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Cultural Identity, I Believe, Is A Sense Of Belonging Or

Decent Essays

Cultural identity, I believe, is a sense of belonging or connection to a social group. It is a self-perception influenced through nationality, race, ethnicity, and religious affiliation – just to name a few. Highly similar to the description provided in the textbook, in which people may identify “with ethnic, religious, or national identity becoming increasingly dynamic and a matter of individual choice,” (Shiraev & Levy, 2017, p.8) captivating the combination of different backgrounds, ideas, and preferred choices.
Such dynamicity and freedom in social groups along with the occurring social, economic, political, and even technological changes, an individual could certainly pertain to two or more cultures. Culture, “the set of attitudes, …show more content…

There could be many variations, discrepancies, and dissimilarities within one culture.
Multiple cultural memberships have a great impact on individual identity. As mentioned before, it creates an experience of a new culture; differentiating from the old culture and the new context forming a unique blend. Many immigrants have dual ethnic identities and speak two languages. Their identity development requires additional knowledge from both involving cultures, such as attitudes, behaviors including norms, roles, customs and other practices. Therefore, shaping their identity within both culturally appropriate norms. Some consider this a two sets of personalities. As explained by François Grosjean, whom considers that bicultural bilinguals have double personality, “many bilinguals report that they change their attitudes and behaviors when they change language” (Grosjean, 2015). The impact allows bicultural individuals to adapt and adjust based on the cultural schemas, behaviors and the customs in accordance to the cultural cues. François Grosjean further states that “language is associated with a shift in social roles and emotional attitudes…and since each language is learned and usually employed with different persons and different context, the use of language may come to be associated with a shift in a large array of behavior” (Grosjean, 2015). Take for instance the changes in social norms

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