Mr. Rosenberg as he thinks that “it is not good for us to be independent on his charity”. We should note that Eva comes from a Polish Jewish family. National culture and religion are to be seen as subcultures in themselves. Religious is not to be taken into consideration as much as the national culture. The prominent differences between their culture and the Canadian one can be noticed in terms of traditions, food and clothing.

Aspects of these cultures and sub-cultures where there is contrast causing difficulties for characters (Hofstede and Schwartz contrasting values, beliefs, practices)

According to Hofstede there are five bipolar dimensions by which every country’s culture can be characterized. By his studies he offers an “insight into the dynamics of cross-cultural relationships” and a way to understand cultural backgrounds and others countries’ culture. As far as the book is concerned, one of the most relevant dimensions he terms is masculinity/femininity, by which Hofstede means that the society is strongly motivated by competition, achievement and success. It defines a society where success means to be the best. In Lost in Translation the masculinity emerges in various situations, above all, when Eva tells about her father or Mr. Rosenberg. Both of them show a particularly willingness to achieve their aims and to be the best in field. Another main dimension present in the book is the one which Hofstede terms individualism versus collectivism. The word individualism stands for that society which is composed by people who look after themselves and their family. On the contrary, collectivism can be seen as the extent by which individual functions and decisions are taken within the context of the group. For instance, when Eva and her family move to Canada and live for a short period in the Rosenberg’s house. The relation between the two families demonstrates their different way of managing situations. In fact after a few days, as soon as they arrive at that house, Mr. Rosenberg asks them “money for our train tickets from Montreal” and after few days they have to move because Mr. Rosenberg didn’t want to look after them anymore. This shows clearly a strong individualism and lack of generosity towards Eva’s family.

Analyzing the book from the ‘values’ point of view, I think it could be relevant to make a point of Schwartz’s value theory.  With this theory he identifies ten common types of value which could be considered as guiding principles in life. Among these ten values, there are some in particular that characterized Eva’s family and the others’ life. I could say that achievement is one of the most applicable because, as we can notice in Eva’s father’s behavior, he tries to succeed in everything he does even though he often finds difficulties to confronting: the decision to move to another country in the hope for a better life, the renting of a store and the extent he goes to in learning a new language. These examples show the distances he is willing to go to achieve his personal success. As far as importance is concerned, I might say that tradition is the most relevant value of the book. In fact, the main topic of the book is the Eva’s interior conflict between her culture and the Canadian one. Her non-acceptance of the new culture is due to her devotion to the Polish one. In terms of security, she seeks a stable society which contains a harmony of relationship with herself and her family. They didn’t feel secure, both when they were in Poland and when they moved to Canada. It is due to the hard situation they were living in both countries. In Poland they had to face the post-war period and the change of regime following the exile to Canada where they had to start a completely new life which is synonym of insecurity as they didn’t know what to expect.

Internalized Culture (theory/reading on prejudice, ethnocentrism, stereotyping)

Eva’s behavior could be defined as influenced by her internalized culture which is meant as that part of a culture that a person is completely aware of. It manifests itself once a person has mastered a cultural practice and he/she doesn’t need to pay attention to follow it because it has become part of him/her. Furthermore, it can be related to prejudices and stereotypes because when someone, like Eva, has not enough knowledge about another culture or tradition, tends to judge, draw or associate a particular characteristic to a particular category. Eva seems to have a rejection towards the Canadian culture because of her strong proudness about the Polish one. In fact, we might see some demonstrations where her internalized culture is in evidence. For example she finds it hard to thank somebody for something. In the extract we can notice her mother saying “Say thank you, people like to be appreciated”. Eva obeys to her mother but she is just pretending because she says that, as far as her Polish culture is concerned, to thank someone could be seen as impolite. “We do not use stereotypes in an undiscriminating or unthinking way; rather, they serve as a tentative for which we then seek out further information”. This means that Eva is aware of the differences between her own culture and the other one but she is not ready to accept it due to the lack of knowledge. We may see another example of internalized culture in terms of language and association between words and what they evoke to Eva. She has learned new words and expressions from some books. She can irrationally like some of them because of their sound or because she is pleased to guess what they mean. But it also happens that she learns expressions of which she cannot find a proper accumulated association. Specially, the word “River” evokes to her different images in comparison to what recalls to her mind the same word in Polish. . Although Eva seems to be aware of her internalized culture, I might say that her behavior shows her unawareness about the influence exercised by her internalized culture. I might define this reaction as ethnocentric because it seems that she considers her attitude as logical, natural and superior to the behavior of the other culture.

Tensions generated between individual and within individuals

As I mentioned before, the whole book is a tour of mixed feelings, emotions and tensions which affect Eva during her exile in Canada. I think it is really important to focus on the tensions that Eva faces above all during the first period in her new life. In fact, due to her refusal of the new culture, she finds it hard to accustom herself to the life in Canada. It is possible to notice this kind of rejection when analyzing some behaviors or events. For example, taking into consideration the nightmare she has during the third night at the Rosenberg’s’ house. It represents, as Eva says, “my born into the New World”. The fear she feels that night could be compared to the fear of a mutative insight. It could be defined as a tension between Eva and her conscience. She begins to be aware of the fact that she will probably get used to the new life. It is possible to notice also another kind of tension. It is not an inner tension within the character but between Eva and her schoolmates and the teacher. Eva, linked to her prejudices and stereotypes towards the other culture, thinks that her schoolmates look at her in an aggressive way. She probably judges and defines the schoolmate behavior as aggressive because, as mentioned before, of her lack of knowledge. As far as the teacher is concerned, the matter is related to the mispronunciation of Eva and her sister’s names. The teacher “gave us name that make us strangers to ourselves”. It is fairly clear that Eva is shocked by this situation because she doesn’t identify herself with the new appellation. As long as she continues to deny the obvious, Eva will face tensions within herself and with the people who belong to a different culture. Eva probably knows that accepting this new world and the new culture could mean to detach herself from her native culture.

Forms of Intercultural Competence shown/not shown

During her exile, Eva passes various steps from a state of complete refusal to a final acceptance. I think we could analyze this path taking into consideration various theorist who have written about intercultural competence. Before analyzing the Intercultural Competence in Eva’s behavior, I think we should focus on defining what Intercultural Competence is and which its core components are. Intercultural Competence could be defined as the exchange of views and intercultural dialogue between people and groups who are from different cultures, religious, ethnic and linguistic background. This exchange occurs from the basis of respect and tolerance in order to promote understanding and deter misunderstandings and conflicts. These competences are not part of the internalized culture. In fact, they cannot be acquired automatically by individuals. People should continue practicing and maintaining them. As far as the core components are concerned, the Council of Europe’s White Paper on Intercultural Dialogue maintains that there are four components which form the core of intercultural competence: attitudes, skills, knowledge and behaviors. I could say that, in the beginning Eva lacks the above components due to the refusal to open her mind to another culture. In fact, it seems that she is not interested to deep her knowledge about the new culture, to create a close contact or suspend judgment towards people who are culturally different from her. Moreover, in terms of skills, she doesn’t endeavor to adapt herself to the new cultural environment due to her disinterest about discovering or deepening information and her lack of interaction with people from others cultures. On the contrary, she is self-aware of her own culture and about the “different linguistic and communicative conventions within different cultures”. The last core component is behaviors in terms of having an appropriate, flexible and effective behavior during intercultural encounters. I could say that observing Eva’s attitude, during the first stage of her exile, she pretends to adapt to the situations in order to behave correctly.  

According to the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity written by the theorist Bennett, there are six stages of development which help individuals to experience abilities to understand and live the cultural differences in a better way. Eva seems to have a defense behavior when at Rosenberg’s house. She is aware of the other culture around her but she can’t understand it properly. This happens because she is still at the very first stage where everything appears incomprehensible to her. We could analyze Eva’s behavior taking into consideration Ruben’s seven dimensions of communication which “make individuals function effectively in intercultural settings”. Eva seems to have an extreme lack of orientation to knowledge as she thinks that her knowledge and perceptions are universal. As far as tolerance of ambiguity is concerned, Eva is not able to face unexpected or equivocal situations without being affected by them.

Finally, Spitzberg’s notion of communicative competence defines a competent communication as the effective and appropriate way of behaving. According to him, a competent communicator should have three conditions: knowledge, motivation, and skills. I might say that Eva shows a lack of motivation, which Spitzberg’s terms as the desire of an effective and appropriate communication. I could link the lack of orientation, motivation, tolerance of ambiguity to the examples I have given before. In fact, if we think about the mispronunciation of the name, the evocation of the word river and her prejudices about her schoolmates, they could be all included under these patterns. But we might notice also that, the more she is in contact with that culture the more she accepts it. In fact, as I said before, Eva’s story is composed by many steps which bring her to admit and accept the new world, language, life and culture. We might define this step as acceptance because it means that the individual is aware of the existence of both her culture and other ones. It could be considered as the understanding of the complexity and importance of individuals who are culturally different from you. In the last page of the book we can notice the finally acceptance in Eva’s words “This is the place where I’m alive. How could there be any other place?”. Now she is motivated to establish a contact with the other culture, developing also the orientation to knowledge which allows her to accept other people’s thoughts and perceptions.

Conclusion

As we have seen, Eva struggles with her inner tensions, feelings and emotions from the moment of her parting from Cracow till the moment of final acceptance of the new life. The difficulty of starting a new life in an unknown place could be connected to the cross-cultural complexities and deep differences between the two cultures. These differences entail contrasts until the moment Eva becomes aware of the influence exercised by her internalized culture. In fact, the main obstacle is represented by her proudness about her culture which impedes her to open her mind to new knowledge, tradition and culture. But as we have also seen, step by step she manages to acknowledge the presence of other cultures besides that of her Polish one.

Numbers of words: 3229

Irene Malentacchi

Bibliography

• Barrett M., Intercultural Competence, http://www.academia.edu/1158374/Intercultural_Competence, 2011

• Hoffman E., Lost in Translation, Vintage, London, 1998

• Hofstede G., Culturally questionable?, Oxford Business & Economics Conference, Oxford, 2007

• Hofstede G, Levels of Culture, Harper Collins, London, 1994

• Humphrey D., Intercultural Communication Competence: The State of Knowledge, 2007

• Stangor C., Stereotypes and Prejudice, Taylor and Francis, Philadelphia, 2000

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