Cultural Translation : The Location Of Culture

Culture builds up and shapes how people view the world and the people in it. It determines how we judge and view the way others act, look, and even how they think. In the texts “Where worlds collide”, “An Indian Father’s Plea”, and “Two Kinds”, it is shown that a person’s views of others and the world are solely determined by their culture.

Stuart Hall defines identity as an ‘already accomplished fact, which the new cultural practices then represent’. We should think instead of ‘identity as a ‘production’ which is never complete, always in process, and always constituted within, not outside, representation’ (Hall 1994 p.392). An individual’s sense of belonging to a particular group, thinking, feelings and behaviour can also be referred to as identity. One’s cultural image can construct identity; such features as hair, skin tone and height. History shapes our identity.

There’s various things that describes everyone, but there’s only a few things that make each and every one of us unique, which is, our cultural background. As far as cultural background, it defines the individual’s upbringing. The cultural background includes ones religion, race, gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic factors, linguistic and values. These values can be shaped by family, friends, society, or authoritative level. This paper is a great way for one to define my identity or at least understand who I am.

“conflict occurring between individuals or social groups that separated by cultural boundaries can be considered “cross-cultural conflict.” But individuals, even in the same society, are potentially members of many different groups, organized in different ways by different criteria” (Avruvh, 1998, p.6).

A major part of one’s identity involves a system of morals and beliefs which are too influenced though one’s culture and experiences in life. The

A person has always been able to choose to what extent their cultural experiences affect their perspective. Amy Tan’s, “Two Kinds,” Bharati Mukherjee’s, “Two Ways to Belong in America,” and Robert Lake’s, “An Indian Father’s Plea,” all show how the main characters have chosen to let their experiences have an effect on their cultural identity. A person’s cultural experiences shape perception based on their own identifications and they may chose to assimilate to different cultures.

How one’s culture affect the way we view the world and others are in many different ways, for example Heritage, Family structure, Symbolism,and Judgment are just a few out of many ways culture affect our point of view of the world and others. Furthermore what culture is, is a huge mix of parts that make up someone and who they are. In the Novel “ Two Kinds,” from The Joy Luck Club, by Hayden Herrera, the Short Story “ Everyday Use,” by Alice Walker, the Personal Essay “ Two Ways to Belong in America,” by Bharati Mukherjee, and in the Essay “An Indian Father’s Plea,” by Robert Lake conveys how this is true.

At first glance, it appears that Anurita Bains' "Riding the Hyphen" and Neil Bissoondath's "Selling Illusions" stake diametrically opposed viewpoints: Bains' essay derides assimilation (using her own experiences as a Punjabi girl growing up in Canada as a point of emphasis); Bissoondath's essay opposes "multiculturalism". The uncritical reader might suggest that one must either be pro-assimilation or pro-multiculturalism and that both writers are representing a side. And yet neither writer actually advocates anything other than being human which is as simple and complex as one chooses to make it. This paper will compare and contrast the two pieces' style and show why both pieces succeed in putting a human face on an issue that often tends to emphasize the background and leave out the humanity.

A person’s heritage and cultural identity may be lost when moving to a new country where the culture is different and other cultures are not easily accepted. In the short story “Hindus”, Bharati Mukherjee uses setting, characters and the plot to discuss what it is like to lose your cultural identity while being a visible minority in America. Mukherjee uses the plot to describe the events that take place in the main characters life that lead her to realize how different the culture and life is in the America’s. She also uses the characters as a way of demonstrating how moving away from one’s culture and heritage can change a person’s perspective and ways of thinking. Mukerjee also uses setting in her story to identity the physical differences in culture between living in India and America. Alike the setting and characters, the plot helps describe the loss of culture with a sequence of events.

In today 's society, culture is impacting our everyday life, experience and social relations; we are all categorized by our cultural “groups”, but this has changed rapidly throughout the years from one generation to the next. Cultural studies were developed in the late 1950’s, through the 1970’s by the British academic scholars. The British scholars were able engaged cultural analysis and the developed then transformed of the different fields, for example, politically, theoretically and empirically that are now represented around the world.

To sum up the points, it can be perceived that in order to understand the concept of personal cultural diversity, the different aspects of one’s lifestyle must be examined and determined in order to point out individual differences in a particular group or society. This is because each individual has different genetic make-up,

The identity of an individual is evident in a person from the things that they do about their culture. Some individuals with the knowledge that they have acquired from their culture are willing to carry out activities depicting their knowledge. A person’s identity can be known from the way they express themselves in relation to their culture, his notion brings about the aspect of one’s identity in relation to their culture. This aspect of culture shaping an individual’s identity experiences challenges in some given instances. Migration to another country with a different culture can be a big challenge to a person who is accustomed to a certain culture. This is because one may be unable to fit in the new environment because of the new culture. Factors that can cause lack of incorporation include

Today more than ever, individuals and societies are built as an integration of different cultures and carry different characteristics that construct their unique identity.

The postcolonial era presents various issues for the decolonized nations, like the reconstruction of a government and the maintenance of an economy. In addition to that, the individual identity of the colonized people is a complex issue that they must cope with as well, and it is an issue that is still present today. Compared to the other issues of postcolonialism, the construction of one’s identity might appear trivial; however, there are many problems of postcolonial identity, including the obligation of one to perceive themselves as people do from the outside through stereotypes, and the difficulty of unifying two conflicting identities: one that is created by outside sources, and one that is created through personal experiences.

Cultural identity is a part of the psychological self-concept that expresses an individual or group’s worldview and perceived cultural affiliations. The first step in finding a societal fit is to establish a cultural identity; this can be on an individual level and group level. Who am I? And where do I belong? These questions start to form in the human mind from an early age; it drives humans to explore their worldviews and how and where they fit in the world. Rosenfeld (1971) argued it is a deep-seated primal process that has ensured our continual survival. By finding others that think and act similarly we are offered some protection (Erickson, as cited in Carducci 2015). Erickson (as cited in Carducci, 2015) and Maslow (as cited in Mcleod 2007) argued that the need to belong is a basic building block of human development. Whatever the reason, the consensus is that humans have an intrinsic need to find a like-minded cultural group to belong to; this chosen affiliation is their cultural identity. A person may identify with more than one cultural