How would you feel if you traveled 7,239 miles from home at age seven? Leaving your home, language, and culture can be challenging between states let alone entire continents. Both Firoozeh and her family had to adapt at alarming rates. In the short story Funny in Farsi by Firoozeh Dumas, she highlights specific incidents in her life as a young girl to show that it is not easy being a foreigner in an unfamiliar country. A stretching problem throughout the entirety of the text is that Firoozeh’s family has little to no knowledge of the english language. For example, when Firoozeh is asked to show her complete knowledge of the english language, all she can say is a few colors, “...proudly recited all that I knew: “White, yellow, orange, red, purple, blue, green.” When enrolling in her new …show more content…
During her first day of school, her mother was asked to identify where Iran was on the map. After a few awkward attempts by the mother to locate Iran, the teacher sat her back down. This exemplified the point that a large amount of women in the middle east have little to no access to education. Firoozeh Dumas’s mother was no exception, she was only taught to take care of children and do things like prepare tea and baklava. Sadly, their main purpose in life was to find a husband and serve him. Their culture goes back to the beginning explaining another one of their struggles.
One of the main differences between Iran and the United states is the terrain and landscape. The roads and buildings were all new to both of them. In the excerpt, Dumas got lost in the streets after school. The only thing saving them was the little girl who noticed them walking around looking lost. “Her mother handed us a telephone, and my mother, who had, thankfully, memorized my father’s work number, called him and explained our situation.” Once again lack of knowledge increased their struggles of moving to the United