Niche blog Drafts
Niche blog post #1 Draft description
THE STRUGGLES OF HAVING IMMIGRANT PARENTS: ITALIAN STYLE
Friend: “Why is your mom mad? She’s screaming on the phone”
Me: “Oh no she isn’t mad. That’s just how us Italians speak”
This is a common question I get whenever my mom is on the phone speaking to her mother or anyone in general. There are many struggles that come with having immigrant parents that people don’t usually think about.
1. Parents speak so loudly and use hand gestures when they speak.
My mom isn’t angry; she just gets excited when she speaks.
2. I'm always their translator/always have to repeat what others say.
Whether we are in the grocery store, just causally out doing errands, or if we are with my friends’ family, etc., I have to clarify things for them. It’s never a simple conversation back and forth. There’s always some explaining or reiteration I have to do for them.
3. Having to speak slowly in English when speaking to my parents.
My parents don’t know the English language well. So whenever we talk, my parents speak to me in Italian (sometimes in English) and I respond in English but I can never speak fast. I need to speak at a slower pace so they can understand me.
4. They never really helped me with homework.
They didn’t understand the language so I always had to do homework without any assistance; meanwhile, all of my friends’ parents helped them.
5. Saying words wrong and not knowing how to say words in English was a regular thing to me since my parents wouldn’t speak proper English.
“Can you please pass me the....” I froze and couldn’t continue speaking to my friend. I forgot/never knew how to say the word “remote” in English. How embarrassing. Or when I was called to read out of the science textbook in class. The word “intestines” was shown on the page but I pronounced it as “in-tis-teens”. That’s how my mom would say it. My classmates laughed....
6. I would get embarrassed if my parents speak to/in front of my friends.
Lets go to the “bitch” tomorrow. “No dad, it’s pronounced, “beach.”
7. Never having any type of privacy.
If I tell my mom something, my aunts, grandma, and half of the family knows. Literally half the family.
8. My mother and grandmother know EVERYTHING.
Even more than Internet. “They’re never wrong”
9. Having to explain too many times to people that my family isn’t in the mafia.
10. “Turn the bread over!”
There is an Italian myth that you get bad luck if a loaf of bread is upside down. Getting yelled at by my parents to turn over the bread in front of friends certainly isn’t something I would want to hear.
11. “Go stir the sauce for me”
Italian sauce takes an hour to make on the stove. Imagine being in a middle of a movie and having your mom scream that to you? You had no choice but to get up, miss part of the movie, to go stir the tomato sauce.
12. Although these are all terrible and extremely embarrassing struggles, I know that I am a part of a loving, but crazy family who will always be there for me.
So whenever you (either you may be a New Jersey-an that knows an Italian from your area or a random person lurking through my blog) and you see someone do what I do/what my immigrant parents do, now you know its only because my parents are trying to adapt to the American culture/they are the way there are because that’s just how/what Italians do.
Friend: “Why is your mom mad? She’s screaming on the phone”
Me: “Oh no she isn’t mad. That’s just how us Italians speak”
This is a common question I get whenever my mom is on the phone speaking to her mother or anyone in general. There are many struggles that come with having immigrant parents that people don’t usually think about.
1. Parents speak so loudly and use hand gestures when they speak.
My mom isn’t angry; she just gets excited when she speaks.
2. I'm always their translator/always have to repeat what others say.
Whether we are in the grocery store, just causally out doing errands, or if we are with my friends’ family, etc., I have to clarify things for them. It’s never a simple conversation back and forth. There’s always some explaining or reiteration I have to do for them.
3. Having to speak slowly in English when speaking to my parents.
My parents don’t know the English language well. So whenever we talk, my parents speak to me in Italian (sometimes in English) and I respond in English but I can never speak fast. I need to speak at a slower pace so they can understand me.
4. They never really helped me with homework.
They didn’t understand the language so I always had to do homework without any assistance; meanwhile, all of my friends’ parents helped them.
5. Saying words wrong and not knowing how to say words in English was a regular thing to me since my parents wouldn’t speak proper English.
“Can you please pass me the....” I froze and couldn’t continue speaking to my friend. I forgot/never knew how to say the word “remote” in English. How embarrassing. Or when I was called to read out of the science textbook in class. The word “intestines” was shown on the page but I pronounced it as “in-tis-teens”. That’s how my mom would say it. My classmates laughed....
6. I would get embarrassed if my parents speak to/in front of my friends.
Lets go to the “bitch” tomorrow. “No dad, it’s pronounced, “beach.”
7. Never having any type of privacy.
If I tell my mom something, my aunts, grandma, and half of the family knows. Literally half the family.
8. My mother and grandmother know EVERYTHING.
Even more than Internet. “They’re never wrong”
9. Having to explain too many times to people that my family isn’t in the mafia.
10. “Turn the bread over!”
There is an Italian myth that you get bad luck if a loaf of bread is upside down. Getting yelled at by my parents to turn over the bread in front of friends certainly isn’t something I would want to hear.
11. “Go stir the sauce for me”
Italian sauce takes an hour to make on the stove. Imagine being in a middle of a movie and having your mom scream that to you? You had no choice but to get up, miss part of the movie, to go stir the tomato sauce.
12. Although these are all terrible and extremely embarrassing struggles, I know that I am a part of a loving, but crazy family who will always be there for me.
So whenever you (either you may be a New Jersey-an that knows an Italian from your area or a random person lurking through my blog) and you see someone do what I do/what my immigrant parents do, now you know its only because my parents are trying to adapt to the American culture/they are the way there are because that’s just how/what Italians do.
Changes made TO BLOG #1
Above was my first draft of my first blog post. I changed many things around in this post. You can view my updated version of my blog here. I made many changes based on my conference with Professor Kopp and the two peer review comments from my peer review group. I added more of a purpose to my blog post. In my draft, I didn't have a purpose on why I included these struggles. I edited it by adding more about myself in the beginning of the blog post and then include some resolutions and made it in italics to make it more organized. I added the resolution part of the post because it can relate to someone if you have these struggles in your life as well regardless if you are Italian or not. I also edited some grammar mistakes and added gifs and images to make it more presentable. I changed it to be more relevant to the audience and made it more appealing to the eye as well. I added spacers to make it more organized as well. I believe that my blog post has more purpose and is more put together.
NICHE BLOG POST #2 DRAFT DESCRIPTION
HOW TO LIVE LIKE AN ITALIAN
- Always and I mean ALWAYS have food with you at home. Italians never stop eating. They value food so much that whenever people come over, you have to offer it to them even if they stop by for 5 minutes. When you do give them food, give them a 5 course meal.
- Make sure your children have a wine tasting at age 10, which helps them fall asleep too ;)
- Have Sunday dinner every Sunday at 1:00. Yes, dinner is at 1:00 pm on Sundays and make sure pasta is one of the entrees and wine as the drink.
- Give your children a full course meal to bring to school for lunch. Pack some pasta with a side of meatballs or some fresh homemade lasagna. Make your children’s friends jealous. Also include real silverware, no plastic forks.
- Have a cornicello or corno that looks like red peppers hanging from your car, around your neck, in your house. A corno is an item that Italians always have with them that symbolizes to get off evil eyes way. It is a myth that Italians go by.
- Live with your family members. This means you have to live with you parents or in laws. Or live next to or down the street from your uncle, aunt, cousins, 10th cousin, etc. This makes it much more special living with them.
- Embarrass your children any chance you get.
- Visit your family members in Italy
- Talk with your hands
- Make homemade tomato sauce
Changes made to blog #2
Above is my draft for my blog post #2. You can view my updated version of my blog here.The purpose of this blog post is to have readers learn how to be like an Italian and learn by these ideas if they want to incorporate into their lifestyle. I made changes by adding gifs and images to make it more presentable. I included a way for my readers to refer back to last blog post and included a hyperlink for that. I also included steps on how to make fresh homemade tomato sauce. I included hyperlinks to the machine used to make the sauce and what jars to use. I also edited the grammar and my word choice as well. I also added a few more ways to live like an Italian compared to the first draft. In addition, I added a little something about myself before going into the list as a introductory interesting paragraph. To finish off the post, I also added the Creative Commons License to copyright my work. Overall, this blog post is more complete with the revisions that I've made.
NICHE BLOG POST #3 DRAFT DESCRIPTION
HOW TO EAT AUTHENTIC FOOD BY HOLIDAYS
Christmas
For Christmas, it’s a tradition to always have 7 fishes for the meal. This tradition was started in South Italy, in Naples but I’m not too sure why my family does this. It’s something that I’ve always done even as a child. Along with these 7 fishes, we have dessert. Every year my mom makes a dessert called Struffoli. This is a dessert that consists of deep fried dough balls that are soft in the center and soaked in honey that are a size of marble. It’s topped off with rainbow sprinkles. It’s a desert that my mom only makes at Christmas time.
Another dessert that Italians like to eat is Panettone. Panettone is a sweet bread dessert that has candied fruit and dried raisins in it. Every Christmas, you expect to give a Panettone to your family members as well as receive one too. After Christmas is over, you will have a pantry filled with Panettone. We only receive his on Christmas but we eat it year round for breakfast since we have so many boxes of it.
Easter
There are two traditional recipes that my mom makes every year along with eating lamb, is called Pizza Rustica and Pasteria. Pizza Rustica is pretty much a heart attack in a pizza. This deep -dish pizza pie consists of at least 10 different types of cheeses and meat. Pasteria is a ricotta and wheat grain dessert that is filled with orange blossom water making it a very flavorful dessert. This combined sounds strange but once you try it, you can’t stop eating it.
New Years
New Years Eve means a time of celebration with family before going out with friends celebrating the New Year. We eat lentil soup before the clock hits 12. Why lentil soup? I always thought it was a weird thing as well but it symbolizes good luck for the New Year. Our myth is that if you don’t eat it, you will get bad luck. There is a specific Italian lentil soup recipe that my mom makes every year that they make you want to eat on other days besides New years.
Another recipe that we eat before the New Year starts is Grispelle. This is the name of deep fried Italian potato donuts.
Christmas
For Christmas, it’s a tradition to always have 7 fishes for the meal. This tradition was started in South Italy, in Naples but I’m not too sure why my family does this. It’s something that I’ve always done even as a child. Along with these 7 fishes, we have dessert. Every year my mom makes a dessert called Struffoli. This is a dessert that consists of deep fried dough balls that are soft in the center and soaked in honey that are a size of marble. It’s topped off with rainbow sprinkles. It’s a desert that my mom only makes at Christmas time.
Another dessert that Italians like to eat is Panettone. Panettone is a sweet bread dessert that has candied fruit and dried raisins in it. Every Christmas, you expect to give a Panettone to your family members as well as receive one too. After Christmas is over, you will have a pantry filled with Panettone. We only receive his on Christmas but we eat it year round for breakfast since we have so many boxes of it.
Easter
There are two traditional recipes that my mom makes every year along with eating lamb, is called Pizza Rustica and Pasteria. Pizza Rustica is pretty much a heart attack in a pizza. This deep -dish pizza pie consists of at least 10 different types of cheeses and meat. Pasteria is a ricotta and wheat grain dessert that is filled with orange blossom water making it a very flavorful dessert. This combined sounds strange but once you try it, you can’t stop eating it.
New Years
New Years Eve means a time of celebration with family before going out with friends celebrating the New Year. We eat lentil soup before the clock hits 12. Why lentil soup? I always thought it was a weird thing as well but it symbolizes good luck for the New Year. Our myth is that if you don’t eat it, you will get bad luck. There is a specific Italian lentil soup recipe that my mom makes every year that they make you want to eat on other days besides New years.
Another recipe that we eat before the New Year starts is Grispelle. This is the name of deep fried Italian potato donuts.
changes made to blog #3
Above is my draft of my third blog post. You can see my final updated version by clicking here. The purpose of this blog is to inform viewers on how to celebrate holidays like an Italian by eating these certain types of foods. Overall, the changes I made definitely improved my purpose and togetherness. I made changes based on organization. I organized my blog post differently by adding the pictures within the blog post rather than at the end. I also changed the layout by having the different types of food with their each little paragraph so that readers don't have to readers a huge long big paragraph and centered the holiday. It makes it easier to read. In addition, I added a hyperlink to the recipes on the picture so that viewers can make these recipes even if they don't want to make it on the holidays like Italians do. I elaborated and included a bit more humor into this post to make it more interesting to read. I included a introductory paragraph to set the tone and introduce the blog post and ended the blog post with a Italian cooking quote with the English translation. I also added some Italian words within the blog post so the readers can learn some Italian words along the well, which is the beneficial factor to this post. At the end of the post, I also added the Creative Commons License to copyright my work. Overall, all these changes made it everything more comprehensive and pleasing for the readers.