ENGLISH VINGLISH
the movie review
This assignment is submitted as
a partial fulfillment of the course of
Lecturer : Muhamad Hasbi S.Pd.I., M. A. TESL
Name : Siti Aisah Putri Jamina
NIM : 113 11 026
Class : TBI D
University : STAIN Salatiga
Term : odd semester – 2014
Synopsis
:
Sashi Godbole is an Indian housewife who lives with her husband, two children,
and mother-in-law. Shashi is always underestimated in the family because of her inability to speak English, that’s what makes her feel unappreciated. One day, Sashi
goes to New York, for her niece's wedding. New York is
a new chapter in
the life of Shashi, she must survive with all her limitations but also has to fight to show
herself. In New York, she has a traumatic experience
at a coffee shop due to her inability to communicate in English. Until one day, using the
money she made from selling laddoo's, Shashi desperates to join the classes to learn English which
guarantees within four weeks they will be
fluent in English secretly. Will Shashi manage to master English and prove to her
husband and children to not
underestimate her?
CULTURAL PROFILE OF SASHI GODBOLE
Sashi is an
Indian wife who lives with her husband, two children, and mother in-law. She came from India. So her cultural profile is also in the background of Indian. We can see it from her fashion, food, language, religion,
art and body
language.
1.
Fashion
Sashi is a woman in
a traditional Indian family which is fairly modern. She is still wearing sari in daily life. The
sari (the plural form is saree) is the traditional women's costume in India,
Pakistan and Afghanistan. There are some regional variations, but it is always
worn loosely on the body and is usually made from brightly colored fabric. Sashi also use bindi on her forehead. Bindi is often an essential part of a Hindu woman's make up.
2.
Food
Sashi is a seller of
ladoo because she loves making Ladoo. She has her own home-based business to make Ladoo. Ladoo is a traditional food from in India. Ladoo
is a kind of ball-shaped cake which the taste is sweet and quite popular in
India and the surrounding area. Ladoo is made of flour, minced dough and sugar with other ingredients
that vary by recipe. It is often served at festive or religious occasions.
3. Language
Sashi uses national language in India to communicate with her family, that is Hindi. Hindi is the most spoken language in India. But in this modern era, people often use the English language in everyday. There
are about 22 official languages and nearly 400 living languages spoken in
various parts of the country. Most of the languages of India belong to two
families, Aryan and Dravidian.
4. Religion
India is a land of diversities. This
diversity is also visible in the spheres of religion. The major religions of
India are Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, and Buddhism. But the most dominant religion in India is Hinduism. India is a land where people of different religions and cultures
live in harmony. This harmony is seen in the celebration of festivals. The
message of love and brotherhood is expressed by all the religions and cultures
of India. Sashi’s religion is Hiduism.
5. Art
India has a lot of art, such as music and dance. India has had a long romance with the art of dance. And The Indian art of dance as taught
in these ancient books, according to Ragini Devi, is the expression of inner
beauty and the divine in man. It is a deliberate art, nothing is left to
chance, each gesture seeks to communicate the ideas, each facial expression the emotions. In this movie, Sashi dance and sing in her niece's wedding.
6.
Body Language
Indians, like all cultures have distinct
gestures and hand movements that mean different things.
There are two
types of gestures, such as illustrators and emblems, which have a meaning all their own
because they aren’t used with any words or sounds. For example, They shake
their heads from side to side when they mean "yes," so be careful how
you interpret their signals. Indians are
incredibly hospitable, and they are easily offended if refused. For example, in
this movie, Sashi habitaly shaking her head to express something.
PART II
ADJUSTMENT PROCESS IN NEW CULTURE
1.
Honeymoon Period
Honeymoon period is best described by feelings of excitement,
optimism and wonder often experienced when you enter into a new environment or
culture. While differences are observed, peoples are more likely to focus on
the positive aspects of the new environment.
This was demonstrated when Sashi accompany her nephew go to campuss, then a
walk in the neighborhood. She was pleased when she saw the arts (dance, sing, and play the music) along the way.
2.
Culture shock
Culture shock
is the holistic reaction to displacement from one’s familiar environment.
Suddenly, people find yourself unable to understand, communicate, and function
effectively. Culture shock has been defined in
different ways by many social scientists. In general, it is a term used to
describe the anxiety and feelings (of surprise, disorientation, confusion,
etc.) This is shown when Sashi goes to the coffee shop. She feel confused to order
a meal and drinks at the coffee shop,
so she drops the items there.
3.
Initial Adjustment
Initial adjustment is when everybody activities are no longer
major problems. Even though the person may not be fluent in the language, she can already
express basic ideas and feelings. For example, when Sashi first goes to take the train, she cannot enter the card, and she was helped by the guard. But after the second and subsequent time Sashi already understand.
4.
Mental Isolation
Mental
isolation refers to a complete or near-complete lack of contact with people and
society for
members of a social species. It
is not the same as loneliness rooted in temporary lack of contact with other
humans. Social isolation can be an issue for anyone despite their age, each age
group may show more symptoms than the other as children are different from
adults. Sashi feels lonely while in America
and being away with
her family.
5.
Acceptance and
Intergration
Acceptance and integration is when people have
accepted the habits, customs, foods, and characteristic of the people in the
new culture. They now feel comfortable with friends and the language of the
country. This is indicated when Sashi goes to a cafe, she can order food with fluent English and understand the foods that available in the cafe.
This situation is very different when she first got to the coffee shop.
PART III
RE-ENTRY ADJUSTMENT PROCESS
1.
Accpetance and Integration
Acceptance and integration is when people have accepted the habits,
customs, foods, and characteristic of the people in the new culture. They now
feel comfortable with friends and the language of the country. For example, after more than
a month, Sashi stays in America, she began to get used to the food and
the language there. She started using English to communicate with others. And she also began to cook American food.
2.
Return Anxiety
In this period, many people realize how much
they have changed because their experiences and may be nervous about going
home. After her niece's wedding ceremony
is completed, Sashi and her family come back to her home, India. Then after a few days Sashi back to
her home, her husband and her children feel strange with Sashi. Because
now Sashi often cook Americans’ food. This situation is very different from the first, Sashi always cook Indians’ food. Moreover before Sashi not understand American food.
3.
Return honeymoon
In this period, immediately upon arrival, there are parties to welcome back
those who have been away. After arriving home, Sashi feel very
happy, because Sashi is eagerly awaited and welcomed with
happiness by her family. Sashi feel very
appreciated and needed
by her family. And
Sashi also feel happy because she will not be underestimated again by her family, because she now can speak English. In fact, now she has mastered the English language, after attending a course for 4 weeks
in America.
4.
Re-entry shock
Re-entry Shock is returning to one's home
culture after growing accustomed to a new one. The affected person often finds
this more surprising and difficult to deal with than the original culture
shock. The native country or city may have changed in their eyes. Family and
friends may not understand or appreciate what they have experienced. Sashi feel that her husband and her children have changed with their behavior. Whereas her family act strongly because the change of Sashis’ character and attitude.
5.
Re-integration
In this period,
they become fully involve with their friends. Family and activities and full
intergrated with their society. They now realize the positive and negative of
both countries and have a balanced perspective about their experiences. Over time, Sashi realizes that he has followed
in the American culture.
After a few days,
Sashi is back again with a culture
accustomed once. She use Hindi language to communicate with her family and she also cook Indians’ food, like Ladoo.
But American culture
remains she used in the right situation.
PART IV
OTHER CROSS-CULTURAL ISSUES
1.
ENGLISH-VINGLISH
From the movie, I find there are some strange English-like
vocabulary such as English-Vinglish, coffee-voffee, time-vime, etc as mentioned
in its title as well as its soundtrack ‘Badla Nazara’. I was curious. After
doing small research on Google, I found this type of vocabulary is called
Hinglish, a blending of Hindi and English. In India, English is second language
and is used widely among Indians whose major mother tongue is Hindi. In result,
Indian people often mix them while speaking and Hindi’s language composition of
words repetition such as ‘ishq-vishq’ and ‘yahan-wahan’ affect the English
spoken by them, producing some Hinglish such as run-vun, number-vumber, etc.
Thus, in my view, the title English Vinglish can fall under cultural issue in
terms of language aspect.
2.
CROSS CULTURE MARRIAGE
There is a marriage scene in the movie between Indian-lady Meera
and American-guy Kevin. It is interesting for me because they are from two
different countries, at the same time two different religions, which is very
rare to happen. They must have gone through deep consideration before
committing to marry, because cross-cultural marriage is prone to invite
conflicts due to multi-different backgrounds between the wife and husband. I
think high level of understanding and acceptance is needed to keep their
relation in harmony. At the same time, they should be aware to avoid making
judgement, underestimation and prejudice to each other when spending their life
together. If so, I believe that cross-cultural marriage can be the most
beautiful marriage ever.
3.
MEN TO MEN RELATIONSHIP
In this movie, Sashi has some male friend on the
course. One of the men loves the same sex or often called gay. Other than him, her teacher is also a gay. In America, things like that is very familiar. Because in
America has many people who love the same sex. However, for Sashi, that is a strange thing in her life. Because in India, where she lived, very rarely found people like them. So for the people of India it is still considered to be less fair or very
strange behavior or deviant. It can be concluded that it is
cross-cultural issue for Sashi and people
of India.
4.
DIRECT AND INDIRECT
In this movie, Sashi has many friends in class
courses, one of her friends named Laurent, he is
a man who comes
from French. Before in the classroom course, she also had mets him earlier, when
she first went to a cafe in America. Laurent’s character is very different
from Sashi. Sashi is a woman who
likes to talk to the point, he is very honest.
While Laurent is a man who
when talking like
pleasantries. This can be seen when he
spoke in class,
he told about the
virtues of Sashi. Behind it, it turns Laurent like Sashi. But he did not
immediately disclose to Sashi.
5.
HUGGING IN THE PUBLIC
In this movie,
there are attitudes of person with other
people who make
Sashi angry and
surprised. For example, Sashi was angry when her husband hugging with a woman, his colleagues. She was jealous because she saw her husband embraced with
another girl. And other examples, she was surprised when she saw there
was a girl and boy kissing in the cafe publicity. According to Indian culture, hugging and
kissing is a personal thing and should not be done in
public. And things like that also made
only to the same sex or just with their family. In the events of the movie, it can be concluded that this kind of problem, that is the cultural issue in aspect of custom or attitude.
6.
THE QUEUNE AT THE CAFE
In this film, we can see how Sashi’s expression when queuing and intending
to buy food at a cafe. At which time, for the first time she is shopping at the cafe in America. If she is not understand English language. She was very confused. However, no one who
was there, who want
to help Sashi overcome confusion to buy
food at the
cafe. The service in the
cafe was actually angry when Sashi is ordering. Especially when Sashi drop stuff
there, the people around her just laughed. This case is different from the culture in India. People
of India will help
foreigners who do not understand when they're
buying in the area of India.
7.
ARTISTS ON THE ROAD
When Sashi accompany her niece to the campus, Sashi walks around the streets
near with her nieces’ campus. Sashi sees there are some artists
who play in
the street. For example, they play the music and dance at the roadside. They really enjoy what they do. They are not concerned
wherever they play. They just want to have
fun and do their hobbies, and
they also can
comfort others. In America, it is already commonplace. But in India, rarely or even no one does it like
that. But Sashi is very happy
and enjoy for the show their play.
8.
HERARCHY AND EQUALITY
In this movie, Sashi’s family in India still follow herarchy concept. It is
prove by Sashi as a woman just work in a home and didn’t have opportunity to
work outside. It
really different with condition in America. The women there, have more chance
to work outside because America follow the equality concept. The equality
concept consider position of all people same and all of them have same
authority to do everything.
