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Culture Bag Research Paper

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Culture Bag Reflection Paper The culture bag assignment evoked feelings of nostalgia and pride for me. While creating my bag I reflected on my grandparents and their influence on my beliefs and customs. I now recognize how being first generation Irish, affects my traditions and values more than persons from later cohorts. The assignment led to my discovery that culture is unique and unpredictable as the individual. For example, my culture directly correlates to my ethnicity, but it does not for everyone. The key similarities between my cultural group and others in the course include; family, food, celebrating holidays and religion. Most classmates acknowledged cooking and cuisine as a key element of their culture. In addition, students agree that family, …show more content…

I gained an education, at an early age, how prejudices and discrimination can lead to terrorist acts and the unfair treatment of people due to their religious and political differences. In Belfast, families are torn apart due to varied religious or political affiliations. To prove, my aunt was protestant but her husband was catholic; as a result, their son was catholic, but their daughters were protestant. These tensions instigated many rifts within the Northern Irish society. My experiences in Ireland gave me an education in tolerance and empathy which will help me in my future as a social worker. In a similar manner, my Sicilian background also prepared me for my future social work practice. Specifically, my paternal great-grandmother (like many immigrants) could not speak English; so, I had to learn to comprehend the Italian language to communicate with her. She held on to her Sicilian culture and did not assimilate into the American way of life. I imagine my first-hand knowledge and understanding of language barriers and the difficulty of assimilation for immigrants will aid me in my social work

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